Australia to give 49 ageing Abrams tanks to Ukraine for war effort

Australia will give 49 of its ageing M1A1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine months after Kyiv requested the redundant fleet, Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Thursday.

The Australian government was giving Ukraine most of its American-made M1A1 tanks, which are valued at AU$245 million (US$163 million), Marles said. They will be replaced in Australia by a fleet of 75 next-generation M1A2 tanks.

In February, Marles said that giving Ukraine the tanks as they were phased out was not on his government’s agenda. But on Thursday he said he did not regard the donation as a backflip on his government’s previous position.

“We talk with the Ukrainian government consistently around how best we can support them,” Marles told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

“We look at the material that we have; its effectiveness, … the shape that it’s in, to be frank, whether it would be able to make a difference, whether it can be sustained and maintained so that it can be kept in the fight. And the Abrams tanks fit all of those criteria,” he added.