WASHINGTON — The United States will send M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine far more quickly than expected, with a number of them now scheduled to arrive later this year, the Pentagon said in a briefing to reporters.
The tanks will come from the U.S. military’s existing inventory of older M1A1 Abrams and will be renovated before shipment to Kyiv, which is expected to take several months. The U.S. military announced in January that Ukraine would receive approximately 30 newer M1A2 Abrams tanks, but they were expected to take a year or more to be made and delivered.
The new plan will take excess M1A1 tank “hulls” and refit and refurbish them in order to make them ready on a quicker timeline for Ukraine, Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said on Tuesday afternoon, noting that the plan came from an Army study that had analyzed different ways to get American tanks to Ukraine even faster.
“Based on that further study and analysis, this is the approach that we landed on, that we feel confident will get these tanks to them by the fall time frame,” General Ryder said.
The Abrams will give the Ukrainians a “significant main battle tank capability on the battlefield,” he added, and said that Ukrainian soldiers will receive all necessary training on them before their delivery.
