The additions that the Ukrainian Army is putting on its Abrams tanks

@DefAviation ES 8·06·2024 · 21:19 0

Among the many Western tanks that Ukraine has received since the start of the Russian invasion, one model has attracted a lot of attention.

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This model is the famous American M1 Abrams. Ukraine received 31 tanks of this type, specifically the M1A1 SA version. This is a very small number if we take into account that the United States has 3,450 Abrams in storage. In addition, this model arrived late to Ukraine, due to the modifications that the US applied to the 31 units sent, specifically the removal of their depleted uranium armor and its replacement with conventional steel, something common in tanks intended for export by the United States.

The M1A1 SA Abrams arrived in Ukraine in the fall of 2023 and were assigned to the 47th Independent Mechanized Brigade "Magura", which already operated M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and M109A6 Paladin self-propelled howitzers, also of American origin. In February 2024, the Ukrainian Army used its Abrams in the fighting at Avdiiv, in the Donetsk region, employing a rapid attack tactic that involves taking advantage of the armored vehicle's high speed to penetrate enemy lines, shoot down targets, and return, remaining in motion at all times and only stopping to fire, according to the Ukrainian website Mil.in.ua.

In the combats in Ukraine, the Abrams has proven its great resistance, withstanding anti-tank missiles without suffering major damage and being able to return to its lines after being hit. However, the Russian invaders have managed to destroy some Abrams using artillery and drones, specifically using FPV attack drones that are launched against the most vulnerable parts of the tank.

Despite the losses, Ukrainian Abrams have demonstrated a far superior survivability than Russian tanks. In the latter, it is common for the impact of an enemy projectile to cause the detonation of the propellant charge reservoir located under the automatic loader, literally blowing off the tank's turret and killing the entire crew, as we already saw here. On the contrary, even when disabled, Abrams protect their crews well and allow them to emerge alive from even the most violent attacks.

The US-supplied Abrams to Ukraine feature an M19 Abrams Reactive Armor Tile (ARAT) protection suite (below), deployed on US Army tanks in Iraq in 2006 and which protects the sides of the tank's hull with two large panels of reactive armor plates that are easily replaceable.

Ukrainian forces are notorious for adding extras to their armored vehicles, and the Abrams are no exception. The Ukrainian Army is equipping its M1A1 SA with additional reactive armor plates (known as “chocolates” among Ukrainian soldiers because their shape resembles a bar of the food), anti-drone grilles to protect some sensitive parts (especially the top and rear parts of the turret, where the main gun ammunition is stored), and thick rubber skirts on the front of the vehicle to protect the driver from the effects of blast waves.

Yesterday, the Ukrainian channel Militarnyi published an interesting video showing the installation of these additional protections on a Ukrainian Abrams of the 47th Brigade (the video is in Ukrainian, you can activate automatic subtitles in English in the bottom bar of the player):

As you can see in the video, the appearance of the Ukrainian M1A1 SA now closely resembles that of the T-64BM2 of that country, as they have very similar protections, except for the aforementioned grilles. These modified Abrams are called M1A1 SA-UKR by the Ukrainian Army. You can see here some screenshots from the video that show the result after the modifications.

According to Mil.in.ua, the reactive armor blocks being used on the Ukrainian Abrams are of the Kontakt-1 type (below these lines).

The Kontakt-1 is of Soviet origin and was created in 1982. It has been used in various Soviet and Russian tanks: the T-55, the T-62, the T-64, the T-72 and the T-80. Ukraine also uses these blocks in its Leopard 1 and Leopard 2 tanks.

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Photos: Militarnyi.