Poland Just Bought America's M1 Abrams Tank. That's Ironic.
Poland has announced it will purchase M1A2 SEPv3 main battle tanks from the U.S.
The M1A2 SEPv3 is the latest version of the M1 series of tanks that first entered service in 1981.
Ironically, the M1 Abrams was originally designed to fight Poland when the country was a member of the Warsaw Pact.
Poland will purchase 250 M1A2 Abrams SEPv3 main battle tanks from the U.S., replacing older tanks dating back to the Cold War. The tanks will arm Polish Army units guarding against incursions by the Russian Army.
The purchase is a pretty remarkable turnaround of events, considering the U.S. originally designed the M1 tank to fight Soviet and Polish forces on the battlefields of Western Europe.
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The M1 Abrams main battle tank—a clean-sheet design equipped with a 105-millimeter main gun, Chobham composite armor, and gas turbine engine—debuted in 1981 as the most advanced tank of its kind. The tank has outlived several efforts to replace it, gaining upgrades like a larger, more powerful 120-millimeter gun; a layer of depleted uranium armor; a digital command and control system; and a separate “hunter-killer” thermal imaging viewer for the tank commander.
The idea that a 40-year-old tank design has a place in modern armies is a relatively new one. For comparison, in 1981, the 40-year-old M4 Sherman medium tank was thoroughly obsolete. The Abrams’s basic design, however, has remained robust enough to accept new technologies as engineers develop them.
The latest version of the M1, the M1A2 SEPv3, adds a remotely operated .50-caliber machine gun, improved protection from remote-controlled roadside bombs, and an ammunition data link that allows the tank crew to issue specialized commands to main gun rounds. The 73.6-ton tank has a crew of four and can go 42 miles on a road and 30 miles per hour cross-country.
The U.S. Army’s 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division was the first unit to receive M1A2 SEPv3 tanks in 2020, so the tank is brand new. The first Polish tanks will arrive in 2022, before many U.S. Army units will receive the SEPv3.
Poland belonged to the Soviet-backed Warsaw Pact from 1954 to 1991. The Polish Army operated the Soviet-designed T-72M1 main battle tank, and then the T-72 based PT-91 tank. The service also maintains about 250 German-made Leopard 2 A4 and A5 main battle tanks.
While the Leopard 2s are reasonably new, the T-72M1 and PT-91 tanks are obsolete by modern standards and thus need to be replaced. The addition of 250 Abrams will soon give Poland one of the most powerful tank forces in Europe.
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