How many tanks are in service in each European country – 2022 – There are no tanks in Belgium ?

45 comments

  1. No, there aren’t. Unless you count the ones in museums and ones that are no longer armed.

  4. Leopard was decommissioned and sold

    There are now plans to integrate an armoured unit with the dutch to restore Belgian heavy weapons capabilities. Same with our howitzers and AA capabilities.

    We sold everything and suddenly the world looks less cozy, so time to scramble

  6. It actually make sense for us. We don’t have the budget/ressources to properly train a proper tank unit. We may as well not have any and focus on other things.

    Then the Belgian army can be used as a support of e.g. the French army and provide medical staff, mine-clearing soldiers, …

  7. The Netherlands and Belgium both phased out the MBT entirely, and moved to either tracked or wheeled lighter vehicles (with a focus on asymetric warfare) as there is no point using MBTs against random rebels.

    For example, the CV90 used by the Dutch army, or the DF 30/90 used by the Belgian army.

  9. We focus on air-support. A small country cant have all so within the NATO we provide F-16 and later on the F-35

  12. Good. If Ukraine has showed anything it’s that tanks are just death traps in the 21st century. Easily taken out by drones or Javalins/NLAWs.

  13. Nope in typical belgian fashion we replaced them with pirana 3c’s and due to corruption gave some of them an anti tank gun they cant fire.

    So we have milans and some light armoured apc’s we can equip with a
    Medium range atgm.

  14. ———————————No tanks?————————————— ⠀⣞⢽⢪⢣⢣⢣⢫⡺⡵⣝⡮⣗⢷⢽⢽⢽⣮⡷⡽⣜⣜⢮⢺⣜⢷⢽⢝⡽⣝ ⠸⡸⠜⠕⠕⠁⢁⢇⢏⢽⢺⣪⡳⡝⣎⣏⢯⢞⡿⣟⣷⣳⢯⡷⣽⢽⢯⣳⣫⠇ ⠀⠀⢀⢀⢄⢬⢪⡪⡎⣆⡈⠚⠜⠕⠇⠗⠝⢕⢯⢫⣞⣯⣿⣻⡽⣏⢗⣗⠏⠀ ⠀⠪⡪⡪⣪⢪⢺⢸⢢⢓⢆⢤⢀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⢊⢞⡾⣿⡯⣏⢮⠷⠁⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠈⠊⠆⡃⠕⢕⢇⢇⢇⢇⢇⢏⢎⢎⢆⢄⠀⢑⣽⣿⢝⠲⠉⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⡿⠂⠠⠀⡇⢇⠕⢈⣀⠀⠁⠡⠣⡣⡫⣂⣿⠯⢪⠰⠂⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⡦⡙⡂⢀⢤⢣⠣⡈⣾⡃⠠⠄⠀⡄⢱⣌⣶⢏⢊⠂⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⢝⡲⣜⡮⡏⢎⢌⢂⠙⠢⠐⢀⢘⢵⣽⣿⡿⠁⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠨⣺⡺⡕⡕⡱⡑⡆⡕⡅⡕⡜⡼⢽⡻⠏⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⣼⣳⣫⣾⣵⣗⡵⡱⡡⢣⢑⢕⢜⢕⡝⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⣴⣿⣾⣿⣿⣿⡿⡽⡑⢌⠪⡢⡣⣣⡟⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⡟⡾⣿⢿⢿⢵⣽⣾⣼⣘⢸⢸⣞⡟⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠁⠇⠡⠩⡫⢿⣝⡻⡮⣒⢽⠋⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ —————————————————————————————

  20. We gave up on tanks recently. Not sure we will ever need any tanks after the war in Ukraine… They are a liability.

    Armed drones would be a far better and cheaper investment. Pretty sure the US Switchblade drones will prove how worthless tanks are even more so than the Javelins and NLAWs.

