What is the shipment of Spanish weapons that is about to be transferred to Ukraine?

El Pais newspaper on June 5 reported that the Spanish Ministry of Defense is completing the final procedures to deliver a batch of weapons to the country. Ukraine. Expected, about 40 Leopard 2A4 tanks and many rocket Aspide air defense will be sent in this batch.

“The Spanish government has made an offer to train Ukrainian soldiers to use these tanks. However, the training will be held on Spanish territory,” a military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

According to RT news agency, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Spain Sergey Pohoreltsev last weekend spoke out about the decision of the Madrid authorities to send heavy weapons.

“We are very pleased, but we cannot say that we are satisfied. I call on the Madrid government to deliver anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles, howitzers using 155mm ammunition and 120mm mortars. I reaffirm that Ukraine does not ask for anything that Spain cannot deliver,” Pohoreltsev said at the time.

Leopard 2 . Tank

Leopard 2 ‘leopard’ is a third generation main battle tank designed by West Germany and put into service in the army in 1979. The vehicle is 9.67m long (including the gun barrel), 3.7m wide. , 2.48m high and weighs about 55.1 tons. The vehicle’s combat crew consists of 4 people, including the commander, driver, gunner and liaison officer.

Leopard 2 is equipped with MTU MB 873 Ka501 diesel engine with a capacity of 1,500 horsepower. As a result, the car can travel at a speed of 72 km / h on flat terrain, with a range of up to 550 km.

Leopard 2 is armed with a 120mm Rheinmetall L/55 smoothbore cannon and two MG3A1 machine guns using 7.62 x 51mm NATO ammunition. Some military experts say that tail-wing stabilized armor-piercing shells (APFSDS-T) when fired from Leopard 2’s Rheinmetall L/55 cannon can penetrate T-62 tank front armor at about more than 4km away.

Anti-aircraft missile Aspide

According to the RT news site, this batch of anti-aircraft missiles transferred by Spain to Ukraine belongs to the Aspide 2000 surface-to-air version, produced by the Italian missile manufacturer MBDA.

Aspide 2000 has a weight of 240kg, of which the warhead weighs 35kg; 3.72m long; Missile body diameter is 234mm. Apside’s maximum flight speed can reach Mach 4, or more than 1,370 km / h, and effective range is 25 km.

According to Army Technology, each Aspide 2000 launcher comes with a RAC-3D radar system. This type of radar is capable of tracking 100 air targets at the same time at a distance of 60km.

Tuan Tran