Abrams: Why the Ukrainians are withdrawing US tanks from the front line

Last year the USA sent Ukraine 31 Abrams M1A1 tanks, to help Ukrainian forces “break through” Russian fortified front lines. However, on the battlefield, things were not so easy for the Ukrainian army…

The tanks, which cost about $10 million each, would give Ukrainian forces an advantage on the ground, but problems soon became apparent.

As US defense officials told the Associated Press, the Ukrainians decided to withdraw the Abrams from the front line. But why did Kiev take the decision to withdraw one of its most powerful tanks?

The first problem that faced the Abrams on the battlefield were the insufficient shielding against drones (FPV and kamikaze), whose use by Russians has increased significantly in recent months.

“The war with Russian drones has made their operations very difficult,” US officials said.

Ukraine has lost five out of 31 tanks to drone attacks in 2 months.

Although the Abrams is still extremely important to the Ukrainian military, they are vulnerable to Russian drones in the open field and cannot be launched without being detected by the enemythe Americans argue.

“Ukrainians don’t know how to use them properly”

Drones are the first threat that US tanks have had to deal with. The second problem is their use by the Ukrainian army.

“The Ukrainians also haven’t adopted tactics that could make the Abrams more effective” said one of the US defense officials.

After announcing that they would supply Ukraine with Abrams tanks in January 2023, US began training Ukrainians at Grafenwoehr military base in Germany on how to maintain and operate them. They also taught the Ukrainians how to use them in combined arms warfare – where tanks operate as part of an armored force advance system, coordinating movements with aerial offensive fire, infantry troops and air assets.

“However, since Ukraine got the Abrams, it has used them only in a limited way and has not made combined arms tactics part of its operations” said the American official.

American officials stress that they will retraining Ukrainians to help them better operate Western weapons systems and redefine their tactics on the battlefield.

“We will work with our Ukrainian partners to help them think about how they might use the Abrams, in this changed environment, where everything is instantly visible.”

Most of the Abrams appear to have been lost during the recent withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Avdiivka, a city in eastern Ukraine that has been the focus of intense fighting for months.