The first batch of Abrams tanks that the US is providing Ukraine was authorized for shipment over the weekend and is expected to arrive in the country in early fall, the US Army’s top acquisition official said Monday.
“The last of the set was officially accepted by the US government or the production facility over the weekend. So they are done,” said Army Acquisition Chief Doug Bush, according to The War Zone.
The US will be providing Ukraine with 31 refurbished M1A1 Abrams, an older variant of the tank. The US initially said it would send the newer M1A2 Abrams, but the Pentagon decided to speed up the plan by sending older tanks. The M1A2s needed to be manufactured and would have taken years to deliver.
Bush said that while the tanks are ready, it will still take time to deliver them and send necessary related equipment, which includes “ammunition, spare parts, fuel equipment, repair facilities.”
The Wall Street Journal reported in July that the US is expected to arm the Abrams it sends to Ukraine with depleted uranium rounds, a toxic ammunition that’s linked to cancer, birth defects, and environmental damage, especially in Iraq, where US forces used an enormous number of the controversial munitions.
When asked about the possibility of sending depleted uranium to Ukraine, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said Monday that he had nothing to announce. “I don’t have anything to provide, no announcements to make regarding any type of tank ammunition at this point,” he said.
The UK has provided Ukraine with depleted uranium ammunition for its British-made Challenger 2 tanks. Russian President Vladimir Putin said his decision to deploy nuclear weapons to Belarus was a response to Britain giving Ukraine depleted uranium.
It has been reported that Russia throughput of tanks is around 120 per month between new manufacture and refurbishment.
If the war is still hot by the time those few tanks arrive they won’t help that failing army going against Russia’s factories churning them out in those numbers.
Russia is dugged in behind 3 distinct lines of defense waiting for them to stop fighting. Ukraine has not even come close to breaching those lines.
A few tanks, not going against goat herders, will be stopped before they breach anything. They sure are giving Russia a great-heads up to prepare both established ways to deal with them plus the opportunity to practice new ones.
‘It has been reported that Russia throughput of tanks is around 120 per month between new manufacture and refurbishment.’
And the museum ones they’ve been deploying.
Yes some of that figure includes old tank being updated, battlefield damaged and new production.
However Donny, their losses are less than that and the buildup in numbers is outpacing what Ukraine is able to do.
Those folks are cannon fodder.
Aren’t 400,000 dead Ukrainians with 60,000 amputees enough for you?
400,000 dead? Wow, Ukraine is then fighting the mighty Russian Army with 300 guys left. That’s admirable.
Don’t forget the other hundred of thousands of Russian dead/cannon fodders fighting Putin’s personal war.
What are your numbers?
Do you believe with 60,000 amputees there are not much greater numbers of dead?
What are your hard numbers?
Or are you just doing you usual mocking without any real knowledge/facts to back you up? Put up your numbers Donny or should we just laugh at your “silly post of the day” like we always do?
There’s a missing number that might allow a back-of-the-envelope calculation: What percentage of wounded the amputees constitute.
In recent years, the wounded to killed ratio in combat between modern regimes has run from 10 wounded to each 1 killed at the low end, 17:1 at the high end.
Reuters is reporting 345,000 dead total using official US estimates which are total BS.
Unofficial but leaked Ukrainian numbers have it pushing 300,000 on their side but that’s believed to be low balled.
Neither of those work with the old formulas from past wars you shared but nice try.
Formulas rarely are something useful without updating them btw (just trying to be helpful;-)
How the F that’s even possible? Ukraine had 250K soldiers at the beginning of the war.
They would have no soldiers left according to you math.
Think.
Still disputing without your own numbers.
People would respect you more if you at least tried to back up your nonsence Donny.
Try again.
I have a source, BTW; find one of yours.
You are just being a Donny without one.
I do not want to interrupt your day but what did that crazy fake Russian kid do now?
I got a notice that I was mentioned by him in a reply by him and it began with a mention of bigot sites but you click to view and it goes to a strange page about censoring or something.
Somehow he’s decided that because I don’t call him a commie like some child would, I’m his buddy like this is a clubhouse…lol.
Oh lordy…sing with me (Beatles) All the lonely people…..lol.
First of all that kid is not Russian I bet because he slips into and out of his “russian” talk into sounding like someone from suburbia.
