When war tech doesn’t work as advertised

Along with the much-discussed intelligence failure in Israel, there is growing awareness that many of America’s and Israel’s high-tech weapons fail to perform as advertised. The same goes for many European systems.

We were told, for example, that both the Abrams tanks and the German Leopards were vastly superior to Russian tanks and would change the Ukraine battlefield. So far, the Abrams tanks have not been committed to battle because the Ukrainians understand, and have said so publicly, that if those tanks are used they will be destroyed.

The Leopard tanks also were supposed to be a game-changer. But the tanks, despite their superior electronics and targeting systems, advanced armor and superb diesel power plant, have been destroyed by Russian guns, drones and mines.

It should come as no small surprise that the Europeans, particularly the Germans and French but also the Spanish and Italians, are eyeing a new tank to replace the Leopard and French Leclerc tanks. But the idea of this tank predates Ukraine and will have to be revised. In any case, a new tank will take between a decade and a decade and a half to be realized, if it ever happens.

In Israel, the highly successful Iron Dome air defense system was swamped by thousands of Hamas missiles and could not protect civilians from missile damage – unfortunately at the same time that Israeli intelligence failed in its mission, although we don’t know if that failure was technological or analytical.