Key Points and Summary – A promised batch of 49 Australian M1A1 Abrams tanks has begun arriving in Ukraine, but they enter a battlefield transformed by the constant threat of drones.
-High losses among the initial U.S.-supplied Abrams have already forced a major tactical rethink. Instead of leading breakthroughs, these powerful tanks are now used like “mobile artillery” in “shoot and scoot” tactics from concealed positions to survive.
-While the reinforcements are welcome, their arrival highlights a grim new reality: the age of the tank-led offensive in Ukraine is likely over, replaced by a war of attrition dominated from above.
M1A1 Abrams Arrive In Ukraine, But the Tank War Is Over
The first batch of 49 surplus M1A1 Abrams tanks promised by Australia has arrived in Ukraine, nine months after the pledge was first made.
Shipped by sea and transported via rail after landing in Germany, the 69-ton, four-person vehicles – equipped with thick composite armor and a 120mm smoothbore gun – are among the most powerful tanks ever built.
Developed by the United States during the late stages of the Cold War and continually upgraded since, the Abrams was designed for high-intensity warfare against Soviet armored formations.
Imagery released by the Australian defense ministry on Saturday shows the 2000s-era tanks being craned aboard a cargo ship. Additional photos show them loaded onto train cars, en route to Ukraine’s staging areas.
While the arrivals will bolster Ukraine’s dwindling Abrams fleet, they also come at a complicated time.
Of the 31 U.S.-supplied Abrams delivered in 2023, at least 22 are believed to have been captured, destroyed, or damaged in combat – significantly reducing Ukraine’s operational stock. The new batch from Australia, combined with surviving U.S.-donated tanks, could now form two battalions – each typically consisting of 31 tanks.
Battlefield dynamics in Ukraine have significantly changed since the Abrams were first requested, however. The tanks are arriving just as Kyiv begins to rethink how to use them, or whether to use them at all.
Why Ukraine Want(ed) the M1A1 Abrams
Ukrainian requests for Western armored vehicles began as early as late 2022.
In early 2023, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed directly for tanks at the Ramstein airbase meeting. The Ukrainian president urged 50 defense ministers to commit “in principle” to sending modern battle tanks. Speaking via video link, Zelenskyy said that allies should not “bargain about different numbers of tanks” but “open that principal supply that will stop evil.”
The U.S. quickly responded to the calls, while Australia’s pledge of 49 surplus M1A1SA Abrams came in October 2024, announced as part of a larger military aid package replacing its own tanks with newer M1A2s.
Ukrainian forces wanted the Abrams for its firepower, thick composite armor, and advanced systems that provided survivability against Russian artillery.
The reputation of the Abrams as a significant morale boost at the time, too, signaled a deeper NATO commitment as the war continued to rage with no end in sight. Kyiv also hoped that the Abrams would lead breakthroughs in largely static frontline warfare.
Warfare Changes Mean Tanks Adapt or Die
The widespread adoption of drones by both sides of the conflict, however, means that the tanks are no longer the battlefield game-changers Ukraine once hoped for. Instead, they are high-value targets that require constant protection and ongoing adjustments to the deployment of heavy armor on the battlefield.
In recent months, Ukrainian tank units have increasingly adopted a “shoot and scoot” tactic, treating Abrams and other tanks like mobile artillery.
Crews now operate under strict exposure time limits, firing from concealed positions before retreating underground or into hardened shelters to evade drone surveillance.
To further mitigate the drone threat, Ukraine has restructured a significant portion of its armored forces.
Since mid-2024, most tank brigades have been reclassified as heavy mechanized units, reducing their tank inventories by two-thirds and relying more heavily on infantry fighting vehicles.
Defensive measures, such as anti-drone cages and the rollout of new electronic warfare systems, are helping to extend the lifespan of what few tanks remain.
However, while these adaptations may preserve the Abrams, they also confirm what many in Kyiv already expect: the age of tank-led offensives may be coming to an end.
About the Author:
Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society. His latest book is The Truth Teller: RFK Jr. and the Case for a Post-Partisan Presidency.
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Swamplaw Yankee
July 24, 2025 at 11:35 pm
In 2014, the above tank was a useful front line tool. In 2014 the POTUS Obama Democrat Cabal unilaterally greenlighted the Putin “little green groomers” to re-start the ancient russian genetic need to human traffic little Ukrainian children.
Russian language traitors immediately started “basement” butchering Ukrainian parents + trading mass ABDUCTED children to Putin’s groomer for ammo/ vehicles/ tanks. In 2014 the tank was a great tool, a useful trade for a package of “Lolita” children for the russian muscovite pedophiles.
In 2025 the matter of tanks is degraded. The best example is the op-ed hacks still declare the Israeli tank Merklava as superb. This tank has been kept from a real test on the Ukrainian front lines. Is the Israeli product really superb or a poor comparison to the British/Yankee competition.
The real question relates to the 2014 betrayal of the WEST by the marxist Obama Democrat Cabal. The Israeli intelligence knew of the intention of the POPTUS Obama + his White House intention to betray the geopolitical advantage of the WEST in the free, no-cost give-away of Ukraine’s Crimean soil, its families and the large Black/Azov Sea zones. The Israeli fractions knew of this Obama betrayal intention and did nothing to ameliorate this traitors betrayal of the WEST.
The need in 2014 for Israeli action in alerting its allies and the WEST was suppressed internally. If, in fact, the cognitive elements of the Israeli intelligence did interact with other state leaders/agencies,then 11 years later the proof must be made transparent.
It is like 9-11. The Israeli intelligence knew full well of the Bin Landin muslim HQ operation in South Parkdale, Toronto. The question is, does the Intelligence structure make known a public position? Do they claim to know zero? Or, Do they claim to be on top of it because they knew everything about these 9-11 terrorists. That is, Israel allowed the muslim terrorists to kill carte blanche on 9-11?
The re-start in 2014 of an ancient russian cultural genocide of Ukrianians was well known. The various states also knew that the ethnic russian muscovites loves to commit cultural genocide of Ukrainians for nearly one thousand years.
This is a war on the WEST and the provision of a paltry number of used tanks is a value indicator. Op-ed hacks do have the self-awareness to decry the political, bureaucratic and informational barriers that have prevented the international community, at a minimum the WEST, from staging effective action to punish the crimes against humanity that emote out of the ethnic russian tsar elite. But do they challenge the atrocities of the orc muscovite tsarlings?
The thousand year cultural war against Ukrainians is now beyond tank standards and in the context of genocide, ethnic cleansing and mass-abduction-atrocity crimes by the “normal” peasant russian. -30-
Jim
July 25, 2025 at 12:37 am
Drone dominance or drone superiority is the key to the battlefield.
It’s striking, both sides are flooding the zone, one step away from swarms, in numbers, yes, but coordination & precision, no. The best evidence currently available suggests each drone has an operator… it’s not AI drone swarms quite yet.
But commercial, entertainment displays also suggest such swarms are not too far away.
This is not the tank’s fault. Until some kind of blanket drone protection system is developed tanks are at a disadvantage.
But I’ve also seen videos, there are still heavy weapons in the field, armored vehicles, but a drone swarm makes it very tough… heavy weapons can’t outrun a drone, let alone a swarm of drones.
We’ve seen this evolve in real time.
Both sides are counter adapting and innovating all at the same time as necessity dictates in a war situation.
I want to see a video of a true AI swarm and see what it can do… how long I might have to wait, we’ll see.
21st Century warfare in the Summer of 2025.