Ukraine's 5th Tank Brigade Has Taken Years to Get Organized
The brigade is still training and equipping its tank battalions ... with Leopard 1A5s
Officially, the Ukrainian army’s 5th Tank Brigade formed in 2016. But the unit effectively disbanded a short time later and existed only on paper when Russia widened its war on Ukraine in February 2022.
In the heady aftermath of the 2022 invasion, the general staff in Kyiv prioritized expanding its mechanized brigades over finally equipping the 5th Tank Brigade. So the 5th gained people and equipment very slowly. And today it’s still training and equipping its three tank battalions—apparently with up-armored Leopard 1A5s.
Photos and videos that the brigade posted online on Monday depict ex-Danish Leopard 1A5DKs fitted with closely-packed reactive armor blocks on their turrets and hulls, as well as with turret fixtures for anti-drone screens.
The extra armor helps to solve one of the biggest problems with the 40-ton, four-person Leopard 1A5—its thin base armor, which is just 70 millimeters thick at its thickest. That’s at most a third of the baseline protection most newer tanks enjoy.
The 5th Tank Brigade might also operate the survivors of Ukraine’s 28 ex-Slovenian M-55S tanks, which are upgraded Soviet-made T-55s with the British L7 105-millimeter main gun—the same gun that arms the Leopard 1A5. But inasmuch as the 5th rides in Leopard 1A5s, it might be a while before the brigade is ready to deploy its tank battalions in combat.
That’s because, 19 months after a European consortium announced it would equip Ukraine with nearly 200 of the 1980s-vintage Leopard 1A5s, just 60 or so of the tanks actually are in Ukraine—and at least one has been destroyed. The Danes blame the Germans for taking too long to refurbish the tanks. The Germans blame the tanks’ poor condition.
Right now, Ukraine might have enough Leopard 1A5s to equip two battalions or six companies. The latter seems more likely, as we know of at least three, and maybe four, brigades that operate the type: the 5th Tank, 44th Mechanized and 59th Motorized, for sure—and potentially also the 21st Mechanized, which has nearly run out of newer Leopard 2s.
If there’s an upside to the slow delivery schedule, it’s that Ukrainian engineers apparently have used the extra time to develop a boutique up-armoring kit for the tanks. One that might help them to survive once they finally roll into battle in large numbers.
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