Leopard cars, which Spain could donate to Ukraine, were not so cheaply wanted by Peru.

For three days, on the 4th, 5th and 6th of that month, an explosive cyclogenesis spread over the city and province of Badajoz; also the banks of the Zapatones River in Bótoa, where the General Menacho Base, the headquarters of the Extremadura XI Mechanized Brigade, is located. Silt overcame the still young tanks and serious malfunctions about twenty of them.

It is one of the ups and downs of the car game. The most important military equipment donation from Spain ukraine war. If it does – the Spanish government has yet to start procedures with Germany, which has to give zero impediments – it will be one of Spain’s most notable arms shipments to a foreign war in the last 100 years.

sense of Leopard rides are “brutal, unforgettable -Says, veteran of the Cavalry weapon that wields it-. You have 1,500 horsepower in your right foot – a high-end car is around 300 – you can knock down trees like leaves, speed up so fast that nothing can stop you… easy to last, only a few days needed and take the measurements”.

But he is not talking about the modern Leopard 2E, which was produced in Asturias and Seville and is now operating in Spanish armored units, but about grandparents produced in Germany in the 80s and 90s. Volodymyr Zelensky knows that these are retired cars. Last Friday, on the 100th day of the war, his ambassador in Madrid, Serhi Pohoreltsev, When he asked for more commitments from Spain, he implied that it was “material in stock” and that this country didn’t need it.

Advisor to the President of Ukraine Igor Zovkva -According to Spanish military sources- he was informed of the current stock days ago. The same sources say They also told me how it was. And not just cars, but also Aspide missiles, which can be a part of it. massive increase in military aid Spanish.

to intensive care

Spain’s two-year lease agreement with Germany, the country that produces the tanks, was not yet completed when the mud flood flooded the Extremaduran base. A large batch of Leopard 2A4 had to go “step IV”. This is what military jargon calls the intensive care unit of tanks. Step I is for faults that are resolved by the crew themselves; II includes the mechanics of the sole; III has already been resolved in a Logistics Support Group. The most serious cases require extensive repairs at the Armored Systems Maintenance Park on the outskirts of Madrid.

Leopard candidates who will travel to Ukraine, A party of 108 people leased to Germany by Spain in 1995. The wall had come down and in the absence of the cold war Germany was getting rid of its 2,000 leopard park.

In 2005, Defense took ownership of the leased tanks for a bargain price of just over 15m euros. Today Rest at 53 Calatayud warehouse After following a “roadmap” of more than 140 control files.

Actually, 54 people were sent to Aragon, but only one from there put it in the museum Owned by the XII Guadarrama Brigade in El Goloso (Madrid). That said, Leopard 2A4s remain a powerful weapon: those who are not retired, in fact, are still in service in Ceuta and Melilla.

failed sale

The Army planned to convert the stored old Leopards into vehicles for the Engineers, but did not complete the project. lack of funds.

There was no attempt to sell it to Peru in 2012, Spain’s offer fell so much that “Limited to giving them little more than the cost of rebooting”, He remembers an armored gunsmith who was a good connoisseur of these tanks. Negotiations with companies such as Expal and Quadripole Engineering did not yield results. According to the technical specification governing his retirement, in some cases reassembly labor hour reached 80 euros. Despite the cheapness of the last bid, Peru stood out: 11 million.

Launch of an Aspide missile by army operators.

It would take a month for cars stored at the Calatayud Logistics Support Group to be brought back to life (re-lubricated, returned batteries…). A period similar to what it would cost Assemble the machine set that makes the Aspide missiles workalmost completely retired by the Army.

The rocket does not work alone. in Spain, Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment 73, Protecting the port of Cartagena, he used them in a basic combination that the Defense christened Toledo: Twelve Aspide launchers, an Oerlikon GDF07 35mm anti-aircraft gun to protect each launcher, a radar and a fire direction sky gate. Missiles of Italian origin were decommissioned in 2020, as they were considered obsolete. No defense resources were ever revealed that Spain would send the complete system to Ukraine.

they won’t go alone

Occupied Ukraine does not have the opportunity to show timidity about deprecated material. “As a British officer said in the Falklands war: “If it can be hit, it’s a threat”describes one of the military sources consulted. Kiev urgently needs to oppose material against the Russian advance.

Tanks sent by Spain are unlikely to go into battle alone: ​​they would be integrated into large formations. A tank like the Spanish Leopard 2A4, already deployed in Ukraine and before the Russian forces, would require an additional deployment. Russian T tanks should not be as vulnerable as they were in the initial phase of the invasion Against individual grenade launchers such as the Javelin (American) and C90 (Spanish) where the Ukrainian resistance stopped them.

The old leopard rescued at Calatayud will need a human entourage when he goes into battle—if he finally succeeds. In the wastelands of the Donbas or the plains of southern Ukraine, commandos of men looking for their hunters would be in front of him. tank destroyers.

“This tank is recommended to be accompanied and protected in combat – explains one of its former operators in the Spanish Army –. Namely: fleets of tank destroyers and destroyers of tank destroyers, in addition to air cover and artillery curtains.”

This soldier refers to the armed divisions that will be deployed in combat vehicles around the formation of leopards. a safety zone in the wings your cars. This form of warfare was tested by the Spanish Army in the jungles of the province of Valladolid in anti-ambush training with its armored units.