First Ukrainian crews complete training on Leopard 2 tanks in Spain

The first 10 Ukrainian military crews who will use Leopard 2 A4 battle tanks in their country against Russia have completed the 4 weeks of training at the National Training Centre in Zaragoza, Spain.

Quote: Spain's Defense Ministry announced on Monday, writes European Pravda

A total of 55 Ukrainian servicemen were trained, both professional military personnel and reserve soldiers, aged 21 to 60. Each tank crew consists of a commander, driver, loader and shooter; an additional 15 technicians were trained, 5 of whom are specialists in mechanics, 5 in electronics and 5 more in weapons.

The personnel who were trained had previous experience in using battle tanks, so during the training, the primary attention was paid to the technical features of Leopard 2 and the creation of operational and well-coordinated crews.

Thirty soldiers of the Alcantara 10 Mechanised Cavalry Regiment from Melilla participated in the training, which lasted 12 hours a day on all days except Saturday, and conducted theoretical classes, training on simulators and exercises on the manoeuvre field.

Leopard 2 crew training courses were established in Spain after the official consolidation of its commitment to contribute to the Ukrainian defence by providing battle tanks. At that time, Ukraine asked to train crews and technical personnel to rapidly deploy the equipped battle tanks.

The Leopard 2A4 battle tank was created at the end of the 20th century and became the basis for developing one of the most modern and effective battle tanks used by Western countries – the Leopard 2A6 and Leopard 2E, which are the basis of the Spanish armed forces.

In February, Spain announced that it would transfer six Leopard 2A4 tanks to Ukraine, at the same time, Madrid is considering the possibility of increasing the contingent of tanks to a dozen. In addition, Madrid has allocated  €4.1 million for the repair of Leopard tanks intended for Ukraine.

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