January 24, 2023 at 1:19 PM PST. Listen. 4:28. The US and Germany are poised to announce they’ll provide their main battle tanks to Ukraine, offering Kyiv a powerful new weapon to counter Russia The M1 Abrams tank has fought in two major conflicts—the 1991 Persian Gulf War and 2003-2010 Iraq War, destroying scores of enemy tanks without a single loss to Iraqi tanks. Leopard 2 (Germany But it instead bought 250 M1A2 Abrams tanks from the United States. So for smaller nations it is better to stick to the Leopard 2 and Germany than make a switch to South Korea and their K2.” Why is the Leopard 2 tank on top of Kyiv’s wishlist? Germany’s Leopard has similar capabilities to the US-made Abrams or UK’s Challenger, but also presents some advantages, according to The Leopard 2 tanks should be the main priority for several reasons. Firstly, Ukrainian soldiers would need less training to use the Leopard 2 than the M1 Abrams. Secondly, the jet engines of the M1 Abrams require much more propellant than the Leopard 2 does, so the Ukrainian armed forces and its allies would need to improve fuel delivery The 130mm gun is a new concept—earlier NATO studies had looked at refitting the Leopard 2 and Abrams with a much larger 140mm cannon to counter late-Cold War Soviet developments. Nonetheless Murray didn't mention the Chinese Type 99, German Leopard 2, or Japanese Type 10 tanks. The general was answering a question, not reading a prepared statement, so his remarks were somewhat off-the both tanks can be fitted with add-on armor kits for urban combat. The Leopard 2 typically uses add-on composite armor modules, while the Abrams relies on ARAT (Abrams Reactive Armor Tile) ERA. there are Leopard 2 variants with thicker roof armor against small/medium top-attack threats such as artillery bomblets.
According to wikipedia, the T-90 has a fuel range of 340 miles with its 422 gal tank, while the M1A2 Abrams has around 265 miles with a 500 gal tank. This adds a bit of a logistical strain on the Abrams if used in combat because it needs more volume of fuel to keep them in the fight compared to the T-90. Another issue the Abrams has is the
