Forbes: Russians in Kursk Region Switch from Tanks to Trucks
- 3.12.2024, 10:53
This is to the benefit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Due to catastrophic losses in military equipment, Russian troops in the Kursk region are forced to switch from armored tanks and infantry fighting vehicles to new trucks fresh from the assembly line, and this opens up new opportunities for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
According to Forbes analyst David Axe, according to rough estimates, from August 6 to November 26, the Russians in Kursk lost 364 units of heavy equipment - mainly tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and trucks. However, these losses may only be a "warm-up for the show", since the Russians are trying to replace hundreds of vehicles lost in the Kursk Region with new, less armored vehicles.
"According to forecasts by the Ukrainian intelligence agency Kriegsforscher, there will be fewer tracked vehicles and more wheeled ones. This may mean a reduction in the number of tanks, BMP and BMD combat vehicles and MT-LB armored tractors. This could mean more Tiger and Typhoon armored trucks. BTR-82 wheeled combat vehicles are already arriving on the front lines in greater numbers," Axe writes.
As the analyst notes, stocks of older vehicles are running low, and foreign sanctions are hurting new production. So Russian factories have adapted by switching from complex tracked vehicles to simpler wheeled vehicles.
Aks writes that the bad news for the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Kursk region is that the Russian army will not run out of equipment, but there is also a silver lining.
"The good news is that the new Russian vehicles are less powerful than the old ones they are replacing. One of the reasons the new Tiger truck weighs only eight tons - half as much as the old BMP-2 - is that the Tiger has a third less armor than the BMP-2. Equally worrisome for Russian forces is that the tracked BMP-2 is far more mobile in mud, slush and snow than any truck. The trucks will be forced to stick to the few roads available, making their movements predictable for Ukrainian drone operators and artillerymen," Axe writes.