The Leopard 2 with its 120-millimeter gun, thick armor and 45-mile-per-hour top speed is one of the best and most balanced tanks in the world. Thus Poland’s January offer represented a turning point. Many of the same countries presumably would offer up ammunition, spare parts and technical and training assistance in order to form and sustain a Ukrainian Leopard 2 brigade. Finland, Spain, Denmark and The Netherlands also have signaled their willingness to donate surplus Leopard 2s to Ukraine. If Ukraine were to begin re-arming its tank corps, realistically it would need Leopard 2s. But there are only around 400 Challenger 2s in existence-and 150 of them belong to the British Army’s depleted tank regiments. The Challenger 2 is made in the United Kingdom, so its export license isn’t a problem. The United Kingdom and Poland challenged Germany’s recalcitrance earlier this month, when the two countries respectively offered Ukraine around a dozen each of their Challenger 2 and Leopard 2 tanks.
Germany holds the export license for the Leopard 2, and the country’s reluctance to provide explicitly offensive weaponry to Ukraine was an obstacle to a big effort by NATO to re-equip the Ukrainian army’s four tank brigades and dozens of tank battalions.
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