The training hour gap for tank crews. Poland, the United States, Germany

Starting point

Europe is arming faster than it can train

The reason is structural rather than anyone's negligence. A platform is ordered years before it arrives, while the training package and simulators are usually a separate procurement, started one to three years later. Equipment begins to show up, the training capability is still being built, and crews are expected to be proficient from day one.

Scale matters here, but it has to be stated honestly, because public discussion routinely conflates two different figures. A framework agreement declares a ceiling; an executive contract is the real order:

K2. The 2022 framework covers up to 1,000 tanks. Executive contracts so far amount to roughly 360 vehicles, with the second tranche covering 116 K2GF in 2026–2027 and 64 K2PL in 2028–2030.
Borsuk. The framework speaks of some 1,400 vehicles. The first executive contract covers 111 for 2025–2029, and three are due to reach the army in 2026.
Abrams. 116 M1A1 FEP from US Army stocks and 250 M1A2 SEPv3, with deliveries under way.
Aviation. On top of that, 96 AH-64E Apache and 32 F-35.

The gap between framework and execution does not weaken the argument, it sharpens it. Three Borsuks in 2026 against 1,400 in the framework show exactly how the mechanism works: the demand for training only becomes visible at delivery, but the decisions about training capacity have to be taken now, while nobody feels the problem yet.

The rest of this study examines how that mechanism looks in one specific programme, on source documents, without relying on forecasts.

Summary

Five things that follow from the documents

The Polish tank crew training programme does not provide for a single hour on a gunnery trainer. Simulation does not appear in it as a training category at all.
The American counterpart has a codified standard: a minimum of 4 trainer hours per month for every crew. The doctrinal document itself concedes that real availability is 3.75 hours, below its own standard.
The gunner on the Polish course receives 25 hours on vehicle construction and operation against 136 hours of gunnery. Familiarisation with the vehicle is the shortest element of the course.
In the American entry course the gunner's station accounts for 4 hours out of 804.8 training hours and is available only to those who excel. Gunner competence is created entirely in the unit.
Bringing a commander and gunner pair to advanced level takes 62 to 81 hours on a gunnery trainer, preceded by 35 to 40 hours of preparation.

The route from recruit to gunner

Three routes to the gunner's position
Stage	Poland	United States	Germany
Basic training	147 h, about 1 month, in the unit	part of OSUT (Red, White, Blue phases)	Grundausbildung
Specialist course	420 h, 3 months, at a training centre	OSUT 19K, 22 weeks (to 2019: 15 weeks / 1,098 h)	Richtschütze, about 8 weeks
Course output	a fully qualified gunner	driver and loader, not gunner	gunner
Further training	12-month cycle up to 1,687 h	Gunnery Tables I–XII in the unit	crew drills, simulator, live fire
Platform course	Świętoszów: 16–20 weeks, 2–3 courses a year	Fort Benning / Fort Moore	Munster: 2A7V, 9 days, 3 times a year

The last row is not a summary but the next stage of the route.

Poland: the structure of the specialist course

The training programme for armoured and mechanised sub-units, issued by the Land Forces Command, breaks the 420 hours of the specialist course down by crew position. Below is the gunner's column alongside the rest of the crew.

Specialist course, 420 hours, by subject
Subject	Commander	Gunner	Driver	Loader
Gunnery	59	136	38	105
Tactics	84	54	38	81
Vehicle construction and operation	25	25	82	35
Driver training	15	15	71	15
Communications	14	8	2	2
Reconnaissance and foreign armies	14	14	14	14
Other subjects	195	154	161	154
Examination	14	14	14	14
Total	420	420	420	420

Vehicle construction and operation: 9 topics, 25 hours

General construction and technical characteristics of the vehicle, general operating principles, tools, spares and accessories, inspection and daily servicing, powerpack and its servicing, transmission, running gear, electrical installation, and preparing the vehicle for a water obstacle.

The whole of the gunner's technical familiarisation with the vehicle fits into 25 hours, delivered at the physical tank. For that time the vehicle is unavailable for anything else.

The regulatory opening

Beyond basic training the programme does not impose a fixed number of hours on individual topics. A battalion commander is entitled, quoting the document, to “exclude topics specified in the programme or introduce new ones” and to “combine specified thematic content”. Introducing new methods therefore does not require changing the training programme.

The only mention of simulation in the entire document concerns the gunner-operator of an infantry fighting vehicle: the requirement to “be able to fire anti-tank guided missiles at real targets on a training device”. For tank crews the programme allocates no trainer time at all.

United States: entry course and trainer standards

Program of Instruction 19K10-OSUT

The open programme of instruction of the Armor School at Fort Benning for the M1 Armor Crewman course covers 1,098 hours in total, of which 804.8 are training hours across 106 training days. The course objective is defined explicitly as preparation for the driver and loader positions, not the gunner.

The Excellence in Armor module includes the gunner's station, a session on the AGTS trainer, main gun firing and target engagement procedures. Access is restricted to soldiers who distinguish themselves across the course. In the resource summary of the same programme of instruction, the line “Simulator Hours” reads zero.

Structure of the 19K10-OSUT course, 804.8 training hours
Module	Hours	Share of course
Field Training Exercise	248.3	30.9%
Individual weapon marksmanship (BRM/ARM)	117.0	14.5%
Vehicle Specific: M1 tank	107.8	13.4%
Weapons (machine guns, grenades, support weapons)	58.5	7.3%
Excellence in Armor: gunner's station, AGTS, main gun firing	4.0	0.5%
Other modules	269.2	33.4%
Total	804.8	100%

AGTS trainer standards

The Advanced Gunnery Training System serves a commander and gunner pair. The driver and loader positions are not simulated. Hour standards according to FM 17-12-7:

The intensive phase is 5 sessions of 2 hours, to be completed within 45 days of the crew being formed.
Sustainment minimum: 4 trainer hours per month for every crew.
Real availability given in the same document: a company has 60 trainer hours for 16 crews, which is 3.75 hours. The standard is not met.
Planning guidance: no more than 20 per cent of crews in the intensive phase at once, otherwise there are not enough slots.

