What types of Main battle tanks and IFVs supply to Ukraine?

During a briefing at the Pentagon, representatives from the US Department of Defense explained how discussions about providing tanks and infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine were ongoing. In fact, a few days ago, several media outlets shared information that Washington was considering the supply of heavy armored vehicles to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

In particular, the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung issued this information. The newspaper said the equipment in question was none other than Abrams himself, and also asked allies to evaluate the possibility of strengthening the AFU with German-made Leopard 2 tanks.
The Pentagon responded to a request to confirm this information as follows:

“Ukraine showed that they were quite effective on the counter-attack by using armor as part of their counter-attack. So, obviously, such abilities are important. But we don't have any specific plans about special abilities. at this point for medium to long term thinking about the actual provisioning program."

Thus, discussions about whether to provide tanks such as the Abrams and Leopard 2, as well as IFVs, in particular the American M2 Bradley, are at the same stage as the fighter jets. In other words, it is objectively impossible to say Ukraine will receive Western heavy armored vehicles any time soon. At the same time, the transition from securing the current short term to the current medium term perspective could be quite rapid. On many levels, Ukraine is now struggling to get three types of weapons from its allies: long-range missiles, fighter jets, and heavily armored vehicles. Regarding the latter, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal immediately asked the West to provide Abrams and Leopard 2.

But given the current composition of the armed forces in the allied countries, the only realistic source of a sufficient number of tanks is the United States. According to Military Balance, the US Army has a stockpile of 3,700 Abrams M1A1/A2 tanks.

In this case, we must consider that even after a positive decision on their supply, it will take time to remove them from the reservation. In particular, for Poland, the deadline for receiving 116 Abrams M1A1 SA under the “ring exchange” agreement – ​​as compensation for the T-72 and PT-91 provided to Ukraine – is about one year.

source: https://en.defence-ua.com/news/pentagon_explained_when_ukraine_will_receive_western_abrams_and_leopard_2_tanks-4214.html

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