The Armed Forces of Ukraine are using a bunch of different types of Western tanks. Those include German Leopard 1 and 2 tanks, British Challenger 2 and, of course, at least 31 M1A1 Abrams tanks. All of these tanks have certain peculiarities about them and crews have to be prepared for each of these types individually. However, the Abrams main battle tank may pose the most serious problems.
Ukraine absolutely needs main battle tanks. The more the better. And the more advanced the better. However, the West lived in peace for so long that the tank reserves are not that great. NATO countries don’t have that many tanks to spare actually.
On top of that, the choices of which tanks to supply need to be made in a smart way, because Ukraine does not have any experience with the Western-designed tanks, there is no servicing or ammo supply infrastructure there.
M1 Abrams tanks are special in many ways. They also require special care. Image credit: Oregon National Guard via Wikimedia
And now the Ukrainian Ground Forces have a mish-mash of tanks, which have their own peculiarities:
- The Leopard 1A5 is not only the oldest in its architecture, but also has a rifled 105 mm gun. This means that it needs special ammunition, which is not common in NATO anymore.
- The Leopard 2s are the most standard, but Ukraine is getting a bunch of different versions of this tank, including 2A4s, 2A5s, 2A5s (Stridsvagn 122) and 2A6s. There are differences between these versions that need to be learned in training.
- The Challenger 2 is of the same era as the Leopard 2, but it uses a rifled 120 mm gun, which also required special ammunition.
- Finally, the M1A1 Abrams can share ammo with the Leopard 2, but has a multi-fuel turbine engine, instead of a regular reciprocating engine with cylinders and pistons.
Abrams tanks can burn any fuel – diesel, petrol, vodka, doesn’t matter. They are powerful and resilient. However, these gas turbine engines do need a lot of care.
Forbes writes that despite the engines in the Abrams tanks costing an unbelievable amount of money, they can succumb to dust and debris if the crews don’t maintain the filters very well. This is something crews learn during long months of training, but the Ukrainian tankmen had to learn this very quickly.
If the tank filters are not cleaned every 12 hours or so, the damage can be so severe that the engine and possibly the transmission will need to be replaced. Obviously, in a battlefield that could bring the tank to a tragic ending.
How do you clean the filters? Ukrainian Abrams crews will have to rev the tank’s engine to redline twice a day to start the pulse-jet system and blow air through the filters clearing out the dust and debris.
Power unit of the Abrams tank out of the hull. Image credit: Lance Cpl. Zachery Laning via Wikimedia
Even with the filters being kept up to, the Arbams will cause some issues to the Ukrainian Ground Forces. These tanks use a lot of fuel and require deep maintenance, which will have to be performed in Poland. Getting them there will not be easy either, because the Abrams is rather heavy at over 62 tonnes.
However, the effectiveness of the main battle tank mostly depends on the tactics. And if the defenders of Ukraine manage to exploit the strong sides of the Abrams well, these tanks will do a lot of damage to the Russian invaders.
Written by Povilas M.