U.S. authorizes Australia to send decommissioned Abrams tanks to Ukraine

The United States has authorized the transfer of decommissioned Abrams tanks from Australia to Ukraine. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the first shipment — comprising 49 tanks — was recently prepared for sea transport.

The ABC reports that Washington approved the transfer of the American-made Abrams tanks despite private doubts among U.S. officials about the effectiveness of such aid. Some noted that the tanks would be difficult to transport from Australia to Ukraine and would pose logistical challenges to maintain in combat-ready condition once there.

One Australian official, cited by the ABC, also raised concerns about the tanks’ vulnerability to drone strikes, noting their exposed top armor may not be suited to battlefields where drones are widely used.

Publicly, however, no officials have questioned the decision to send the Australian tanks. Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles, commenting on the first shipment, told reporters: “We've been working very closely with Ukraine, very closely with the United States, to see this shipment occur and to see the tanks be on their way.”

It remains unclear when Ukraine will receive the tanks, but they’ll first need to pass through a base in Poland, likely Jasionka — the main logistics hub for Western military aid to Ukraine. Although U.S. forces and equipment were withdrawn from the site in early April, it remains in use by NATO and Polish troops.

In early March, The New York Times reported that nearly two-thirds of the Abrams tanks previously delivered by the United States to Ukraine had been destroyed or captured.

Ukraine began requesting Abrams tanks in the early weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion, but the U.S. did not formally approve the transfer until the summer of 2023. A shipment of 31 tanks arrived that fall. Russian forces reported the first Abrams tank had been destroyed in February 2024 — five months after the initial delivery.