WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukraine has temporarily disabled U.S.-supplied Abrams M1A1 essential battle tanks in its fight against Russia, partially because Russian drone warfare has made it too difficult for them to operate undetected or be attacked, two said U.S. military officials The Associated Press.
The U.S. agreed to send 31 Abrams to Ukraine in January 2023 after Kiev waged a months-long aggressive campaign arguing that the tanks, which cost about $10 million apiece, were detrimental to the country's capability Breaking through the Russian lines was crucial.
But the battlefield has modified significantly since then, particularly with the ever present use of Russian surveillance drones and hunter-killer drones. These weapons have made it tougher for Ukraine to guard the tanks in the event that they are quickly spotted and hunted by Russian drones or missiles.
Five of the 31 tanks have already been lost to Russian attacks.
The proliferation of drones on the Ukrainian battlefield means there’s “no open terrain that you can just drive over without fear of detection,” a senior defense official told reporters on Thursday.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to offer an update on U.S. arms support to Ukraine ahead of Friday's Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting.
The tanks have been faraway from the front line for now and the U.S. will work with the Ukrainians to reshape their tactics, said Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Christopher Grady and a 3rd defense official, who discussed the move on condition of anonymity confirmed.
“If you think about how combat has evolved, mass armor can be compromised in an environment where unmanned aerial systems are ubiquitous,” Grady said in an interview with the AP this week, adding that tanks are still vital be.
“Now there’s a way to do it,” he said. “We will work with our Ukrainian partners and other partners on the ground to help them think about how they might use this in the changed environment where everything is now immediately visible.”
News of the disabled tanks comes because the U.S. marks the two-year anniversary of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a coalition of about 50 countries that meets monthly to evaluate Ukraine's battlefield needs and Find out where to seek out needed ammunition, weapons or maintenance to produce Ukraine's troops are equipped.
The latest aid packages, including the $1 billion military aid package signed by President Joe Biden on Wednesday, also reflect a broader reboot of Ukrainian forces within the evolving fight.
The U.S. is predicted to announce on Friday that it is going to also provide about $6 billion in long-term military aid to Ukraine, U.S. officials said, adding that this might also include coveted ammunition for the Patriot air defense systems will include. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to debate details which have not yet been released.
The $1 billion package emphasized anti-drone capabilities, including .50-caliber bullets specifically modified to counter drone systems; additional air defense and ammunition; and quite a lot of alternative and inexpensive vehicles, including Humvees, Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles, and Mine-Resistant Ambush Protection Vehicles.
The U.S. also confirmed for the primary time that it’s deploying long-range ballistic missiles, so-called ATACMs, that can allow Ukraine to penetrate deep into Russian-occupied territory without having to advance and be much more exposed to either drone detection or reinforced Russian defenses.
While drones posed a major threat, the Ukrainians also didn’t employ tactics that would have made the tanks more practical, one in all the U.S. defense officials said.
After the United States announced in January 2023 that it could deliver the Abrams tanks to Ukraine, it began training Ukrainians in the upkeep and operation of the tanks on the Grafenwoehr Army Base in Germany within the spring. They also taught the Ukrainians the right way to use them in combined arms warfare – where the tanks operate as a part of a system of advancing armored forces, coordinating movements with offensive fire overhead, infantry troops and air force units.
As the spring progressed and Ukraine's much-anticipated counteroffensive stalled, the transition from tank training in Germany to deploying Abrams on the battlefield was seen as imperative to breaking through the fortified Russian lines. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on his Telegram channel in September that the Abrams had arrived in Ukraine.
Since then, nevertheless, Ukraine has used them only on a limited basis and has not made combined arms warfare an element of its operations, the defense official said.
Several tanks were lost to Russian attacks in the course of the recent withdrawal from Avdiivka, a city in eastern Ukraine that has been the main focus of intense fighting for months, the official said.
An extended congressional delay in passing latest funding for Ukraine meant that Ukraine's armed forces needed to ration their ammunition and, in some cases, could fire back just once for each five or more times they were attacked by Russian forces.
In Avdiivka, Ukrainian forces were significantly outnumbered and were fighting Russian glide bombs and hunter-killer drones with the ammunition they’d left.
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