Most of the 37 Portuguese Leopards, which were bought second-hand from the Netherlands in 2008, are in the “red tier” of operability, according to the scale used by NATO to understand what equipment is available for use.
Army sources inform the newspaper Expresso that there are still around a dozen vehicles at the “yellow level”, that is, they are not 100% complete, but they can be used in a war context. At “green level” and ready to use it is a minority. Correio da Manhã says there are 12, but the number is not certain.
Given these data, the Ministry of Defense tells Expresso that, for security reasons, “it does not refer publicly to the operation of the weapons systems and equipment of the Armed Forces.” The office of Helena Carreiras adds that the Government is still studying the terms of the collaboration with Ukraine, which, for now, only includes the training of soldiers.
In the Expresso newspaper, General Pinto Ramalho, responsible for the acquisition of the 37 Leopard 2s in 2008, says that he is against sending these means to the battlefield, because “a unit” that is not complete is being amputated.
The former Army Chief of Staff believes that instead of 37 cars, the Army should have 54 to form a complete group of cars. Pinto Ramalho adds that there was talk of buying more tanks from the Netherlands, but the deal fell through during the Troika years.
As for the state of the Leopard 2, the general blames budget cuts.
The military offensive launched on February 24, 2022 by Russia in Ukraine has so far caused the flight of more than 14 million people -6.5 million internally displaced persons and almost eight million to European countries-, according to the latest data from the UN, which catalogs this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since the Second World War (1939-1945).
Right now, 17.7 million Ukrainians need humanitarian aid and 9.3 million need food aid and shelter.
The Russian invasion – justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin as the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by the wider international community, which has responded by sending arms to Ukraine and imposing them on Russia in political and economic sanctions.
The UN presented as confirmed since the beginning of the war, which this Friday entered its day 338, 7,068 civilian deaths and 11,415 wounded, stressing that these figures are far below the real ones.
Source: TSF
