After almost 9 months waiting, the first batch of 49 M1A1 ABRAMS tanks, previously in service with the Australian Army (since 2007) and adapted to Ukrainian requirements, is arriving in Kiev. The transfer operations, involving perhaps around 30 tanks, began in the port of Geelong in Australia, and after weeks of travel, the vehicles landed in an unspecified European port, probably in Poland, from where they were transferred to Ukrainian territory.

After months of logistical and diplomatic preparations, the vehicles are part of an aid package from Canberra announced in October 2024, amounting to approximately 245 million Australian dollars (approximately 160 million US dollars, or 137.5 million euros), and relating to almost all of the M1A1s in service in Australia (which in fact had 59 in service), recently withdrawn in favour of more modern ABRAMS tanks compliant with the M1A2 SEPv3 standard.

The United States, on the other hand, has been careful not to replenish its small fleet (31) of ABRAMS tanks (M1A1 version, but the SA variant, different from the Australian AIM because of various “battleground management” devices and a thermal sight for the commander's machine gun) already donated to Kiev in the past, between September and December 2023, as part of the tranche of US military aid announced in January 2023 by the then Biden administration.

This fleet is now reduced to a bare minimum: updated data confirm that, in just over a year of service, almost all of the ABRAMS supplied by the United States have been lost (either destroyed, damaged or captured).

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