The US sent 31 refurbished M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks to Ukraine for its war against Russia in September 2023, with the first of them reportedly deployed in February 2024. Although claimed to be one of the best tanks in the world, their performance in the field has not lived up to that billing.
Not only had the tanks been provided without some of the latest upgraded depleted uranium armor and fire control systems, it was soon evident that they were vulnerable to the warfighting innovations that have arisen on Ukraine’s battlefields. As with most, if not all, currently fielded main battle tanks, they were designed to fight “tank-on-tank” battles and so were given extensive frontal protection.
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However, the war in Ukraine has changed the nature of the threat. The ubiquitous first-person view (FPV) attack drones, modern anti-tank guided weapons (ATGW) and guided artillery have all highlighted the Abrams’ vulnerability to strikes from above. All but one of the tanks lost in Ukraine resulted from drone or other strikes from above and to the rear. The sole exception was hit by the main armament from a Russian T-72B3 tank.
The US Army’s Procurement of Weapons and Tracked Combat Vehicles (W&TCV, Army) report for 2026 includes an allocation of more than $107 million for survivability improvements to almost 400 of its M1 Abrams fleet.
This includes “stealth enhancing” paint, “belly” protection against improvised explosive devices and mines, laser attack warning receivers and top attack protection.
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The bulk of the allocation, almost $92 million will be spent on the GM1914 VPS Top Attack Protection passive armor kits sufficient to equip around 350 tanks that comprise four frontline Armored Brigade Combat Teams. This is a passive add-on armor designed to supplement overhead protection to the crew compartment and hatches from shaped charge and explosively formed projectiles (EFP) and is listed as the first step to equipping all current and future combat vehicles with the capability.
The Ukrainian armed forces have attempted to increase the protection from top attack of many of the Western tanks, including the M1 Abrams, provided to them since the start of Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion – fitting the tanks with “cope cages,” explosive reactive armor and belly protection. This worked for some, such as the German manufactured Leopard 1 and 2 MBT, but has done little to reduce the losses of its Abrams.
Of the US Army’s current holdings of around 4,650 M1 Abrams main battle tanks, 2,640 are held in operational units, of which 2,100 have been upgraded to the latest M1A2 SEPv2 and SEPv3 standards with the balance of operational vehicles and the 2,000 or so held in storage remaining at the original M1A1 specification.
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