WashingtonThe United States is speeding up shipments of Abrams tanks to Ukraine, opting to send a refurbished older model that would be ready faster, in order to get the 70-ton behemoths to the battlefield in about eight to 10 months, they said officials told The Associated Press.
The original plan was to send 31 M1A2 Abrams tanks to the Ukraine, which would take a year or two. So officials decided to send the M1A1 version, which is older but can be taken out of Army reserves and is easier to train for Ukrainian forces.
The sources asked not to be named because the plan has not yet been publicly announced. The Pentagon is expected to make the announcement shortly.
The US government announced in January that it would send the tanks to Ukraine after insisting for months that they were too complex and too difficult to maintain and repair. The decision was part of a political maneuver that allowed Germany to announce that it would send its Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, and then Poland and other allies to say the same.
It is unclear how soon the US military will be able to start training the Ukrainians to use the tanks, and that timeline will affect when the vehicles can be deployed on battlefields. The Pentagon will also need to ensure that the Ukrainians have adequate stocks of spare parts so that they can continue to use the tanks.
On a visit to a tank factory in February, US Army Secretary Christine Wormuth held long meetings with officials there to determine the best options for getting the tanks to the Ukrainians.
“Part of this is determining, among several different options, which one is the best to get the tanks to the Ukrainians as soon as possible,” Wormuth said at the time.
Officials at the factory, which is owned by the Army but run by General Dynamics, said production can fluctuate based on demand. And while they are currently building 15-20 armored vehicles per month, including tanks, they can easily increase to 33 per month and could even add another shift for workers and build even more.