Second, his “scholarship” even if he was Russian is something else. More Russianphile stuff from a fanboy it really seems at times. Real Russians do not usually declare they are so constantly it seems to me.
Whatever he did, it ain’t me.
AND
Whatever they pay you ain’t enough.
If you’re referring to “Иван,” my recollection is that in the past he’s said he’s an American. Mid-Atlantic region, IIRC, but I could be wrong on that.
As to what he’s up to now, it changes by the minute, but usually involves a fantasy that anything Russian is not just superior to anything American, but SO superior that Russians can do anything they want with total impunity because no one could stop them or even inconvenience them, if only they had a leader with the guts to pull the trigger.
I certainly wouldn’t take him as representative of Russians, even if he was one. Most Russians I’ve known have been both intelligent and realistic, although there’s presumably selection bias involved (IRL, the Russians I’ve known have been immigrants, usually scrapping their way up the small business ownership ladder in the US, rather than, say, janitors still living in Neryungri). And the Russian leadership obviously doesn’t share Иван’s idiotic ideas.
Piont blank questions to him and he’s obfuscating…
He’s either “special” (my social worker within me is speaking) but given he’s slipped out of character (and even seemed to be a bit more intelligent out of the Russian role he was playing) in some of his recent exchanges with me and the amount of posts his profile has, we may have a very low level paid troll here but then his posts are so comical at times it might be they want to make Russians to look ridiculous.
But either way with close to 100,000 posts it means “special” in that short bus way or he’s getting paid albeit likely not well.
I knew he was not Russian but some kid with a lot of posters on his wall.
But that post made me curious because I was mentioned but you could not follow it to “view” However it was in his feed and it reads like he was sharing the post you deleted to someone and my name got included in the paste hence why I got the notice.
The blog is something about censorship but the post was deleted and replaced with the word “censor”
Curious to say the least. Another post was “censored” too but 3, 9-month old posts weren’t and they had a few comments.
Those comments were short and business like with lists of email address obviously Discus accounts they were running.
This “blog” was a means for trolls to communicate and this guy posted a comment to someonexexplaining what is going on here with him and Tommy.
You need to go to his feed and follow that comment ( you should as a mod have IP lookup abilities) and view those other folks comments. It’s a strange obscure blog with very suspicious activity
You asked, I answered. Simple as that. No need to get your panties in a twist.
What is that blog? A blog about censorship but the post my name was mention in was replaced with “censored”
strange….
There were 3 other 9 month old posts on that site and their comments were from trolls exchanging long lists of Discus emails. Why did you report your exchange there about here then delete it?
Why are the other people on that site trolls exchanging lists of Discuss accounts?
We know you are not Russian.
Do you get paid to post?
Yes or No?
My numbers? You better ask for your numbers? 400K dead. What’s your source? Perhaps you are counting Ukrainian civilians.
The number of Russian KIAs provided by Ukraine are at least backed by thousands and thousands of videos as they record almost all of their attacks on Russian positions.
Now, how many Russians were inside this truck, that tank, or building?, that has to be estimated.
The Kremlin numbers on the other hand… well, they just make sh!t up as always, and boy do they like to exaggerate spectacularly.
Numbers Donny, where are you numbers disputing mine?
Damn you are being a fool like always but that’s why I like you.
Which museum do you live in, DJ?
Stalin new how to deal with German tanks he said i can afford to lose 12 tank to their one this was the battle of Kursk the greatest tank battle of WW2 German tank divisions where wiped out , Putin will have the same mind set .
There’s a lot of talk about tanks, and I have to wonder whether either side really believes they’re still viable, or whether it’s just propaganda.
The numbers I’d find more interesting, but that I’m not seeing much mention of, are the numbers of anti-tank weapons.
It’s silly political circus, nothing more. Pentagon knows that their junk is inferior to Leopards and don’t want to be humiliated and lose any remaining idiots who buy that useless junk.
Pentagon argument that M1 is just too heavy and wont be effective with all that heavy armor. It will simply get stuck in the mud. But Washington propaganda is twisting a valid military argument and pretending that their armor is classified tech.
I’m hard of learning, but from learning anything Biden says, the tanks are probably already there. (Sarcasm)
Yep and the Russian military will wipe them out while they are in storage , they have all ready taken out UK missiles ect before they can be used .
