US-made Abrams are better than Russia’s best tanks in the war, Ukrainian commander says, and it’s not even close

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US-made Abrams are better than Russia’s best tanks in the war, Ukrainian commander says, and it’s not even close

A Ukrainian M1 Abrams commander said the ********* tank was better than Russia’s best in this war.

He said the Abrams was better than ******* tanks and even the T-90 that Moscow has deployed.

****** touted the T-90M, specifically, as the “world’s best tank.”

Ukraine is operating a small fleet of US-made Abrams tanks, combat-proven vehicles that were built to ******** Russian armor.

The war in Ukraine hasn’t really featured the kind of

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that the M1A1 Abrams was designed to win. And instead of leading massive armored breakthroughs, another function they were built to carry out, these tanks are primarily being used in more of a supporting role.

But a Ukrainian tank commander said the Abrams was still a dominant tank on the battlefield — better than the *******-era ones Kyiv fielded at the start of the war and even Russia’s top and most celebrated tanks.

“It’s better than T-72, T-62, and even Russian T-90,” the commander, who goes by the call sign Zakon, said through a translator during a recent interview with Business Insider from an undisclosed location near the front lines in eastern Ukraine.

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Ukrainian soldiers scavenging an abandoned Russian T-90A tank near Kharkiv.YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images

The US

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the newer M1A2 variant but decided to send the older M1A1s, tanks that run $10 million a unit, to speed up the delivery process. Kyiv received all 31 Abrams in the fall, and they’re now in service with the seasoned 47th Mechanized Brigade. Zakon commands one tank and oversees a crew that consists of a driver, a loader, and a gunner.

He said the M1A1, even though it’s an older model of the Abrams that has been the main US battle tank for decades, was twice as good as Russia’s T-90. “It’s like a mouse against a big cat, if we compare these tanks,” he told *** this week.

None of Russia’s tanks stack up

Russia has fielded multiple variants of the T-90, a main battle tank in service since the early 1990s. The newest — and most technologically advanced — is the T-90M, which Russian President Vladimir ****** once claimed was the “world’s best tank.”

The T-90M is the

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Russia has deployed to Ukraine since Moscow has

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from combat. It has thermal sites, multilayered armor, a sophisticated *****-control system, and electronic-warfare capabilities, among other tools.

Though capable, they’re not invincible. According to the open-source intelligence site

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, Russia has lost at

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and more than 50 other T-90 variants. They have fallen victim to Ukraine’s

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and

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.

Another sophisticated Russian tank is the T-80BVM, which, according to Oryx, has suffered at least 150 losses. Overall tank losses for the Russian army since the start of the war are estimated to be more than 3,000.

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A Russian T-90 tank ******* in Ukraine.Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP

Zakon did not specify T-90 variants when he compared the *********-made Abrams with Russian armor. However, Gian Gentile, the associate director of RAND’s Arroyo Center and a retired US Army officer with experience in the Abrams,

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that even the T-90M was “inferior” to the Abrams because it’s less heavily armored, making it more vulnerable, and has worse technology, particularly the optics and *****-control systems.

The Abrams is a powerful machine. It has thick armor, but its gas-turbine engine can get the 60-ton tank up to 45 mph. And its

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can pierce holes in ****** armor.

“Probably the best thing about it is its speed. It’s really quick,” Zakon said. “It’s easy to get into the ****** and get out of the ******.”

The Abrams hasn’t really had a chance to do much of what it was made for in Ukraine, though. Zakon said that more tanks could help Kyiv deliver more of an armored punch,

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week.

“For our tanks, we use them to ensure that our infantry or foot troops can be deployed or that our vehicles or equipment can be deployed where it’s necessary,” Zakon said. “Unfortunately, we do not use these tanks as breakthrough tanks, but we mostly use them to strengthen and support our positions.”

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M1A1 Abrams tanks needed for training Ukrainian soldiers awaiting offloading in Germany.US Army photo by Spc. ********** Carrillo

Though the Abrams is widely recognized as a top tank, the ********* armor is also not without

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and has been a high-profile target for Russian threats such as anti-tank missiles, rocket launchers, and first-person-view drones, which are

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. Ukraine has lost as many as 10 Abrams, according to

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.

In Ukraine, these tanks have been equipped with

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capabilities, explosive reactive-armor tiling, and

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donated by Rinat Akhmetov’s Steel Front initiative to help them defend against inbound munitions.

Zakon said that the Abrams could take a hit, but he repeatedly said that Ukraine

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the tank’s exterior and the crew inside. He stressed the importance of having more Abrams Reactive Armor Tiles or the ******* Kontakt-1, technology that can defend against explosives.

“We do need Abrams tanks, we do need people, and, first of all, we do need dynamic protection,” Zakon said, adding: “We need them as much as possible.”

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#USmade #Abrams #Russias #tanks #war #Ukrainian #commander #close

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