An M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams Main Battle Tank with Berserker Company, 1st Battalion 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2 Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division engages a target at Fort Hood, Texas, on Oct. 3, 2022. (James Dunn/U.S. Army)
WASHINGTON — President Biden and his senior military advisers were rebuked Thursday by senators exasperated by what they claimed is the glacial pace at which his administration is moving to supply Abrams tanks to Ukraine, whose leaders say they need such weapons for a highly anticipated counteroffensive to retake Russian-occupied territory.
Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Angus King (I-Maine) directed their frustration at Gen. Christopher Cavoli, who as the head of the U.S. European Command oversees much of the Pentagon’s effort to train and equip Ukraine’s army. King told the general he is worried that Ukraine will not have enough firepower to counter Russian troops this summer and that the American tanks should be staged in Poland now so Ukrainian forces can use them as soon as they complete a training course expected to begin next month under the supervision of U.S. soldiers in Germany.
“This counteroffensive that everybody is talking about,” King said during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, “it’s the longest windup for a punch in the history of the world.”
“It’s going to be trench warfare, and it’s going to involve tanks,” King went on, warning that if the Abrams don’t arrive on the battlefield until August or September, as the Pentagon has said, “it may well be too late.”
Cavoli told the committee that he has not yet transmitted a schedule to have the tanks delivered from the United States to Europe, as neither the “exact sourcing” for them nor a precise timeline has been determined. Asked why, Cavoli requested to follow up later with the senators and indicated that he could better explain in a closed session where classified information can be discussed.
Cotton said he believes the administration could supply the tanks more quickly if Biden wanted to and there was political will to do so.
“I think it’s reflective of the political decision to drag our feet in what we’re supplying to Ukraine,” Cotton said. “It’s just a repeated story that we’re seeing over and over again throughout the course of this war.”
The Biden administration has disputed such accusations, pointing to its commitment of more than $38 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion 14 months ago.
The president in January approved transferring 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine as part of a broader plan in which several European allies would send German-made Leopard tanks more quickly. The arrangement was brokered amid concerns from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that Ukraine would struggle with the heavy logistical burden that goes with the Abrams, and as Germany signaled that it would not send its own Leopards or allow other countries to do the same unless the United States committed to transferring some Abrams.
In March, the Pentagon said that it would speed delivery, allowing for delivery by the fall, after earlier indications that it would take a year or two. A Pentagon spokesman, Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, said then that United States had expedited the schedule by refurbishing old models of the M1A1 tank, rather than providing the more advanced M1A2 variant.
“This is about getting this important combat capability into the hands of the Ukrainians sooner rather than later,” Ryder said then.
Both versions of the tank have a 120mm cannon and machine guns, while the M1A2 typically also includes digital controls, improved sensors and a thermal viewer for the tank’s commander.
The discussion comes as classified U.S. military documents leaked online indicate that the Pentagon has serious doubts about how successful Ukraine’s counteroffensive can be. One such assessment, from early February, warned that Ukraine would face “force generation and sustainment shortfalls,” and that the counteroffensive will probably result in only “modest territorial gains.”
Another document in the leak said that Kyiv’s strategy revolves around reclaiming parts of the east and assaulting the south in an effort to cut off Crimea, the peninsula that Russia illegally seized by force in 2014. Russian forces have dug in deeply there, building a network of trenches in anticipation of Ukrainian attacks.
