Ukraine’s American tanks may not be as good in battle as we thought

The American Abrams M1A1 main battle tank is the most powerful vehicle currently on the frontlines in Ukraine, but these expensive and dangerous weapons might not be as good as was hoped if reports about their pitfalls are to be believed. 

According to the U.S. State Department, Washington has provided Kyiv with 31 Abrams M1A1 tanks, arriving at the end of September 2023. However, in the roughly year these tanks have been in Ukraine, they have not made a lot of headlines. 

There have been moments where images from the frontlines make their way onto the internet or social media, which fueled theories about how the tanks were being used by Ukraine, but there has not been a lot of publicity around the Abrams. 

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In April 2024, the Associated Press reported Ukraine pulled their Abrams tanks from the frontlines in part because drone warfare made it difficult to operate the tanks, according to comments from two unnamed U.S. officials, and that makes sense. 

An unnamed NATO official told Foreign Policy in April 2024 that as many as two-thirds of Russian tank losses in preceding months had been taken out with drones, a remark that was meant to highlight Ukraine’s artillery ammunition issues at the time. 

While the NATO official may have been trying to warn the world about the problems that Ukraine was facing, they also revealed how effective first-person view drones are on the modern battlefield when faced with knocking out enemy armor. 

When it comes to Ukraine's Abrams M1A1 tanks, the Dutch open intelligence firm Oryx has visually confirmed that Kyiv has lost at least 10 of the 31 tanks that were supplied to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, though how many were hit by drones is not known. 

We do know drones are as much of a problem for American-made tanks as they are for Russian-made tanks. A recent report from Business Insider revealed the weaknesses of the Abrams according to one Ukrainian Abrams commander. 

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Known only by his callsign Zakon, the Ukrainian Abrams tank commander is in charge of a single tank and its crew, and he explained that the M1A1 is vulnerable to a variety of things on the battlefield—but the threat from drones was a big one.

Photo Credit: Telegram @brygada47

Zakon told Business Insider that his tank had been targeted on several occasions, but one incident, in particular, could have been catastrophic if his tank had not been outfitted with new anti-drone armor and didn’t have its electronic warfare capabilities. 

Photo Credit: X @SteelFront_ENG

Abrams tanks were described as durable by Zakon, but he also explained that the tanks needed more protection—noting that crews would “be motivated to perform better when they know that there is this kind of protection.”

Photo Credit: X @SteelFront_ENG

"It's really, really important,” Zakon said according to Business Insider, which added that dynamic protection systems like the Abrams Reactive Armor Tile, ARAT-1, or the Soviet Kontakt-1 options were technology that helped the tanks deal with battlefield threats. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Gerhard Seuffert, Public Domain

"These are really well-trained people," Zakon explained about Ukrainian tank crews. "That's why we need to do everything possible to ensure that we have this kind of dynamic protection so that we can save lives."

It isn’t just drones that are cause for concern on the frontlines. Anti-tank missiles and rocket launchers are also a problem. Zakon said that the Abrams M1A1 is an “easy target” but it may not be these problems that prevented the Abrams from being useful. 

In a recent interview with Fox News Host Bret Baier at the Reagan Center during the 75th Anniversary of NATO, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Baier that he didn’t think Ukraine had enough M1A1s to deploy them effectively. 

“I'm not sure that such a number of tanks can change the situation on the battlefield,” the Ukrainian President said. So what role have Ukraine’s generals put the Abrams in? The tank is now mostly used to strengthen positions according to Business Insider.

Photo Credit: Telegram @brygada47

The Abrams M1A1 was made to lead armored breakthroughs, but even in their current role in Ukraine, they are performing well according to Zakon. The Abrams’ best feature is its speed and the tanks are inflicting damage on Russian forces. 

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Photo Credit: Telegram @brygada47