A shipment of 38 US-made M1A2T Abrams tanks — part of a military procurement package from the US — arrived at the Port of Taipei early yesterday.
The vehicles are the first batch of 108 tanks and other items that then-US president Donald Trump announced for Taiwan in 2019. The Ministry of National Defense at the time allocated NT$40.5 billion (US$1.25 billion) for the purchase.
To accommodate the arrival of the tanks, the port suspended the use of all terminals and storage area machinery from 6pm last night until 7am this morning.
Photo: Reuters
The tanks are expected to be deployed at the army’s training facility in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), where training on the tanks would start after the Lunar New Year holiday, a source said.
The “T” in the M1A2T denotes that the tanks are a special version for Taiwan, they said.
The military is to receive a shipment of 42 Abrams tanks and another of 42 tanks over the next two years, Ministry of National Defense records showed.
Photo: Fang Wei-li, Taipei Times
The Abrams is “decades more advanced than” the combat vehicles the army currently uses, and the tank’s 120mm main gun would enable the military to compete with the main battle tanks used by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the source said.
“The average speed of the new tanks is also twice that of Taiwan’s current tanks, which would enhance the efficiency of troop reinforcements,” they said.
“Furthermore, the Abrams’ aiming capability is more than five times that of Taiwan’s current tanks, and it can maintain a continuous hit rate,” they added.
The M1A2Ts are equipped with a thermal management system that can significantly reduce the leakage of heat from the modern electronic equipment on board, enhancing their concealment on the battlefield, they said.
In an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published on Dec. 6, retired major general Kuo Li-sheng (郭力升) said the M1A2T Abrams tanks would be a generation ahead of Taiwan’s US-made M60A3s and the indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have designs dating to the 1980s.
“Fielding the M1A2T would not only increase the army’s numerical strength, but would be a qualitative leap forward,” he said, adding that Taiwan has sought to acquire the tanks since the 1990s.
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