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A Ukrainian commander of the M1 Abrams said the American tank is better than the best Russian tanks in this war.
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He said the Abrams is better than Soviet tanks and even the T-90 that Moscow has deployed.
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Putin specifically called the T-90M the world's best tank.
Ukraine has a small fleet of American Abrams tanks, battle-tested vehicles built specifically to destroy Russian tanks.
The war in Ukraine hasn’t really seen the kind of tank-on-tank combat that the M1A1 Abrams was designed to win. And instead of leading massive armored breakthroughs, another role they were built for, these tanks have been used primarily in a more support role.
But a Ukrainian tank commander says the Abrams is still a dominant tank on the battlefield — better than the Soviet-era tanks Kiev fielded at the start of the war, and even better than Russia's best and most celebrated tanks.
“It’s better than the T-72, T-62 and even the Russian T-90,” the commander, who uses the call sign Zakon, said through an interpreter during a recent interview with Business Insider from an undisclosed location near the front lines in eastern Ukraine.
The U.S. had planned to send Ukraine the newer M1A2 variant, but decided instead to send the older M1A1s, tanks that cost $10 million a unit, to speed up the delivery process. Kiev received all 31 Abrams last fall, and they are now in service with the veteran 47th Mechanized Brigade. Zakon commands one tank and oversees a crew that includes a driver, loader and gunner.
He said the M1A1, while an older model of the Abrams that has been the primary U.S. battle tank for decades, is twice as good as the Russian T-90. “It's like a mouse versus a big cat, when we compare these tanks,” he told BI this week.
No Russian tank can match the requirements
Russia has fielded several variants of the T-90, a main battle tank that has been in service since the early 1990s. The latest — and most technologically advanced — is the T-90M, which Russian President Vladimir Putin once called “the best tank in the world.”
The T-90M is the most advanced tank Russia has deployed in Ukraine since Moscow retired its T-14 Armata. It features thermal sites, layered armor, an advanced fire control system and electronic warfare capabilities, among other assets.
While capable, they are not invincible. According to the open-source intelligence service Oryx, Russia has lost at least 100 T-90Ms and more than 50 other T-90 variants. They have fallen victim to Ukraine’s small attack drones and armored vehicles.
Another advanced Russian tank is the T-80BVM, which Oryx estimates has suffered at least 150 losses. Total tank losses for the Russian army since the beginning of the war are estimated at over 3,000.
Zakon didn't provide details about T-90 variants when comparing the American-made Abrams to Russian armor. However, Gian Gentile, the deputy director of RAND's Arroyo Center and a retired U.S. Army officer with experience on the Abrams, previously told BI that even the T-90M is “inferior” to the Abrams because it is less heavily armored, making it more vulnerable, and has inferior technology, particularly its optics and fire control systems.
The Abrams is a powerful machine. It has thick armor, but its gas turbine engine can propel the 60-ton tank up to 45 miles per hour. And its depleted uranium bullets can punch holes in enemy armor.
“Probably the best thing about it is the speed. It's really fast,” Zakon said. “It's easy to get into the fight and get out of it.”
The Abrams, however, has not yet had a real chance to do what it was designed to do in Ukraine. Zakon said that more tanks could help Kiev deliver more armored punches, echoing comments made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week.
“For our tanks, we use them to make sure that our infantry or foot troops can be deployed or our vehicles or equipment can be deployed where it is needed,” Zakon said. “Unfortunately, we don't use these tanks as breakthrough tanks, but we mainly use them to reinforce and support our positions.”
While the Abrams is widely recognized as a top tank, the U.S. armor is not without its own vulnerabilities and has been a prominent target for Russian threats such as anti-tank missiles, rocket launchers and first-person view drones, which can be found everywhere on the battlefield. Ukraine has already lost around 10 Abrams, according to Oryx.
In Ukraine, these tanks are equipped with electronic warfare capabilities, explosive reactive armor plating and anti-drone protection screens donated by Rinat Akhmetov's Steel Front initiative to better defend them against incoming munitions.
Zakon said the Abrams can certainly take a hit, but he repeatedly stressed that Ukraine still needs more dynamic systems to protect the tank’s exterior and the crew inside. He stressed the importance of more Abrams Reactive Armor Tiles or the Soviet Kontakt-1 technology that can defend against explosives.
“We need Abrams tanks, we need people and first of all we need dynamic protection,” Zakon said, adding that “we need them as much as possible.”
Read the original article on Business Insider
