(Tribune News Service) — One Russian-designed tank was noticed in April during the two-day stint it spent at a Louisiana truck stop that doubles as a casino. The other was spotted at a Utah gas station in May.

Both behemoths were headed to the same place: Aberdeen, Md.

As the United States and other NATO countries support Ukraine in its war against Russia, a military post in the Northeast Maryland city of 17,000 could prove to be a valuable resource. A T-72 and a T-90 — both Soviet-era tanks weighing at least 45 tons each — were recently trucked from faraway states and along interstate highways to Aberdeen Proving Ground, a U.S. Army testing and research site.

Tanks have been critical in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which started last year, and Ukraine’s allies have sent the country 230 tanks. Among the $76 billion in total aid, military and otherwise, that the U.S. has given are 31 M1 Abrams tanks.

Now, the U.S. is lending the services of the Aberdeen Proving Ground, a 72,000-acre post on the Chesapeake Bay that is the country’s top weapons testing site and the state’s sixth-largest employer. Established in 1917 as the U.S. entered World War I, the proving ground is the oldest of its kind. Over the last century, it has studied a range of weapons, from small arms to bombs and tanks to chemical and biological warfare.

Department of Defense officials described the T-90′s arrival at Aberdeen as “part of our ongoing commitment to provide Ukraine the capabilities it needs to counter Russian aggression.”

The U.S. already had access to Russian tanks built during the Soviet-era and studied such weaponry as recently as last year, but the two tanks now on American soil could provide essential, updated knowledge of Russia’s fleet and supply ideas for how Ukraine can improve its tanks, many of which are T-72s.

Igor Novikov, a former adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, tweeted in April that a “trophy” Russian T-90 was on its way to Maryland as a “small thank-you gift” to the U.S., but it is unclear precisely how the U.S. obtained the T-72. Ukraine or an allied country likely shipped it to the U.S., where there are advanced resources, such as those at Aberdeen, for researching tanks.

While it is not unusual, experts say, that the U.S. would study the weapons systems of rival nations, the advent of the tanks underscores the importance of gathering intelligence during warfare and Aberdeen’s key role in doing so.

There are a myriad of reasons to study enemy technology, and an understanding of a foe’s abilities is invaluable on the battlefield. Analyzing how far and accurately a tank’s gun can fire is important, of course, but so are scores of other details: Knowing a tank’s fuel economy, for example, is helpful in figuring out how far a tank can travel before refueling.

Michael E. O’Hanlon, a senior fellow and director of research in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution, said if Russia had modernized a tank by adding improved armor or a stronger engine or sensors that ward off missiles, to name a few possible modifications, the souped-up tanks would provide insights beyond what the U.S. learned from aging tanks that have not seen combat in decades.

“All of that information would be very tactically useful if you were figuring out what to send the Ukrainians and also how to train the Ukrainians on the use of proper anti-armor weapons,” O’Hanlon said.

Doug Wise, who spent 20 years in the military and 30 years with the Central Intelligence Agency, likened studying a modernized tank versus an old one to examining an iPhone 14 instead of an iPhone 6. In a way, they are the same phone — or tank, in this case — but they have a “radically different design,” said Wise, who also served as deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Updated information could help the U.S. better understand the abilities of Russia’s weaponry. That benefits Ukraine, but it is also a boon for the U.S., which collects intelligence about potential adversaries.

“Nobody likes to have their technology fall into the other guys’ hands,” O’Hanlon said.

The T-90 first was spotted in the U.S. in April when the truck hauling it broke down in Louisiana. The truck dropped the 30-foot tank off — without any tarp or canvas concealing it — and, with its load lightened, drove away to be repaired. Two days later, it returned, picked up the tank, and continued to Aberdeen. The tank’s sighting popped up on social media, then was reported by The War Zone, a military news website.

“I walked out there and, lo and behold, there’s a tank on a big ol’ trailer in my back parking lot,” said Cody Sellers, the store manager at Peto’s Travel Center and Casino on Interstate 10 in Roanoke, La.

The phone at Peto’s rang for days as word spread and curious visitors hoped to get a look at the mammoth machine parked among the gas pumps. One person left a Google review with photos of the tank saying: “Food is so good that even Russian came over with their T90.” Sue Gough, a spokesperson for the Department of Defense, confirmed a T-90 tank was en route to Aberdeen when “the truck transporting it suffered a mechanical issue.”

“The tank’s explosive reactive armor was inert, it was not armed or carrying any dangerous material, and at no point posed a risk to the public,” Gough said. “This is part of our ongoing commitment to provide Ukraine the capabilities it needs to counter Russian aggression. For security reasons, we will not comment further on this matter.”

In May, a different Russian-designed tank popped up at a U.S. gas station.

Dave Trojan is a 21-year Navy veteran who now spends time as an “aviation archaeologist,” and he had been digging through old airplane crash sites when he stopped for gas at a Pilot station near the Nevada-Utah line. He was aware of the recent T-90 sighting and he promptly recognized this tank — sitting atop a truck trailer, under a tarp but with its gun protruding — as a T-72, a predecessor to the T-90.

“I knew right away that it was a Russian tank,” Trojan said.

Trojan quickly snapped photographs of the tank and shared the images with Tankers, a social media group.

“I worked in the government for 25 years, so I just know that the government does a lot of things that they don’t talk about and so when you find stuff out … I just think it needs to get out there so people can know about it,” Trojan said.

The Nevada Automotive Test Center — a private evaluation facility for commercial and military vehicles — confirmed in a statement that the T-72 was headed from its site to Aberdeen. The tank was not armed nor “carrying any dangerous material and at no point posed a risk to the public,” test center officials said, adding that it was sent to Aberdeen to meet the Department of Defense’s “test and training requirements.” Center officials declined to comment further for security reasons.

How exactly the tanks will be examined and studied remains unknown, and federal intelligence agencies have, unsurprisingly, not been eager to share information. CIA officials declined to comment, and DIA officials did not respond to a request for comment.

It is likely the U.S. is seeking to identify the capabilities of the tanks — particularly the T-90, the more modern of the two — to impart that intelligence to Ukraine, experts say. The U.S. could also be searching for ways to improve the T-72 to provide intelligence that would boost Ukraine’s own fleet.

“It’s distinctly possible that we’re trying to figure out how to make that T-72 better, because it may still be one of the most important kinds of tanks for the Ukrainians to operate,” O’Hanlon said.

Wise said that at Aberdeen, experts can pull apart a tank, reconstruct it, see how it functions, test its armor and study any number of minute details. There are “near infinite ways” to glean important intelligence, and there is not a better place to do so than Aberdeen.

“They know weapon systems,” Wise said. “That is one place that is unparalleled in expertise in both U.S.-developed weapons, as well as foreign weapons.”

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