“US Approves First Batch of M1A1 Abrams Tanks for Shipment to Ukraine – The tanks are expected to arrive in the fall and might be armed with depleted uranium rounds”
Now American tanks can burn on the steppes of Russia.
The Biden administration announced plans to send hundreds of thousands of cluster bombs to Ukraine in early July, with the munitions, which can be fired from howitzers, expected to assist the Ukrainian military
in its flagging counteroffensive.
The offensive operations have reportedly cost over
43,000 Ukrainian servicemen’s lives, and more than 4,900 pieces of military equipment, including 1830+ tanks and other armored vehicles – up to 20 percent of Ukraine’s pre-counteroffensive inventories.
“Now American tanks can burn on the steppes of Russia.”
Do you really expect the Ukrainian forces to be conducting armor operations in Russia itself?
Eastern Ukraine is New Russia. So yes American tanks will burn in New Russia or Eastern Ukraine.
So you expect the Russian war effort to to remain bogged down in eastern Ukraine / “new Russia” rather than moving west? Interesting.
Russia is not interested in owning a dissident population in Western Ukraine. They may take Odessa and the areas up to the Dnieper River, but that is all.
However, If the remaining Polish Lithuanian Ukrainians keep attacking Russia may go all the way to the Polish border.
If the US continues to bring the war to the Russians yes.
Longer supply lines for the US side, shorter ones for Russia.
They fight US tanks in terrain favorable to them where they have prepared trenches to back them up, or they fight the battle closer to US strongholds.
US and NATO have lots and lots of weapons, ammunition, and mercenaries that can be supplied to the conflict if the US releases gear from the main US stock. (the US can, right?) The conflict will not end anytime soon.
When the autumn rains come to Ukraine heavy tanks will be useless as they sink into the mud. It’s as simple as that.
I heard they’re learning to swim. (Sarcasm)
I can pretty much sense the responses in my bones from my “Polish neighbor” just as soon as you post anything, Critical Thinker! He can’t help himself from reminding us how stupid the Russians are. He already forgot it took us 20 years to soundly defeat the Taliban, except we didn’t. Thanks a lot. Good morning, buddy! LOL. (Sarcasm)
Why the wait? Because we are praying that the war will end before Russia parades destroyed Abrams tanks to the world.
Yes, maybe. After last 9 May when they paraded just one tiny WWI tank, they’ll need all the wreckage they can get. Lol.
Stick Biden, Nuland, and Blinken in the lead tank…
Who will be the loader? Kamala or mr.Obama? That Pentagon trash needs a 4 person crew.
In the fall those tanks won’t have so far to travel once they cross the border.
Once the Ukrainian “counter-offensive” so-called runs out of steam, the odds are very high Russia will begin an immediate offensive operation to trap the bulk of the Ukrainian Army on the east side of the Dneiper River. From my POV, this is the only rational reason Russia has left any bridges spanning the Dneiper River to date. I suspect if or when those Dneiper River bridges are destroyed with (hypersonic ?) missiles coupled to non-nuclear EMP air bursts over Kiev, it will signal the beginning of the Russian operation. According to Colonel MacGregor, the new Russian offensive will pour through Belarus from the north and up through Odessa from the south. The Russians must go behind or around Ukraine’s own lines of defense.
Hopefully, the Ukrainians will come to their senses soon and negotiate a settlement with the Russian Federation to end this American / NATO caused proxy war.
We’ve seen M1’s burn in the desert two decades ago, and there’s no reason to think those same models won’t burn in the Ukraine when facing more modern weapons and in those in far greater numbers than they faced when up against Iraq. The world-class Leopard 2’s from Germany- easily the M1’s equal- haven’t fared well with most of those wrecked or captured. The UK’s Challengers won’t fare any better when or if they are committed. I was a part-time loader and driver on M1a1’s in Germany, and I can tell you the few weeks the Ukrainians have to train on them are not nearly enough. It’s easy to learn how the tank works, but a far different thing to properly employ them as a team- and without air superiority, the best thing those crews can look forward to is being captured. (God help them if one of them needs maintenance- it’s hard enough to repair them in peacetime with plenty of spares on hand, but in a hot zone with mechanics unfamiliar with the things? Please.)