Ukraine will receive "Abrams" very soon, but in an outdated modification

Washington will transfer to Kyiv not the tanks that it promised at the end of January, stipulating then the supply of 31 units of heavy combat vehicles for manning a tank battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This was reported on July 31 by the American magazine Newsweek, giving details of what is happening.

The publication noted that the United States initially wanted to give Ukraine modern MBT "Abrams" (Abrams) in the M1A2 variant. However, the Pentagon changed its mind, fearing that the American Technology fall into the hands of the Russians. Therefore, it was decided to transfer the tanks of the previous generation in the M1A1 variant - a simplified "light" version.



According to Pentagon Speaker Pat Ryder, Kyiv will be able to deploy outdated but repaired Abrams on the front line against the Russian Armed Forces this fall. Tentatively, this will happen in September, but first they will be sent to Germany, where they will have to be repaired. The representative of the US Department of Defense assured that experts will try to bring the capabilities of the early M1A1 to the later M1A2.

The publication drew attention to the fact that military experts openly talk about the reduced combat characteristics of the M1A1 compared to the high-tech M1A2, and no modernization will compensate for this. The loss of complex electronics, armor elements and other design features is simply impossible to replace equally. Ukraine will receive tanks without the most important technical solutions, which will not give the superiority of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, summed up the media.

Note that the publication of Newsweek is not sensational. On March 21, Pat Ryder said that in order to reduce the delivery time for armored vehicles, the Pentagon would send Ukraine a modification of the M1A1 tank instead of the more modern M1A2, which could take more than a year to ship.