The US will deliver Abrams tanks to Ukraine much faster than originally promised
However, it will be an older model
The United States will significantly reduce the time needed to deliver Abrams tanks to Ukraine by sending older M1-A1 models of America's main battle tank instead of a more modern version.
Source. CNN writes about this with reference to two American officials.
This will allow the tanks to arrive in Ukraine this fall, while the previous schedule required at least a year for such delivery.
National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said that the United States is working to speed up the delivery of tanks to Ukraine.
"We are working on it. There are some changes you can make to the process to speed it up," – Kirby said. – "The Pentagon is working as fast as it can.
The US had previously announced that it would send a more modern version of the M1-A2 Abrams battle tank, but this required building new tanks, or upgrading existing older tanks, and then training Ukrainian crews on the more advanced system. The M1-A2 has a new digital guidance system that makes it a more capable tank, but also more difficult to operate and maintain.
The United States will send 31 M1-A1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, the same number as previously announced. This is enough for a full Ukrainian tank battalion.
Earlier, the US warned that the delivery of tanks to Ukraine would take time. "We simply do not have excess stocks of these tanks in the United States," said Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh.
In the coming weeks, a number of other countries are ready to send Western tanks to Ukraine. Last week, Germany said that Ukrainian crews had almost completed training on Leopard 2 tanks and could soon send them to Ukraine.
On Monday, Norway announced that it had delivered Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, and Spain said that Ukrainian crews would complete training on Leopard 2A4 tanks this week. The UK said it intends to send its Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine by the end of March.
Background. It also became known that Patriot missile defense systems will be deployed in Ukraine faster than originally planned, and a group of 65 Ukrainian soldiers in the United States will complete their Patriot training in the coming days.
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