washington : The M1 Abrams tank is one of the most powerful ground weapons in the US arsenal, capable of closing in on enemy tanks, troop positions and other targets, blasting them with its cannon and machine guns, and then speeding away Is.
The tank’s heavy armor protects the vehicle and its four-man crew from small arms fire, shell fragments and even some direct hits. It can wade water up to four feet deep.
The first sentence of a 2019 training document for Army and Marine Corps tank commanders reads, “The fundamental mission of a tank platoon is to close in on and destroy the enemy.”
The Biden administration could announce as soon as Wednesday that it will send dozens of Abrams to Ukraine to help Kyiv’s forces retake the territory from Russia.
Named after World War II tank commander General Creighton Abrams, the first Abrams entered service with the US Army in 1980. Initially intended to fight the Soviet Union in Germany’s strategic Fulda Gap, the Abrams has been updated several times with a larger gun and improvements to its armour, transmission and drivetrain. Over the years, the Pentagon has purchased more than 7,000 tanks in various configurations, according to the Congressional Research Service, a research arm of the Library of Congress.
According to a 1992 report by the Government Accountability Office, the Abrams first saw action in the Gulf War, where it won widespread acclaim from commanders, crew and maintenance crews for its firepower and toughness and speed in the face of enemy fire.
The tanks helped the US military overcome Iraqi forces during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and supported raids and other operations in Fallujah and elsewhere. According to an article in the Army journal Military Review, the tanks also served in Afghanistan, where a Marine Corps armored company was deployed in 2011 and only one was wounded in action during its tour, despite suffering 19 IED attacks. .
But throughout its service, soldiers and war planners have been concerned about the tank’s heavy fuel consumption and limited range, and the long logistics and maintenance train required to combat the Abrams. Those, along with other factors, made the Pentagon reluctant to send tanks to Ukraine.
A battalion of 58 tanks requires dozens of support vehicles and hundreds of soldiers to keep it operational—a formula known in military circles as the tooth-to-tail ratio. These may include armored ambulances, command vehicles, maintenance trucks, and trucks towing disabled tanks. Trucks have to carry fuel, ammunition, lubricants, engine oil, hydraulic fluid and extremely heavy spare parts.
“Everything related to tanks is heavy,” said Dan Grazier, a former Marine Corps tank officer.
Despite all this, a tank battalion could operate in the field for only two or three days without supplies from a logistics battalion, said Mr. Grazier, who is now a researcher at the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan think tank. There is a tank.
“If we gave the Ukrainians tanks and we didn’t give them everything they need to support them logistically, we would hardly be doing them any favors,” he said. It’s going on.”