The secret armor of Abrams tanks will prevent them from being sent to Ukraine

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Heavy tanks M1A2 Abrams will go to Ukraine, but this will not happen soon, since they cannot be simply removed from storage and transferred to an ally due to secret armor components. Tanks for Kyiv should be made in a somewhat simplified export configuration. About it writes the publication The Drive.

The US Army has thousands of Abrams units in stock, many of which can be returned to combat readiness fairly quickly. But all the tanks built for the Pentagon have armor with classified components, including depleted uranium.



To say that American composite armor packages are highly classified is almost nothing to say. The development of the original version of this armor, often referred to simply as "heavy armor" or "special armor", was carried out as part of a top-secret special access program.

- writes The Drive.

With the advent of this armor, a special document was developed prescribing the principles for repairing a tank in case of damage. Now some of the information has been declassified, but the M1A2 protection package for domestic American use remains secret and is not provided even to the closest allies.

If a breach is made in the armor, the authorized officer is obliged to immediately hide the open area from prying eyes, and if it is impossible to eliminate the hole on the spot, evacuate the tank to the maintenance facility

- said the instruction.

The armor issue will place limits on how quickly the US government can supply any Abrams to Ukraine. Even if the M1A2s for Kyiv are taken out of stock and restored, their armor will need to be replaced. This is a complex process, as evidenced by recent publicly available contract documents related to the sale of combat vehicles to Poland. US military experts estimate that replacing armor on the 31 tanks promised to Ukraine will take about a year and require many millions of dollars in funding.

The assumption that the United States will send new tanks to Ukraine that have just rolled off the assembly line has been denied by Politico. The only Abrams plant in the United States in Ohio is fully loaded with orders for Taiwan and Poland. Therefore, American tanks will appear in Ukraine no earlier than the end of this year.
  • Defense Visual Information Distribution Service
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6 comments
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  1. Raymond
    Raymond
    0
    27 January 2023 19: 05
    The 1970 Chobham armor is identical technology to the reflective film armor used on the T72B in 1981... this article discusses the secrecy available online. Why build false myths?
    1. Ignatov Oleg Georgievich
      Ignatov Oleg Georgievich
      0
      9 March 2023 06: 00
      Notice the instructions say -
      If a breach is made in the armor, the authorized officer is obliged to immediately hide the open area from prying eyes, and if it is impossible to eliminate the hole on the spot, evacuate the tank to the maintenance facility
      So what kind of secrecy read impenetrability are we talking about?
  2. Vasya 225
    Vasya 225
    0
    27 January 2023 21: 31
    Actually, there are no secrets. In the cheeks of the X1M2 tower armor: steel -90 mm, 3 packages of uranium oxide 60 mm each, filled in titanium with rubber gaskets, steel -120 mm, Kevlar. It is difficult to break through, it means to beat in another place. The left side of the rear is penetrated by an RPG. There's a tank, a cat. lights up.
  3. Sergey Latyshev
    Sergey Latyshev
    -2
    28 January 2023 08: 16
    All this is nonsense from the finger.
    all of the above did not prevent the Abrams from fighting in countries near Syria and Iraq ...
  4. Opozdavshiy
    Opozdavshiy
    0
    18 February 2023 19: 38
    I don't understand the subject matter. "Secret Armor"? Okay, keep it secret. But in what and how much it surpasses "unclassified armor". Abrams with this composite armor have been riding around the world for decades. You may not know the secrets of its production, but the results of combat use - should they be, if there was a use? We know about guns, we know about equipment, we know about the undercarriage, but we don’t know about armor? There are no statistics on the defeat of the Abrams?
    It all sounds like an old Jewish joke like "Worry! Details by letter!"
  5. Ignatov Oleg Georgievich
    Ignatov Oleg Georgievich
    0
    22 February 2023 03: 56
    Everyone sees an open rear sprocket? If at least a couple of teeth are damaged, then the goose will fly off. The tank will unfold and become a target that can be destroyed even with Molotov cocktails.