Military columnist David Ax, in his column for The Telegraph, raises an important question about the 59 Abrams tanks that are stored in the warehouses of the Australian army. These combat vehicles could significantly strengthen the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the conditions of an ongoing war, but their transfer is delayed due to political fears that have no logical basis.
Australia has old tanks that it no longer uses. Ukraine wants to receive them.
So what prevents Canberra from sending these 59 surplus M-1 "Abrams" to Kyiv?
Politics, of course. But, if the Australians can muster the will to donate their M-1s, and the Americans can find the strength to approve the deal, it is clear that exactly what the Ukrainians will do with them - strengthen the group of 31 surviving former American M-1s transferred to Ukraine in the past year
The rapidly developing Australian Army acquired its M-1A1s in 2004 to replace older German-made tanks. In July of this year, it decommissioned the M-1A1, never using them in combat, and began to replace them with newer American-made M-1A2s.
Old M-1A1 are in storage. Ukrainian officials have been interested in them since at least February. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the government in Canberra is increasingly expressing a willingness to hand them over.
"The government is considering the request and is working with the US to make the transfer possible," the paper said last week.
A lot can go wrong. Senior Australian officials could veto the transfer over fears of escalating tensions between Australia and Russia. The United States has an export license for the tanks and can reject the proposed transfer on the same grounds. Much less, but it is also likely that Ukrainian officials can inspect the tanks, which are decades old, and politely refuse the transfer.
The most likely obstacles are political factors in Canberra and Washington, but there may also be small logistical problems. Although the Australian and Ukrainian M-1 tanks share the same basic model—the 67-ton four-seater export version of the M-1A1 Situational Awareness with tungsten and steel armor, digital fire control and a 120 mm smoothbore main gun—the Australian and ex-US tanks have somewhat different equipment, which Ukrainians will have to deal with. The U.S. Army has also developed additional armor kits for its M-1s and will likely want to install them on all additional Abrams.
If all goes well for the Ukrainians and they get these 59 tanks, they will almost certainly send many of them to the 47th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Army. The 47th Brigade is the main operator of American-made armored vehicles — and the only operator of Ukrainian M-1s.
The 47th brigade is a powerful unit. That is why the Ukrainian General Staff kept it in combat without a break for 15 months — a long time for any formation. When Ukrainian forces launched their ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful counteroffensive in southern Ukraine in June 2023, the 47th Brigade was in the vanguard — and suffered heavy casualties, mired in thick minefields.
