The Secretary of Defence of the United States, Lloyd Austin, announced that Ukraine would get Abrams tanks at the beginning of Autumn. This will coincide with completing training programmes for the Ukrainian military on operating the tanks.
The United States is using every possible effort to hasten the delivery of these tanks; the beginning of October is a projection at this point. In preparation for the Ukrainians to begin training, multiple tanks were deployed to the training ground. According to a report from Voice of America, the United States Secretary of Defence announced on Thursday during a hearing in the Senate that the tanks will be operational once the exercise has come to a close.
On January 25, 2023, President Joe Biden announced that the United States would provide Ukraine with 31 M1 Abrams tanks. This announcement was made on January 25, 2023. That is the amount required to outfit a tank battalion in Ukraine completely.
Austin gave this explanation in response to whether or not it is possible to speed up the delivery of the 31st M1 Abrams tank to Ukraine. He stated that the timing is because the United States military is not only sending these tanks to Ukraine and preparing them to work on them, but they are also creating an infrastructure to support the operation of these tanks, which are new equipment for the Ukrainian military.
This machinery is easily distinguishable from similar ones because of its turbine engine and other relatively complicated features. On the other hand, the United States is trying to speed up the process of delivering this equipment to the Ukrainians. Austin has assured everyone they will have everything ready by the beginning of October.
The M1A2 variant of the Abrams battle tank was intended to be sent. However, that would have necessitated the construction of brand-new vehicles or the modernisation of older vehicles before training Ukrainian personnel on the more advanced system.
CNN reported on March 21 that, according to two US officials, the United States would expedite the shipment of Abrams tanks to Ukraine by delivering older M1-A1 versions of the main battle tank rather than the most recent version. One of the officials stated that the new plan would enable the tanks to arrive as early as the fall of this year, shaving months off the original schedule that could have taken a year or more.
