Ukraine’s M-1 Abrams tanks - ‘situational awareness’ models

Ukraine’s American-made M-1 Abrams tanks apparently began rolling toward the front line in Ukraine earlier this month. A photo that circulated online on Nov. 6 seems to depict an M-1 staging somewhere in eastern Ukraine.

A second, more recent photo purporting to depict a Ukrainian M-1 is harder to verify as authentic. In any event, the M-1s in the photos should be Situational Awareness models of the classic, four-person Abrams tank, according to Forbes.

The M-1A1FEP and M-1A1SA actually aren’t all that different. They both have the same 120-millimeter smoothbore main gun that arms all M-1A1s and A2s, as well as fast and accurate fire-controls, digital maps displaying the Blue Force Tracker battlefield network and far-target locators that can help the crew to spot faraway targets for artillery.

What the M-1A1 models lack, compared to the newer A2s, is the latter tanks’ digital architecture, datalink for programmable ammunition and pair of third-generation thermal sights: one each for the gunner and commander. The A1s have just one full thermal sight—an older second-gen model for the gunner.

In US service, the A2s also have the latest depleted-uranium armor. The A1s also have uranium armor, albeit an older type, but US policy requires General Dynamics to remove the uranium and replace it with tungsten before the tanks ship to a foreign operator.

It’s not clear how much more protection uranium offers compared to tungsten; in any case, the M-1 is one of the world’s best-protected tanks. Its gun is powerful out to a range of thousands of yards. Its optics and fire-controls are world-class. Its turbine engine can burn a wide array of fuels and push the tank to a top speed of 42 miles per hour.

Ukraine’s first 31 M-1s are enough to equip one battalion in one brigade in an army that has a hundred brigades. So far, they’re a niche capability. The Ukrainian military has more than 50 surviving German-made Leopard 2s and also has received the first couple dozen of nearly 200 Leopard 1s. And even these Western tanks are outnumbered by Ukraine’s thousand or so Soviet-style T-64s, T-72s and T-80s.

But with time and political will, Ukraine could get a lot more M-1s. Any old M-1 hull—the US Army has around 3,000 in storage—can become an M-1A1SA. Army technicians select an old M-1 from the sprawling vehicle park at Anniston Army Depot in Alabama, recondition its automotive systems and ship it off to Lima, where General Dynamics swaps out its armor and installs new subsystems.

The whole process can take between six and nine months. It took Morocco four years to get all 222 M-1A1SAs it ordered in 2016.

However, if the starting point is a recently-active M-1A1—say, some ex-US Army National Guard tank—the preparations for export should go faster. All General Dynamics would need to do in that case is open up the hull and turret, remove the uranium armor and replace it with tungsten armor.

It’s entirely possible the Biden Administration has gotten ahead of the curve on a future M-1 pledge to Ukraine by quietly directing the Army to funnel additional tanks into the upgrade pipeline. Actually completing a second transfer of M-1s might be contingent on Congressional funding, however.

If and when that happens, don’t be shocked if the White House doesn’t actually announce it. It’s worth noting that the United States recently gave Ukraine Assault Breacher engineering vehicles without ever announcing the transfer. Sweden also has donated armored vehicles without making the transfer public.

More and more, Ukraine’s allies are donating weapons to the war effort without making a big show of it. The first evidence of a second batch of donated M-1s might be a photo of the tanks arriving in Ukraine sometime next year.