Australia to Send Dozens of Decommissioned Abrams Main Battle Tanks to Ukraine

More than a year after Kyiv first expressed interest in the M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks (MBT), Canberra has confirmed it will now gift 49 of the American-made tanks as part of a AUD245 million ($164 million) aid package.

The Australian package is the single biggest allocation of tanks by a donor country since the beginning of the full-scale invasion by Russia. 

As Kyiv Post reported on Sept. 24, Australia was in discussion with the Biden administration to get approval to send its 20-year-old mothballed tanks to Ukraine. US Permission was necessary as the tanks are subject to Washington’s International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), despite the US having sent 31 of its own M1A1 tanks to Ukraine last year.

The Australian ABC television reported on Oct. 16 that the Defense Industry Minister Pat Conroy, will formally tell his Ukrainian counterpart of the decision during the NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels this week.

Conroy said during a meeting with the UK government before traveling for the NATO meeting: “We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine in their fight against Russia’s illegal invasion.

“These tanks will deliver more firepower and mobility to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and complement the support provided by our partners for Ukraine’s armored brigades – Australia has been steadfast in our support for Ukraine.”

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Decommissioning of the M1A1s began in July as Australia began to take delivery of the first of the 75 upgraded M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams it had ordered in 2022 at a cost of around $2.5 billion.

The allocation tops a previous package by the US of 31 M1A1s, and follows a year-long campaign by Kyiv, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko, and the Ukrainian Australian diaspora to secure the weapons.

Speaking to Kyiv Post from his post in Canberra, Ambassador Myroshnychenko said that “this support package is very timely, very substantial and very fit for purpose.”

He cited the fact that combat assaults by the Russian Federation on Ukraine and Ukrainians have increased by some 20 percent in the last three months to their highest level in 2024.

“Only this week, the Russian aggressor conducted an air strike on Ukrainian cities and towns involving nearly 140 drones and missiles, and it has been confirmed that North Korea is now directly involved in Ukraine. We are very grateful for Australia’s support, especially in light of the deployment of troops from North Korea,” the ambassador told Kyiv Post.

“Ukraine’s capacity to both defend itself and to bring the war to a just conclusion is in part reliant on receiving adequate and continuous support from those nations, including Australia, who also believe in democracy, the integrity of national borders, and the international rules-based order,” the ambassador said.

The announcement was also welcomed by the peak body for the Ukrainian Australian diaspora, the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations (AFUO).

“We are grateful that the government has listened and responded to calls from the AFUO, the Australian-Ukrainian community and many others to donate decommissioned Australian Defence Force (ADF) kit to Ukraine,” Kateryna Argyrou, AFUO Chair, said. “Where Australia no longer needs retired ADF equipment, its benefit to Ukraine can be enormous. Ukraine remains outmanned and outgunned in its fight to defend itself against Putin’s aggression.”

The M1A1s to be provided by Australia were due to be retired in 2025 and will be replaced with next-generation M1A2s. However, they are said to be in good condition and far superior to those operated by Russian forces, The Australian newspaper reported.

The contribution takes Australia’s military and humanitarian support for Ukraine to $1 billion USD, and follows public outcry over the government’s decision last year to scrap 45 MRH-90 Taipan helicopters rather than offer them to Kyiv for the war effort.

Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles said that “Australia’s support for Ukraine has not wavered since Russia’s illegal invasion, and Australia will continue standing with Ukraine.”

However, Australia’s Opposition – a coalition of the Liberal Party and The Nationals Party - labelled the Government’s move as “a welcome, albeit belated, decision by the Albanese Labor Government.”

“For months, [the] plea [for tanks] has been ignored, with Defence Minister Richard Marles going as far as saying the gifting of Abrams tanks was ‘not on the agenda,’” Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Senator Simon Birmingham said.

“It now appears that mounting pressure of Australia becoming an international embarrassment over its contributions to Ukraine has led the Albanese Government to learn from its past mistakes, after refusing to gift the retiring Taipan helicopters to Ukraine,” Birmingham said.

Outside the domestic Australian political battle, some of the tanks will need to undergo repairs and upgrades before they are gifted to Ukraine, but they could be delivered sooner at Kyiv’s request, allowing those in poorer condition to be used to provide spare parts for American-donated M1A1s, according to The Australian.

The tanks are likely to be fitted with electronic warfare equipment prior to deployment in order to mitigate the growing risk of drone warfare.

Speaking in London before heading to the NATO defense ministers’ meeting, Mr. Conroy told The Australian that the weapons would “deliver more firepower and mobility to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and complement the support provided by our partners for Ukraine.”

“This is a good day for Ukraine and, frankly, a bad day for Vladimir Putin,” Mr. Conroy said.

Australia is also in the process of replacing its fleet of 22 Tiger ARH helicopters with 29 US-built Boeing AH-64E Apache Guardian helicopters, starting in 2025. The allocation of the M1A1 tanks to Ukraine may set a precedent in terms of the Tigers which will become redundant, but remain serviceable.

Despite being more than 20 years old, Australia’s M1A1s have been relatively little used, which defense consultant JC Dodson, who assisted with negotiations to acquire Australia’s Abrams, says should allow the tanks to reach the battlefield relatively quickly.

Dodson told ABC, “One of the unique elements of the Australian tanks is that they’re in reasonably good working order. The fact the Ukrainians already have some M1A1s in theater suggests there’s a good logistics chain there as well as some [crew] training.”

It is possible that some of the tanks will require repair or renovation either before being sent to Ukraine or once in theater.

The latest announcement will bring the total value of Australia’s military assistance to Ukraine since the start of the war to more than AUD 1.3 billion ($870 million).

There are some questions over the effectiveness of the Abrams since arriving in Ukraine, with at least five of the 31 provided by the US having been destroyed.

Since then, Ukraine temporarily withdrew them from the battlefield and retrofitted them with reactive armor, providing them with jammers to better protect them from Russian kamikaze drones.