Taiwan To Buy 108 M1A2 Abrams Tanks

Taiwan is in the process of buying 108 M1A2 Abrams tanks:

The Ministry of National Defense (MND) on Friday confirmed efforts to procure M1A2 Abrams tanks and other weapons from the US, and welcomed news that a sale might be announced soon.

“We welcome [the news] and hope to get the tanks as soon as possible,” ministry spokesman Major General Shih Shun-wen (史順文) said in response to a report by the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) that a review of Taiwan’s purchase request is complete and that Washington is expected to announce approval of the deal soon.

The 108 Abrams tanks that the government wants to buy are meant to replace aging CM-11 Brave Tiger tanks and M60A3 Patton tanks that have served the military for 20 years, the ministry said, adding that the new tanks would be deployed in northern Taiwan.

Requests had been submitted to Washington for 108 M1A2 Abrams tanks, 1,240 BGM-71 anti-tank missiles, 409 FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missiles and 250 FIM-92 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, the ministry said in a June 6 statement.

The Pentagon and the US Department of State have notified the US Congress of a potential US$2 billion arms deal with Taiwan, Reuters reported on Wednesday, a sign that the sale is likely to go through, although a formal, public notification must still be made to Congress.

The CM-11 Brave Tiger is a design based on mating the old M48 turret on the M60 chassis. Both it and the M60 are old, slow, and hopelessly under-armed and under-armored compared to communist China’s Type 96 and Type 99 main battle tanks, both of which use composite armor and 125mm smoothbore main guns. The Type 99 started out as a program to produce a Chinese tank that could defeat the Soviet T-72, and we know from Desert Storm that the M1 and M1A1 crushed the T-72 decisively in actual combat conditions.

Frankly I’m surprised it took Taiwan this long to obtain M1A2s (and a very similar story popped up this time last year). Going up against modern MBTs with 1960s-era tanks is not a recipe for success. But this time the deal is reportedly cleared to go through, good news for the Republic of China Army and General Dynamics shareholders alike.

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One Response to “Taiwan To Buy 108 M1A2 Abrams Tanks”

  1. SPDudley says:

    This isn’t the first go-around for Taiwan to buy armor from the USA. The Obama Admin offered the same number of M1s about six years ago and were turned down by the KMT-run govt in Taipei out of “cost concerns” (but really about not pissing off the PRC). Now with a DPP party in solid control President Tsai doesn’t give a shit and is buying weapons like crazy. Expect a sale for 66 F-16Vs to follow this to replace Taiwan’s old Mirage 2000 fleet.

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