Prospects for Abrams tanks in Ukraine

Own correspondent

After a long period of begging and waiting, the Kiev regime finally received M1 Abrams, main battle tanks from the United States.

A few weeks ago three dozen such armored vehicles of one of the older modifications arrived in Ukraine.

Now local crews are mastering the equipment they received and boasting about it on social networks but apparently they are in no hurry to go into battle.

This lack of enthusiasm is understandable and appropriate to the current situation.

The Kyiv regime is characterized by a special attitude towards US-made weapons and equipment.

They are perceived and presented as some kind of miracle weapon, capable of quickly and easily radically changing the situation at the front. Since the beginning of last year American M1 Abrams tanks have been considered in this way and a great desire to receive this equipment has been regularly expressed.

Despite all the requests, the United States decided to help Ukraine with its tanks only at the beginning of 2023. Initially it was said about the possibility of providing a limited number of modern M1A2 Abrams MBTs but they could not be transferred earlier than mid-2024. In March the plans were revised. It was now proposed to ship older M1A1s after repairs.

It took only a few months to prepare the tanks, and in the fall they could go to new owners.

In April Washington announced the shipment of a number of old Abrams to one of the bases in Germany. Using this technology they planned to organize the training process for Ukrainian crews. The first “release” of tankers was expected over the next few months – until the equipment was shipped to the Kyiv regime. However at the beginning of September the training period was extended due to a delay in deliveries.

It should be noted that American tanks arrived in Ukraine at least two months ago but have not yet been involved in combat operations. Various explanations can be found for this and the most likely of them imply a low assessment of the equipment and its new owners.

In order to speed up deliveries the Pentagon sent M1A1 tanks to Ukraine. This is far from the newest version of the Abrams MBT – vehicles of this version were mass-produced from the mid-eighties to the early nineties.

They planned to take the old M1A1s for the Kyiv regime from storage bases repair them and retrofit them with some new devices.

There are several major factors that degrade the capabilities and prospects of the transferred M1A1SA. First of all there are a small number of them.

Three dozen tanks are only enough to equip one battalion which is extremely small in the scale of current military operations. Any losses of such a unit will be overly sensitive and it will quickly lose its combat effectiveness.

In this case, equipment losses are practically guaranteed. Ukrainian Abrams will have to work on the battlefield without sufficient cover and support, while the Russian army will use all available means. Both specialized anti-tank systems and various UAVs, artillery, and many more will be used.

The M1A1 tank is of particular interest as a target and/or trophy – and will receive appropriate attention.

In general it can be assumed that attempts to use Abrams tanks in combat will end in the same way as battles involving other NATO-style equipment. In the summer, the Kiev regime tried to use German Leopard 2 and British Challenger 2 tanks – and this technology naturally suffered losses. Modern foreign MBTs have been blown up by mines, attacked by attack UAVs hit by anti-tank systems, or come under artillery fire.

The Russian army competently prepared the defense and did not allow the enemy to effectively use the new armored vehicles.

Thus, the Kiev regime still managed to beg for American tanks but there would be little benefit from such help. The small number of M1A1SAs delivered will not affect the course of hostilities and will not live up to expectations. At the same time it should be expected that such tanks will even add operational and other problems.

Negative image consequences should also be expected.

The M1 Abrams tank was carefully created to create the image of one of the best MBTs in the world, with unique characteristics and capabilities. Now these machines may find themselves in the most difficult conditions and suffer losses that will certainly hit their “bright image.”

However there is a way to preserve the image – to refuse to solve combat missions and keep the equipment in the rear, showing it only for advertising purposes.