Thread by @aleroi

Let's talk about tanks.

There seems to be a wide-spread idea that tanks are simple to operate. They are not.

But what specifically does one need to learn in order to operate a tank?

A thread.🧵

Training a competent tank crew takes several months at a minimum.

That assumes prior basic military training and a high intellectual and physical standard of trainees.

Finland trains new tank crews from fresh conscripts in 12 months, and that's considered quick. /2

Yes, war-time training can be more intensive and take some shortcuts compared to peace-time training. But both require that all of your trainees are able to learn quickly and have the mental and physical stamina required to cope with a more intensive training regime. /3

Now tank training is definitely not as physically grueling as infantry training. But it is physically tiring and you need to be learning a lot of technical stuff at the same time. /4

It's not enough to learn just the physical controls of the tank. You need to know different ammunition types an understand their different ballistics and effects. You need to understand and maintaing your engine, your tracks, your hydraulics, your optics. /5

You need to know how the ballistic computer works and how you program it properly. You need to know how to read, adjust, and use the backup sights, the nigth sights, the rangefinder, the stabilizer. You need to know how to react to and correct misses and misfires. /6

The driver needs to know much more than just how to control the tank. He's responsible for tactical maneuvering in the terrain, idenfitying good firing positions, coordinating with the gunner, and positioning his tank relative to other tanks in the platoon. /7

Whenever you are not moving, you need to conduct preventive maintenance. Several times a day. If you don't, you won't be moving very far. That's the engine, tracks, hydraulics, gun, optics, filters, etc. mentioned earlier.

You also need to identify problems in each subsystem. /8

The crew needs to act in sync. It's loud, so you'll be talking over the intercom. Being clear and concise is everything but it doesn't come naturally. Think of a zoom call where everyone is multitasking and where everyone has a lot of background noise. /9

You might also communicate with kicks, slaps, or squeezes. You also learn to anticipate what the others are thinking and doing without them having to tell you. The better you get at it, and the better you get at your job, the less you need to talk. But that takes time. /10

If you screw something up or don't remember what you need to do, there's a good chance no one can help you. You know the basics from the other crewmembers' tasks, but you're the only expert at yours.

The more the training is shortened, the less cross-training there will be. /11

The commander won't have time to micromanage you. They are busy with the tactics, objectives, keeping track of enemy and friendly positions, spotting targets, communicating with the rest of the platoon, and a lot more.

Their commands to you will be short and concise. /12

If you are not up to your task, you will die. Tank engagements are not like infantry engagements where you shoot dozens of rounds towards an enemy you barely see and where no one might get hit.

Tanks and anti-tank weapons are deadly precise and you aren't a small target. /13

If your crew doesn't work in perfect sync, you die. If everyone in your crew doesn't know their jobs faultlessly, you die. If your reaction times are a split second too slow, you die. If your commander hesitates, you die.

Do you trust your crew? Do you trust your commander? /14

Yes, tank crew training can be expedited. It doesn't need to take 12 months. But it will take months and every shortcut you take will reduce your competence and your confidence. How much are you willing to reduce it? /15

If you are retraining an experienced crew to a new type of vehicle, the training time can be shortened a lot more. Maybe to a few weeks.

But tanks are not alike. It's not just about the controls and the mechanics being different, the tactics need to be different as well. /16

The effectiveness of sending insufficiently trained tank crews into battle can be seen in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Their tank crews and tank platoons often appeared grossly incompetent. And they died in scores. /17

As everyone has doubtless witnessed by now, tanks are not superweapons. They can be extremely vulnerable to enemy tanks and anti-tank weapons alike. To survive and to be effective, tanks need to be operated by well-trained crews who know their equipment by heart. /18

Tank crews also need to be experts at what they are facing on the battlefield. They need to know the equipment and tactics of their enemy. They need to anticipate what they are up against. And they need to act appropriately and decisively. /19

To survive on a modern battlefield, tank crews must anticipate where the enemy tanks and anti-tank teams will be. The one who shoots first typically wins the engagement -- and losing an engagement often means instant death.

