Does Poland need tanks?
Given that Poland is a flat country yeah it needs tanks, lots of tanks.
I'd figure that money would be better spent to help Poland be able to maintain air superiority in the case of offensive or defensive conflict.
Nope, its a standard.
Why not use a much cheaper and lighter armored vehicle? What would be the mission for these things?
Generally light tanks are useless pieces of junk but Polands decidents in military matters have a long standing tradition of stupidity.
If these regions are marshy and mellowy than Leopards won't be able to maneuver properly, maybe, even to move.
Yes they will, they're
very powerfull machines.
times as expensive as let say Ukrainian T-84 Oplot and 1.5 times as heavy. So, for the same price one can buy 2 tanks with better maneuverability,
Except that a Leo2A4 can one shot a T-84 frontally from 2 miles, manouverability is about the only thing good about T-84, it sucks in all other departements.
Trust me, they're better off copying the rest of the EU and using the German or USA tanks.... Leopard for the win.
There's only 200~ Leos available on the market today and M1 tanks would be horribly overpriced.
The problem with Poland is that the polish army has no idea what kind of armoured forces it wants, Poland atm has 940 tanks with only 114 modern and about 140 semi-modern, the reminder is severely outdated and no one has the courage to say lets dish out a mountain of money for a new armored force.
Also the sources are limited, Germans dont have too many to sell and Americans want to sell us overpriced crap, Ukraine doesnt have anything good to offer, Russia is a political no-no, France and UK have midget sized armored forces to begin with...
