Ukraine has run out of modern equipment for new brigades, - Forbes
Date: 2024-09-11 Author: Кирило Загоруйко Categories: WAR
Last fall, the Ukrainian army began forming the first of 11 new brigades, each with a strength of 150 to 160 people. These brigades are to be deployed to the front to replace depleted forces, but the new units have an acute problem with a shortage of modern weapons, Forbes writes.
"This could become a serious problem for the Ukrainians when new but poorly equipped brigades replace old but better equipped brigades when the latter finally leave the contact line," the publication's analyst notes.
Thus, Forbes notes, photographs of one of the newly created brigades - the 154th Mechanized Brigade - provide an indicative idea of the equipment of the new units.
"Tracked infantry fighting vehicles BMP-1 from the 1960s. Wheeled reconnaissance vehicles BRDM-2 also from the 60s. Wheeled armored personnel carriers VAB of French manufacture from the 70s. Wheeled security vehicles M-1117 from the 1990s, provided by the United States. The 154th Mechanized Brigade mainly has older and lighter vehicles, none of which have armor thicker than 33 millimeters - enough to repel machine gun fire," writes Forbes.
At the same time, the brigade also has heavier vehicles - 60-year-old T-62 tanks, although it is also possible that all the T-62s spotted at the training grounds where the soldiers of the 154th Mechanized Brigade are trained do not actually belong to the brigade, but to its instructors.
But if the 154th Mechanized Brigade does indeed have T-62 tanks, Forbes writes, that's a worrying sign for an army that mostly uses fairly modern versions of the T-64 and T-72, as well as Western Challenger 2s, M-1s, Leopard 1s, and Leopard 2s. Of course, Forbes notes, the Russians are also having trouble building enough modern vehicles for the newly formed brigades. But even with motorcycles and golf carts, the Russians are still generally better equipped than the Ukrainians, and more numerous.
