Washington Post: In NATO tank competition, U.S. comes up short against Germany
Six NATO countries squared off last week in the Strong Europe Tank Challenge, a two-day competition that pitted some of the alliance’s best tank crews against each another in a series of events centered on armored warfare.
The challenge, which concluded Thursday and was held in Grafenwoehr, Germany, was the first of its kind there since 1991. The competition was designed to foster “military partnership” while showcasing the ability of NATO countries to work together, according to a U.S. Army statement.
Germany took top honors in the competition, followed by Denmark and Poland in second place and third place respectively.
The challenge, co-hosted by U.S. Army Europe and the German Bundeswehr, is a nod to the Cold War era and a tacit acknowledgment that NATO will need well-trained conventional forces if it ever has to go to war with a newly-emboldened Russia.
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Update #1: U.S. Crews Fail To Place in NATO Tank Competition (Popular Mechanics)
Update #2: Stopped in their tracks: US Army fails to make top 3 in NATO tank challenge (RT)
WNU Editor: This is a surprise.
5 comments:
Why is this a surprise? The US military including the men and equipment is worn down from continuing operations around the world to the point that even basic defense of the US mainland is going to be problematic at best, morale is low, training is substandard, and the leadership is poor.
According to the linked articles it appears that the participants were Germany, Poland, Denmark, Italy, Slovenia, and the United States. Germany getting first place given their technological and industrial prowess is not surprising. The fact that Poland faired well is not surprising either. They seem to have excellently trained soldiers and decent tactical leadership. Unfortunately their strategic thinking indicates some screws are loose among the leadership. They are liable to do something rash provoking an unwinnable conflict with Russia with us being pulled in as part of NATO Why are we even associated with such people?!!? I'm getting off topic. In any event, them finishing third is not surprising.
Somewhat of a surprise may have been Denmark coming in second but they seem to be a stalwart and resourceful people. It's hardly surprising they beat out the United States.
By the tone of the articles it seems the US should have been expected to "place." While the articles do not seem to provide a breakdown of how each team did individually, each of the countries except for the United States seems to have sent four tank crews with the United States sending eight. This would make a total of 28 crews if I'm reading it properly.
In such a competition, I would be surprised if the United States crews did any better than occupy the bottom eight spots WAY behind the other teams. I wish the articles would have supplied the breakdown team by team. If the US had been well behind the other teams in the bottom eight spots. I'm pretty sure the media article writers would not have been able to resist the urge to gloat. As such, I'm tentatively concluding the US did not come in last place which considering the substandard equipment, leadership, and training anything less than last place would be a "moral victory" of sorts. While moral victories don't count for much in the long run, such an event could be a good opportunity for our people to train and learn from those who are better than we are.
As for the people who advertised this on social media as the RT article suggests, it takes a special kind of masochists to advertise an event where you have to realize you're going to creamed or a special kind of stupid to not realize this. Either way such people should probably be fired forthwith.
The purposes of such excersize is to try and learn and improve not to advertise one's humiliation. Again, anything other than last place would be better than what I would expect from US tank crews at this point in time.
Frankly, with the greatest military threats to the US being a nuclear invasion by Russia or an Islamic terrorist attack I'm not sure how training for a tank battle has much utility. I find it questionable wisdom to even send tank platoons to this at all. Perhaps US military planners and the civilian leadership need to rearrange their/our priorities.
USA may have better equipment , bur Europeans have better training it is an old fact.
HB: This may well be the case. Given whom the US has been fighting of late there may not be as much need for tanks. As such, the tanks and their crews may not be worn down as much as the rest of the US military is.
Given the situation faced by countries such as Poland and Germany's industrial prowess, we would expect them to quite easily defeat the United States in tank battles. The purpose of such battle simulations is to prepare for actual combat and the purpose of awarding medals is to give each group incentive to bring their best to the simulation.
I would not have expected the US to win such a contest. I'm somewhat surprised that whoever wrote the articles would have expected the US to win such contests. Of course by making the US seem stronger than it really is makes it much easier to demonize when the need arises.
While I'm generally not an optimist, there is another possibility. Perhaps the US really is this good. This would mean that other nations have improved. This would be a good thing assuming these really are allies. It would be good to have strong allies.
Since the Canadian Tank Challenge was created in 1968, ( what is now the SETC), the US has won, only once, ( under questionable rule changes) and has rarely placed or showed.
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