The AGTS exercise library runs to 270 entries: 7 Basic Pre-Live Fire, 4 Gate to Live Fire, three advanced levels of 36 exercises each, 108 sustainment exercises and 43 special ones. Gunnery Tables I, II and III can be qualified on the trainer.

Route of a commander and gunner pair to advanced level
Stage	Hours	Where
Preparation before entering the trainer	35–40	classroom, vehicle
Intensive phase: 7 BPLF exercises + Gate-to-Live-Fire	8–12	trainer
Advanced Skill Level 1	10–15	trainer
Advanced Skill Level 2	18–24	trainer
Advanced Skill Level 3	26–30	trainer
Total time on the trainer	62–81	trainer

Germany

The Richtschütze course runs about 8 weeks. The sequence is fixed: position specialisation for each crew member separately, crew drills, simulator, gunnery training, work on the vehicle, live fire. The conversion course onto the Leopard 2 A7V lasts 9 days and is run three times a year for nine participants. The Bundeswehr states plainly that nine days is not enough to reach proficiency.

The German family of trainers, adopted by the Polish Army along with the Leopards, comprises AAT as a turret trainer, ASPT as a fire control system simulator for commander and gunner, AGPT as a platoon combat simulator and AGDUS as a two-sided exercise simulator. The German model is regarded by most Leopard 2 operators as the reference.

The gap set out

Three programmes, six dimensions of comparison
Dimension	Poland	United States	Germany
Length of the gunner's course	420 h / 3 months	absent from the entry course	about 8 weeks
Gunnery training for the gunner	136 h	4 h (only for those selected)	no open data
Familiarisation at the vehicle	25 h	107.8 h	no open data
Codified trainer hour standards	none	4 h/month/crew	mandatory element
Trainer hours in the programme	0	62–81 h for the full matrix	mandatory element
Training centre throughput	2–3 courses a year, groups of about 11	no data	9 people × 3 times a year (2A7V)

The last row is a further dimension of comparison, not a total. The familiarisation row needs the qualification set out in the conclusions: the Polish and American categories are not equivalent.

Conclusions

The absence of a standard does not mean the absence of a need The Polish programme dates from a period when gunnery simulation did not exist as a training category. The centres at Świętoszów and Biedrusko use ASPT, AAT, AGPT and AGTS trainers, but no document specifies how much time on them is required. The effect cuts both ways: nothing forces a purchase and nothing constrains one.
The bottleneck is familiarisation with the equipment, not gunnery Twenty-five hours is the shortest element of a gunner's course in which gunnery alone takes 136 hours. Nine topics on construction and operation are delivered at the physical tank, which is withdrawn from other tasks for that time. The American Vehicle Specific module runs to 107.8 hours, but it covers the driver and loader positions, because that is what that course is for, so comparing the two figures directly would be an abuse. What matters is the proportion inside the Polish programme, not the difference between countries. This is the most obvious candidate for moving off the vehicle.
Training centre throughput will not keep pace with equipment arrival Świętoszów runs 2 to 3 courses a year in groups of about 11 per specialty, on a 16 to 20 week cycle. Three platforms are arriving in parallel: Abrams, K2 and Leopard. The training complex at Biedrusko, the only planned location for Abrams and K2 crew training, is due to be ready on optimistic assumptions in 2027.
The American model shows the limit of scaling stations One AGTS station serves one crew at a time. With a standard of 5 sessions of 2 hours per commander and gunner pair within 45 days, the number of stations translates directly into battalion throughput. The US Army, fully equipped, does not meet its own standard.

Open questions

What does an engine hour of a Leopard 2, an Abrams and a K2 cost in Polish conditions?
What is the unit cost of a 120 mm round under current contracts?
How many crews a year does the system have to train to man the equipment being introduced?
Have the specifications for the Biedrusko complex already been closed?

Without answers to the first two, any return on investment analysis stays qualitative. If you have those figures, working out the rest takes a few minutes.

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Sources

Documents used

Training programme for armoured and mechanised sub-units, Land Forces Command, Poland
Program of Instruction, Course 19K10-OSUT Armor Crewman, US Army Armor School, Fort Benning, v6.0
FM 17-12-7, chapter 5, Advanced Gunnery Training System
TC 3-20.0 Integrated Weapons Training Strategy, June 2019
TC 3-20.31-120 Gunnery: Heavy Tank, July 2025
eARMOR: 19K One-Station Unit Training, Creating the Army's Future Tank Forces
army.mil: Longer Armor training span showing gains in skills, lethality, fitness
Bundeswehr: Ausbildung am Kampfpanzer Leopard 2 A7V; Ukrainische Richtschützen üben im Leopard-Simulator
Nowa Technika Wojskowa 1/2010: Leopard Training Centre
Polska Zbrojna: The Leopard School
Defence24: reporting from the Land Forces Training Centre
ZBiAM: second executive contract in the K2 programme
Portal Militarny: first executive contract for Borsuk fighting vehicles
Defence24: three Borsuks for the army in 2026
WNP: review of the state of contract implementation
Announcements of the Armament Agency and the Ministry of National Defence on framework and executive contracts

All material used is open and publicly available. The study contains no classified data and no information drawn from unpublished documents. If you find an error in the figures or the interpretation, write to me, I will correct it and record the correction.