So you also need to think like an enemy AT team. /20

For tanks to survive against enemy anti-tank infantry it is also critical for the tanks to have infantry, artillery, and/or air support of their own. The tank crews need to know how to coordinate effectively with those other units. /21

This is obviously a skill particularly for the tank commanders, but also for the drivers. You can't drive around freely with friendly infantry around you or you risk crushing them like ants. Tanks aren't designed with pedestrian safety in mind. /22

Driver competence is also the difference between getting to where you need to be and getting stuck or immobilized.

Or, as in the case of some Russian tanks, getting sunk.

An inexperienced driver will throw a track doing a simple turn where an experienced one will not. /23

I don't need to tell you that becoming immobilized while under fire can be deadly. Mobility, not armor, is the most important survival tool a tank has.

But what happens if you do get immobilized? /24

An experienced driver can recover a partially thrown track in seconds or minutes. He can also get a stuck tank unstuck quickly without throwing a track.

An inexperienced driver is likely to only make things worse. /25

When a tank completely throws off a track, recovering it can be a matter of minutes, tens of minutes, or hours. You may get help from another tank or you might have to do it all on your own. Dedicated recovery vehicles are few and usually too valuable to be risked under fire. /26

What matters from a training perspective is that you only become proficient at recovering a thrown track or getting your tank unstuck through experience.

And when a single recovery can take hours, you can't train it faster by reducing training time. You just train less. /27

If you decide to save time from driver training or from recovery training, you increase the likelihood of your tanks becoming immobilized and decrease your likelihood of getting them mobile again.

That means more abandoned or destroyed tanks in combat. See: Russia. /28

There are many other aspects I could go on about, from maintenance and gunnery to navigation or target detection.

But the point is that while none of it is rocket science, there's a lot that you can't just skip over or speed up in training without sacrificing performance. /29

Tank crews also need to build muscle memory. It's not enough to learn something once, you need to drill it until you can do it without thinking.

In combat you will be exhausted, confused, angry, uncomfortable, sleep-deprived, hungry, thirsty, cold and hot all at once. /30

To be able to function flawlessly under such stresses you need a lot of repetition in your training regime.

That takes time, space, and resources. Tanks break down, so that means more maintenance, spare parts, fuel, food, and ammunition. /31

If you have plenty of resources and free training grounds, there are some aspects of training that you can expedite a lot from normal peace-time routines. Like driver training and gunnery practice. Just do more of them. /32

But there's also a lot of training that you can't expedite. It just takes time.

Humans also need rest between training sessions to learn. You can't drive around a tank from noon to midnight every day and expect the crews to keep learning at an increased pace all the time. /33

Now, I haven't trained tank crews and I don't work for the Ukrainian army, so I don't know how much they could compress their crew training while still giving their crews sufficient skills and confidence for combat.

It's always a trade-off and only Ukraine knows its needs. /34

Suffice to say that when you have a limited number of tanks available, you probably don't want to send them to combat with crews that don't have adequate skills to survive and win.

Russia has shown us that better equipment doesn't compensate for insufficient training. /35

Finally, it's worth pointing out that while tank losses are not easy to replace, competent tank crews are much harder to replace than tanks themselves.

Training saves lives and sending crews to battle with inadequate training is a waste of both crews and tanks. /END

Addendum: None of this is nor should be used as an excuse for not giving Ukraine new tanks.

On the contrary, it's a reason to begin training Ukrainian tank crews to new tanks as soon as possible, especially if delivering the tanks is still weeks or months away.

A further point about the importance of training as a crew:

A novice crew spends a lot of time on the intercom, talking and coordinating.

A well-trained crew anticipate each others' every move and can operate in near silence, like a single organism.

https://twitter.com/aleroi/status/1513864322652553225

A short sub-thread about the leadership and cultural aspects of making effective tank crews.

Or, "How to treat your tankers":

https://twitter.com/aleroi/status/1514316705727668232