Has Ukraine's Swedish Brigade Run Out of Leopard 2 Tanks?
It's possible the 21st Mechanized Brigade is re-equipping with older Leopard 1s
A photo that appeared online this week seems to imply the Ukrainian army’s 21st Mechanized Brigade operates some of the nearly 200 Leopard 1A5 tanks that a Danish-Dutch-German consortium has pledged to Ukraine.
If so, the 21st Brigade might be the fourth Ukrainian unit—after the 5th Tank, 44th Mechanized and 59th Mechanized—that owns ex-German Leopard 1A5s, ex-Danish Leopard 1A5DKs or ex-Belgian Leopard 1A5BEs. The latter have a slightly improved fire-control system.
What’s notable is that the 21st Brigade is the army’s “Swedish” brigade—the sole operator of the Strv 122 tanks that Sweden donated to Ukraine last year. The brigade eventually reinforced its Strv 122s with Leopard 2A6s that chopped from the 47th Mechanized Brigade after that unit got ex-American M-1A1s.
The Strv 122 is an up-armored variant of the 62-ton, four-person Leopard 2A5, a much heavier tank than the 40-ton, four-person Leopard 1A5 is. Ukraine’s 10 Strv 122s and 21 long-gun Leopard 2A6s are, along with its 31 M-1A1s, the best tanks in Russia’s wider war on Ukraine.
But battlefield losses have depleted the Strv 122 and Leopard 2A6 fleets. The analysts at Oryx have tallied one destroyed Strv 122 and six destroyed Leopard 2A6s. The Russians have captured an additional Leopard 2A6.
These losses leave nine Strv 122s and 14 Leopard 2A6s in service with the 21st Brigade. In theory. In practice, the brigade’s tank battalion probably has written off many more than eight tanks. Oryx has identified 10 badly damaged or abandoned Strv 122s and Leopard 2A6s.
Not all of those tanks were recovered and quickly repaired. Long delays in fixing Ukraine’s German-made tanks—the consequence of a deep shortage of spare parts—are well-documented. We have visual confirmation of just two of those damaged tanks returning to service after repairs in Lithuania.
But that’s not the best evidence that the 21st Brigade is running out of functional Strv 122s and Leopard 2A6s. No, the best evidence might be that the brigade may have re-equipped with Leopard 1A5s. And potentially not very many.
That’s because the Leopard 1A5 consortium has been struggling to refurbish and deliver the 40-year-old tanks for the same reason Ukraine’s allies have been struggling to repair damaged Strv 122s and Leopard 2s: shortages of parts. It’s possible there are only around 50 Leopard 1A5s in Ukraine, seemingly spread across four brigades.
So there’s a chance the 21st Brigade, which has been holding the line against relentless Russian assaults outside Terny in eastern Ukraine, may no longer field a full battalion of 31 tanks of any type.
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