Thread by @LivFaustDieJung

T-55s, T-62s, older T-72s all deserve mockery that Russia can't field enough modern armor.

All will still kill you. Tank duels are super rare in Ukraine & if you don't have friendly armor or an ATGM all those tanks have to do to survive is stay a few hundred meters past your

RPG/SMAW/CG/LAW etc effective range. And even with those, it usually takes multiple shots to land an effect kill/disable shot. All whilst a 100-125mm cannon and multiple machine guns are aimed at you.

Please do mock Russia for using ancient tanks. But recognize the troops facing

it don't really care if it's T-54 circa 1961 or a T-90M if they can't hurt it & it sits far enough away to dump HE and machine gun fire on them.

A fucking Sherman tank at 1000m away is going to be hell for modern infantry with nothing but handheld AT rockets to defend themselves

I think we get so caught up in the obsession over Wikipedia stats on paper "X rocket can penetrate X hundred millimeters of RHA!" when the reality is: sure, if it hits straight on, against the right part of the armor, the ERA fails, and you have more shots to fire if it fails".

Soldiers, even experience soldiers, struggle even on training ranges to hit static targets through plastic peep sights even just a few hundred meters away in a spot that will kill it. Now add that the tank is moving, it's shooting at you, & you have to rush to take your shot

before you're spotted & killed. We've all seen a lot of Russian and Ukrainian RPG shots that are extremely rushed (this isn't unique to them, US forces struggle with this too). So even if you have the tool that can on paper produce a killing hit, you still have to actually land

that hit & survive for follow on shots if the first one doesn't kill or disable. Combat capability does not equate to combat performance. I will kill you every time if I can land a gunshot in your vital area. My firearm is capable of that. But if you're running around, returning

fire, not presenting a good target, and wearing hard armor, my chances of achieving that, even with hundreds of rounds at my disposal rapidly decreases. Now add that you can correct your fire with an AT rocket (at least not without taking it out of your shoulder to reload). This

is why I've advocated for a decade plus to distribute ATGMs as widely as possible (and Ukraine certainly didn't need to be told this, they've been doing it for years).

Just food for thought.

*can't correct your fire with an AT rocket

Addendum: I suppose my broader point as we should not take Russia pulling out the old gear as an indication that we should slack support. That older gear can still hold territory and kill people and requires heavy weaponry to take out. There is a risk in deriding this equipment

as too old or incapable that allows us to be smug and relax our guard in terms of what Ukraine needs to defeat it. Old or not Ukrainian lives will still be expended trying to kill it. Let's make sure our support doesn't Slack.

Parting thought: this only reinforces what I was saying previously about the need for armed drones at the squad level; Ukraine has demonstrated to great effect how these can offset a squad not having atgms or available artillery when threats like heavy armor appear. Hopefully we

take these lessons to heart and apply them while we have the time to develop those resources. It doesn't matter how old the armor is if you have nothing nearby to kill it.