No Spares for Ukraine
Abrams Graveyard
Joe’s Handlers nearly met themselves, reversing course on sending US Main Battle Tanks to Ukraine. The Ukes have been pleading for them for months. Something caused a sea change in what passes for foreign policy in this Administration, and the slow drip of escalation moves ahead. There’s a problem, though.
US to buy new Abrams tanks for Ukraine because military has no spares, Pentagon says
By DOUG G. WARE | STARS AND STRIPES
New Abrams tanks will be purchased by the U.S. to supply to Ukraine because the Defense Department doesn’t have any spares, delaying the shipment as Ukrainian forces prepare for an expected Russian offensive, a Pentagon spokeswoman said Thursday.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recommended to President Joe Biden to obtain the tanks through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative — a funding program that procures military equipment from industry rather than from existing Defense Department stocks, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said.
“We just don’t have these tanks available in excess in our U.S. stocks,” she told reporters at the Pentagon.
Singh also said Ukraine will get 31 modified M1A2s Abrams, which is the newest and most sophisticated version of the tank that first entered service in the early 1990s.
Allow me. It’s prohibitively expensive to rehab existing hulls to the M1A2 configuration so taxpayers will buy them new ones. What a great idea. China is already clearing out a spot in the garage.
Category: Big Pentagon, Dick Stepping, Foreign Policy, Ukraine
Plus the ammo, JP8, a basic Class IX PLL starter pack, etc.
Don’t forget the complimentary “misplaced” classified documents!
Free with every Class II item! Act now, operators are standing by!
Got a buddy couple towns over owns a huge junk yard and he
has just about anything that moves or used to move.
Bet he would give a good price for those Abrams hulks.
Not sure but I think his brother in law has a tractor and a
low boy that could take them one at at time.
Ten percent to the big guy of course.
Of course they have to be new off the shelf. How else is the Big Guy going to get his 10%? And, of course, nothing but the best to be diverted to sniffy’s buddy Xi…and Hitlery’s buddy Pootin. I’m sure that both parties already have the full specs, but, as AW1Ed points out, nothing like having the latest model sitting in the garage, low mileage and never titled.
A shipmate of mine said, “Hey, no fair! If the Russians get brand new American gear off the Taliban we want new stuff too!”
If they really need then, send them the M-1’s and while your at a few M-60A3s.
There should be about 60 or so from the former Marine Corps inventory.
More like 240 plus if they were going by Old T/O & E. 4 Battalions of 4 companies each, about 15 per Company Plus Command and Recovery Vehicles.
Can we please decorate some trees and lamposts with these shit heads?
I’ve heard there are plenty of nice lamp posts up and down Pennsylvania Avenue.
So even if we send them over now, they won’t be in service until later this year. Someone who was a tanker, how long does it take to train up a crew? How long does it take to train a mechanic? Better option is to keep getting older T-72 and T-62s from some of the former Warsaw Pact. The Ukies already have training and experience on them. Sending them western armor is a waste of time. The MSM is not talking about training, spare parts, ammunition and recovery vehicles.
Jack, The AIT (Advanced Individual Training) for MOS 91A (M1 Abrams Tank Mechanic) is 24 weeks long.
If the reports are to be believed, the Ukrainians have captured more armor than they’ve lost – to include a few T-90s…
The Abrams, Challenger 2, and Leopard 2 are all objectively better models than the Soviets’, but the Ukies are reportedly doing fine with the gear they already know and should have a surplus of them.
Gonna be a serious job to remove all the DU slabs from the turrets.
I guess the plan is to send them out after the war now. I figured Joe would get cold feet. That is normally what happens when he gets scared.
Logisticide looms.
Give them one western tank, preferably more of one they already have. Push that one hard.
Now, upgunng a buddy to m-1, so they can flush compatible stuff to Ukraine makes more sense. Poland trading Leopard-2 and Soviet stuff for Abrams is a better move. The Poles have the time, and the logistical system, to make good use top-flight toys. And they are a very credible blocking force to deter any westward fantasies of Vlad.
You gotta stop making sense, 11B. How will Joe and Hunter get their cuts if they don’t send the latest/greatest tanks available?
Especially since we are buying them new ones.
Where are all these old Abrams tanks at? Are they still there? Why not upgrade them to M1A2 standards?
💰
Granted, it would probably be cheaper to upgrade than to build new, but, hey, defense contractors gotta eat, too!
The army doesn’t buy new anymore. They do upgrade. It’s just extent of the upgrade but no new bills are fabricated.
That’s odd, I read a story yesterday that said the US has not made a completely new M1 since the 1990s, they just modify the hulls of existing ones…guess they were wrong. It was talking about putting diesel engines, which they have done in at least two variants (a US engine/transmission, and a German one) to date with testing. In both cases it was 40-60% better on fuel and repair parts, and at least equal on Hp and capability. Neither test talked about acceleration or noise.
That figgers…
Send them the new ones and leave our troops with the lousy stuff that has been through 3 separate wars and no doubt, plain worn out.
Why don’t we give them the stuff left over in Afghanistan ?
I’m sure the taliban would LOVE to get some cash for them…
I hate these fucks, I just hate them with every fiber of my being.
Fuck larsie-boi in the ass with a Claymore, vacuum up the pink mist and call it a day. I’m buying at the Willie’s Wet Spot otherwise known as the Choke and Puke !!!
“the Defense Department doesn’t have any spares”
Frankly, I don’t believe it.
This is probably a simplified (and unclassified) version of the truth.
The truth is, we want to deliver a capability, not just 31 pieces of equipment that will be non-mission capable within a month due to maintenance and ineffective in combat due to lack of training.
A capability has to be integrated across seven domains – Doctrine (how it will be used) Organization (an M-1 has a four man crew while most older Soviet/Russian tanks have a three man crew), Training (Soldiers gotta know how to use it), Materiel (not just the tank but ammo, parts, gas, recovery vehicles, etc), Leadership (Leaders gotta know how to employ it), Personnel (Gotta have Soldiers to operate it and fix it), and Facilities (Gotta have a motor pool with a lift, etc).
There is also the matter of getting older and exportable tanks up to operating standards…
Oh, and building new tanks keeps the factory in the black…