Instead, it must yank out entire subsystems and ship them to a depot while also ordering replacement subsystems. “Other replacements require pulling things.” A front-line battalion probably can’t fix an M-1 with broken optics. “ Some M-1 repairs require part-replacements,” Hertling tweeted. But the aging, ex-Soviet T-80BV isn’t in the same class as the M-1.įield-repairs aren’t always possible with a tank as complex as the Abrams. “The pack ‘blows’ when drivers aren't trained.” Yes, the Ukrainian army has experience with temperamental, turbine-powered T-80BV tanks. “Same true for the engine,” Hertling added. Army general with extensive tank experience. ![]() “The M-1 requires the most turret training” of any modern Western tank, tweeted Mark Hertling, a retired U.S. The M-1-its turret and engine, in particular-is intolerant of crew error. “Any time that we've provided Ukraine with any type of system, we've provided the training and sustainment capabilities with that,” Ryder said. The delay could prove useful to the trainers who will school the Ukrainian army’s M-1 crews, as well as to the contractors the Pentagon will tap to establish maintenance facilities for Ukraine’s future Abrams fleet. Joe Biden can convince a foreign Abrams-user to give up some of its existing tanks, General Dynamics will need to prepare a new batch of uranium-free M-1s-and that could take many months, if not a year or more. Instead, when it sells M-1s-say, to Iraq, Saudi Arabia or Poland-it first commissions General Dynamics to build special versions of the tanks without the uranium armor component. The Pentagon as a matter of policy never has exported these tanks. Army service, or in storage at Army arsenals, include the uranium armor. The $400-million tank package includes 120-millimeter rounds, which indicates M-1A1s or M-1A2s with their smoothbore, 44-caliber main guns.īut the thousands of M-1A1s and A2s in active U.S. In announcing the M-1 donation, the Pentagon didn’t specify which version of the tank it would send. ![]() And the depleted uranium in its armor mix complicates export. The Abrams also is very difficult to maintain. On the downside, the M-1 drinks fuel nearly twice as fast as a diesel-powered tank of similar size. The result of these and other choices is a speedy, highly-protected tank that fires quickly and accurately. Going even further, the Abrams’ designers packed the tank’s distinctively angular turret with high-end optics and fire-controls, while also ensuring that the turret could spin at least as fast as contemporary tanks: a full 360 degrees in no more than nine seconds.
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