  23. Tanks have become fairly useless in recent times. With AT weapons having become potent and lightweight enough that any infantry man can wreck a tank at a fraction of the cost, it just isn’t that useful anymore.

    On top of that is the fact that in coalition warfare, it’s best to play at your strengths. The Benelux doesn’t have the capacity to go toe-to-toe with any real opponent, so what do you do? You focus on support and reconnaissance.

    Infantry fighting vehicles and other types of armoured cars are far more valuable for us than tanks are.

    Also, don’t underestimate the cost of a tank; the purchasing cost, trains capable of moving them, bulldozers needed to extract them when they get stuck, spare parts, fuel, maintenance hours,… I mean, for every tank you have, you’re essentially paying for three.

  32. And the tanks Belgium had were Leopard 1A5BE’s from 1968 a tank with a 105mm gun and no armor that could realistically stop a tank shell. They were already outdated when we bought them since the Soviets got the T-64 tanks in 1966 the first tank with composite armor and a 125mm gun.

    So naturally, the government kept them around until 2015.

    The leopard 1 was designed during a time when tank rounds couldn’t be stopped with steel armor so it was decided to make a faster tank armor that could only stop autocannons.

    The army decided it didn’t need tracked vehicles anymore because they thought wouldn’t be fighting in muddy European fields.

    And some of the tanks you see in some of those South-Eastern European countries are laughably outdated as well. Romania has T-55s whose design comes from the late ’40s. Poland has the best Tank force of the EU though.

    We aren’t even making tanks in the EU anymore Poland recently bought American tanks because there weren’t any Leopard II’s on sale.

  34. Yes anti tank missiles are an incredibly strong counter but its not the end of the world and tanks when used well are incredibly good. Its just that the belgian parlaiment is useless and would rather invest in a shisha bar in New Delhi than it would invest more money in Defence.

    this video explains it and even since it was released there have been more counters to protect tanks released aswell: [https://youtu.be/aGf2cij4az8](https://youtu.be/aGf2cij4az8)

  35. It seems to me that belgium is too small to give significant contributions in regular tropps and equipment. I also think we should still contribute our fair share to NATO. Hence why I think we should instead invest in spécialisations. More mine sweepers, cyber warfare, or other highly specialized troops that give a large benefit even in small numbers. The cost for belgium to maintain a platoon of ground troops or a squad of tanks is senseless, as we do not have the benefit of scale to cut costs. Hence specialized skills that are naturally smaller in size seem like a better use of our military.

  37. TBH I’d prefer we invest in cybersecurity. Hosting NATO and EU headquarters makes us responsible for this.

    We’re too small to have a meaningful army anyways.

  39. ‘Hello, I am de Jos from Craptheyon AVC Gmbh. Can I interest you in our latest line of state of the art reasonably priced modern deluxe smart and sophisticated continuous track vehicles?”

    -“No tanks”.

  43. Some comments here really show most people have No idea how pathetic the state of our army is.
    And most people don’t even know that smaller nations like Denmark, Norway, Sweden have very capable armies. Yet ours is falling apart and we can’t do anything without support from larger nations.
    I’ll give some examples how bad the situation is.

    After the terrorist attacks in Brussels we needed the army to protect key points in the country.
    We did not have enough bullet proof vests, we had to beg the Americans for them.
    We did not have enough bullets for our soldiers. Only 1 of 2 servicemen patrolling had bullets.

    A few years ago the chief admiral of the Dutch navy said in our parliament that if we cut even further in the navies budget, we wouldn’t have any capabilities left in the navy. Fast forward and more cuts, we were told we were not welcome to hold exercises with other nato nations.

    When Somalian pirates were terrorizing mercantile ships we were not able to protect ships that were sailing under the Belgian flag, it were the Dutch, French, Danish,… who were protecting them (even though we have more ships sailing under our flag than them).

    These things are incredibly embarassing. We have 0 capabilities. Having a small capable army is within our means. We can’t expect to keep leeching from other nations.

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