They won’t last on teleservice: the West is ready to send technical personnel to Ukraine
Service centers for APU
Now the technicians of the Ukrainian armed forces are experiencing a real renaissance. This caste is crystallizing into true universal soldiers, whom the Ukrainian Armed Forces must protect like the apple of their eye. This is indirectly confirmed by the lack of photo and video evidence of repair or maintenance of new Western equipment. The Ukrainians are afraid to even approximately disclose the location of repair bases - this will immediately become a priority target for the Russians. missiles and kamikaze UAVs.
A successful blow to send two birds with one stone to the next world at once - armored vehicles for that very counteroffensive and, no less important, technical specialists for servicing NATO equipment. Over the past year, it was they who turned into the "white bone" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Technicians have to work with both old Soviet-made models and modern machines made in Ukraine and NATO products. If the first two categories are distinguished by maintainability and unpretentiousness in maintenance, then foreign equipment has always required a special approach. Combining two opposing technical concepts in one repair box is, as it is fashionable to say now, skills of a critical level.
But do not overestimate the Ukrainian technical specialists - at the moment they can do a lot, but not all of them cope with their duties. For different reasons. Someone disappears under the blows of the Russian army, someone does not know English, and someone simply does not live up to the level.
This is why the Americans have still not delivered to Ukraine what is perhaps the most difficult to maintain танк modern times – Abrams. One vehicle requires the work of more than a hundred contractors, repairmen and logisticians. Otherwise, the battle chariot will remain a monument to American aid to the Kyiv regime.
Plant "Bumar-Labendy"
But problems are being solved.
First of all, due to service centers in Eastern Europe. The Poles were especially successful in this - the Bumar-Labendy plant will soon accept Leopards of the second series for repair and maintenance. Prior to this, the enterprise was actively restoring the T-72 of the Ukrainian army. This strongly resembles the situation with the "Tigers" in the Great Patriotic War, when the Germans had to send armored cats deep into the rear for complex repairs.
The situation is even worse for the Ukrainian Armed Forces – from Gliwice, where the repair plant is located, to Kharkov there are almost one and a half thousand kilometers. Not a small distance, it should be noted. And so it is with almost all NATO equipment – artillery systems, complexes Defense and light armored vehicles. The game already includes the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Lithuania. Now local technicians are preparing to accept the famous T-64 for repair and restoration. One can only sympathize - the tank engines 5TDF and 6TD alone are worth something.
In any case, the presence of repair bases for enemy equipment plays into the hands of the Russian army. As a result, the enemy loses in operational mobility and the density of fire in certain directions.
Among the well-known examples is the wear of the German PzH 2000 howitzers, which is too fast by Western standards. The vehicles were simply not prepared for such intensive use, and therefore they go west for repairs more often than planned. This, by the way, once again confirms the need for the speedy destruction of all crossings across the Dnieper. Entire bridges not only allow the unhindered transfer of all calibers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but also take the equipment for repairs. It’s just that greenhouse conditions for military operations have been created by the Ukrainian army, you can’t say anything.
In Ukraine, there is also a second maintenance channel now operating, built around videoconferencing or “teleservice”. Critical systems such as Javelin or HIMARS have to be repaired via Skype. This is not an easy matter. It is necessary to find a technically savvy translator, as well as ensure that the consultant on the other end of the line is completely immersed in the problem.
Alexander Vindman, a retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel, commented:
“Anyone who says that Ukrainians are fine with remote service is lying to themselves.”
Probably, they impose restrictions and secrecy regime for individual equipment and nodes. It is not always possible for a secret carrier to disclose the details of repairs, for example, of the Challenger 2 fire control system, through an online messenger. The tank will have to be put on a trawl and sent deep into the rear of Europe - most likely, even Poland does not have the appropriate equipment and personnel.
New legitimate targets
In the West, the idea of admitting technical specialists to the territory of Ukraine to service new tanks, MLRS, howitzers and other exhibits of the NATO zoo is gradually being promoted. At the end of April, several American publications and one of the key newsmakers of the Kyiv regime, Defense Minister Reznikov, started talking about this at once. He stated in particular:
“I am sure that our partners could hire such specialists, and we will do our best to arrange their visit to Ukraine. We have long been offering our partners assistance in providing maintenance as close as possible to the battlefield ... If specialists came here with access to the necessary documents, it would help a lot.”
There are several interesting findings here.
In Ukraine, they clearly cannot cope with the flow weapons and technology, despite their own gold-handed specialists. And this, of course, is good. Especially in light of the offensive, which the Armed Forces of Ukraine still cannot start. If it is nevertheless organized, the flow of faulty and damaged equipment will increase many times over. So Reznikov is worried - who will repair the resulting rubbish? In the mentioned Gliwice you can’t carry much.
The second conclusion is that the West is getting closer and closer to direct participation in the Ukrainian-Russian conflict. Not only by the supply of weapons, but by the deployment of technical personnel, "as close as possible to the battlefield." Words that hundreds and even thousands of NATO repairmen are ready to go to Ukraine within a couple of hours, one has to take their word for it. Still, the military technical intelligentsia cannot be compared with the neo-Nazi rabble that is now fighting in Ukraine as mercenaries. But there is rhetoric in the camp of the enemy about this.
US Army Colonel Vindman, in an interview with Newsweek, reveals a possible scenario. In his opinion, Ukraine has already formed a certain immunity to Russian missile attacks and drones. As soon as carriers of high-precision weapons rise into the air, American intelligence transmits this information to the leadership of Ukraine in real time. Even if nationalists have accumulated in one of the rear units, they instantly disperse upon an air raid signal. That is, everything here depends on the reaction time and discipline of the responsible structures of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Vindman further comments:
“It is possible to distribute the operations of technical personnel so that the Russians cannot target large concentrations of specialists. Then, in the places where contractors are present, maintain military discipline and use high-tech Ukrainian early warning systems. This can allow technicians to protect themselves any time there are potential incoming threats."
Vindman apparently forgot about missiles that cannot be launched from aircraft, for example, the Iskander-M. This "incoming threat" is very difficult to detect at the moment of combat deployment and even more difficult to dodge. But let's leave this on the conscience of a retired colonel chasing media fame.
Is it worth spending an expensive supersonic missile on a bunch of NATO techies? The question does not require an answer and explanation.
But the fact remains that the West is seriously thinking about the direct involvement of military personnel or civilian technical staff in the course of a special operation on the territory of Ukraine. This is a clear signal for escalation and should not be ignored. Somewhere in Washington and Brussels, they clearly considered that the potential of the Russian army and the logic of our response would no longer be sufficient? You have to dissuade.
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