Natasha Bertrand Oren Liebermann – CNN Jan 24, 2023
The Biden administration is finalizing plans to send US-made Abrams tanks to Ukraine and could make an announcement as soon as this week, according to three US officials familiar with the deliberations.
The timing around the actual delivery of the tanks is still unclear and it normally takes several months to train troops to use the tanks effectively, officials said.
An announcement about the tanks could be part of an attempt to break a diplomatic logjam with Germany, which indicated to the US last week that it would not send its Leopard tanks to Ukraine unless the US also agreed to send its M1 Abrams tanks.
Top national security officials in the administration have been actively considering steps they could take to convince Germany to send the Leopards.
On Friday, at a meeting of western defense leaders in Germany, the US and its allies failed to convince German officials to send the Leopards as part of Berlin’s next round of military assistance to Ukraine. But on Tuesday, the German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said “We are preparing our decision, which will come very soon” on the tanks.
Sky News Arabia was first to report the news that the US is considering sending the tanks.
The administration has never taken the possibility of shipping American tanks entirely off the table, but US officials said publicly last week that now is not the right time to send the 70-ton M1 Abrams tanks because they are costly and require a significant amount of training to operate.
The tanks have instead repeatedly been floated as a long-term option – even as critics say the right time is now, as Ukraine braces for the possibility Russia will mobilize more troops and launch a new offensive.
Ukraine’s President Volodomyr Zelensky has consistently asked Western allies for modern tanks as his country prepares braces for an expected major Russian counteroffensive in the spring.
The UK has already announced it will send 12 of their Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, crossing what had previously appeared to be a red line for the US and its European allies. A US announcement it is sending tanks would increase the pressure on Germany as it decides whether to authorize a transfer of Leopards. There are believed be around 2,000 in Europe and Poland on Tuesday formally asked Berlin to approve a transfer of some its Leopards to Ukraine.
Given the last week’s announcement of a $2.5 billion drawdown of US stocks to send to Ukraine, an announcement is unlikely to be another drawdown. Instead, the provision of tanks to Ukraine could come from a new contract under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) or a refurbishment of M-1 Abrams tanks from another country such as Poland, which recently closed a deal to buy more Abrams and has been vocal in its insistence on sending tank to Ukraine.
Either scenario gives the US more time and space to acquire, train and equip Ukraine with the tanks which are complex to operate. Ukrainian forces are already training on a number of new and advanced systems. That list includes training on Patriot missiles, UK-made Challenger 2 tanks, M109 howitzers and more, as well as the combined arms training that recently began in Germany.
Tanks represent the most powerful direct offensive weapon provided to Ukraine so far, a heavily armed system designed to meet the enemy head on instead of firing from a distance. If used properly with the necessary training, they could allow Ukraine to retake territory against Russian forces that have had time to dig defensive lines. The US has begun supplying refurbished Soviet-era T-72 tanks, but modern western tanks are a generation ahead in terms of their ability to target enemy positions.
Pentagon and White House officials have denied that the risk of escalation with Russia has had anything to do with the US decision to delay a decision on sending the tanks. Rather, the concern has been how difficult it would be for Ukrainian forces to operate and maintain the Abrams tank and whether it would be effective on the battlefield in Ukraine.
As one well known pundit was saying just yesterday, and he’s a military man. The Abrams tank is full of shit. He didn’t quite say that, but that’s what he meant.
Powered by a turbofan engine that just hovers up the crap, and breaks down, and requires a lot maintenance.
This might be fine when you’re fighting a fake war against a none existent enemy, such as Iraq, where most of the Abrams lost were due to friendly fire……
The logistics of recovering a 57 ton tank from the battlefield and then moving it hundreds of kilometres to be serviced/fixed.
I think I heard someone say it takes 6 to 12 months to have a competent tank crew, so they’ll be manned by NATO mercenaries. A transfer from the military and into a private army.
And then there’s the very nature of the beast. These are attack weapons. Tanks generally move forward.
America the duplicitous has strong-armed other nations into sending their tanks so they themselves might now come up with excuses not to send theirs. Their word is no good and they don’t seem the least bit fazed by that.
“US finalizing plans FOR ITS FUNERAL by sending Abrams tanks to Ukraine…”
– Fixed! 😂
Tiptoe towards WW3. The USA has a long logistics line, unlike Russia. When it really gets going ships will be sunk in the Atlantic. It looks as though the PTB thought Russia would buckle, under Ukrainian forces, which have had seven years of beefing up, and preparation. Well that didn’t work, so as in WW2, USA to the ” rescue. ” I’m not sure Americans want this war. You might have sent your sons off to Iwo Jima or Normandy, but this is a whole different kettle of fish. And on top of that, you’ve turned your youth into couch potatoes. Grandad in 1941 was a tough cookie, with true values of The Republic, and faced the Japanese and Germans with courage and steel. Yes you still have an element of that, of course, but as for training a new conscript army? Good luck! Nuclear won’t happen, because the PTB who have subverted the once great USA, don’t want to inherit an aftermath country. BTW all this applies to my country the UK. The demobbed Brit in 1945 (which included my father and father-in-law ) has been replaced by a custard cream generation currently. They couldn’t fight pussy cats. My prayer is that we may restore our country’s true values, create peace and trade with Russia……we have the technology and they have the resources. And in the meantime sort out those who have subverted, and deal with them appropriately.
This is another pivotal event in the road to nuclear war.
All tanks are easily destroyed, it doesn’t matter how fancy, modern, fast,tons, gun size, etc. the missiles are faster and more deadly than ever
Drones will spot them, satellites will track them, missiles will blow them to pieces
the crew inside will be turned into charcoal
There was a clip recently at Hal Turner Radio Show showing an Abrams tank that couldn’t ascend a
an ice covered slope, the tank couldn’t move even 6 feet from the start of the incline and the thing is selling for millions of dollars.
But these tanks will be sold as scrap iron faster than the steel at the Twin Towers was sold.
https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/en/
World War 6 thousand, Jews against humans every time