A commissioning ceremony for Taiwan’s first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams tanks from the US is to take place on Friday next week, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today.
Koo made the comment this morning in a special report to the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee.
The ceremony is to take place with the 584 Armor Brigade in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), he said.
Photo: Taipei Times
On July 10, the military conducted the first live-fire exercise with the tanks at the Kengzikou Range (坑子口訓練場) in Hsinchu County, with four tanks firing a total of 19 rounds from their 120mm cannons at targets modeled after Chinese tanks.
The armed forces currently possess about 1,000 tanks, including the CM-11 Brave Tiger and the M60A3 tank, which have been in use for more than 20 years.
The Ministry of National Defense allocated NT$40.524 billion (US$1.32 billion) from 2019 to 2027 for the procurement of 108 M1A2T tanks from the US, the “world’s strongest tank” to be stationed with the Sixth Army Corps to defend northern Taiwan.
The first batch of 38 tanks arrived at Taipei Port in December last year and the second batch of 42 tanks arrived in July.
A third and final batch of 28 tanks is scheduled to arrive early next year.
The ministry has also purchased new engines for the M60A3s and upgraded systems to give them a “Hunter-Killer” mode.
The “Hunter-Killer” system of the upgraded M60A3s and the new M1A2Ts is a key combat capability that allows the commander to designate and identify a target to be relayed to the gunner then immediately initiate the next search, speeding up the target-engagement cycle.
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