The M1 Abrams tanks that Washington recently promised to Ukraine might end up being a liability rather than a boost to Kiev’s war effort, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. Such a view is explained by the armor’s overcomplicated logistics and maintenance needs.
The 70-tonne tank has a gas turbine engine, which allows it greater acceleration than a diesel engine but requires meticulous maintenance and consumes larger amounts of fuel, the FT explained.
The paper cited former US Army platoon commander John Nagl, who said his soldiers “spent a whole lot of time literally banging our air filters” during the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 US invasion of Iraq amid “big concerns” about the tank engine “ingesting sand and not working.”
Maintaining the combat readiness of the Abrams tanks would require “completely different types of machinery” relative to other Western-designed tanks promised to Kiev, as well as crews trained for special gadgets, the FT highlighted. The mechanics crews for the tanks would also take longer to train, the paper reported.
The tanks will need a steady supply of spare parts and have their “500-gallon tank refilled every day” with jet fuel given that it cannot run on diesel, it added.