Vast Majority of US Abrams Tanks Sent to Ukraine Now Destroyed, Captured or Abandoned
Most Western Wundwerwaffen have failed to live up to expectations
When the U.S. delivered 31 M1A1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine in September 2023, they were heralded as a potential turning point, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calling them a “game changer” in Kyiv’s fight against Russia. The Abrams, a symbol of American armored dominance, crushed weaker militaries like Iraq’s in the 1991 Gulf War, leveraging superior tactics, training, and advanced armor. Yet, by July 2025, at least 22 of these tanks were destroyed, damaged, abandoned, or captured, with estimates as high as 27. This predictable outcome stems from unrealistic expectations based on triumphs over less capable foes.
In the Gulf War, well-led Abrams tanks, with excellently trained crews, backed by air superiority, superior situational awareness and robust logistics, decimated Iraqi’s older T-72s, whose crews were poorly trained and outgunned. This past success fueled optimism that the Abrams would dominate in Ukraine. However, Russia’s advanced drones, anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs), powerful artillery, and adaptive tactics exposed the Abrams’ vulnerability when going up against a peer-level adversary.
Some will point out that Ukraine received the M1A1 SA variant with tungsten-fortified armor, a downgrade from the depleted uranium (DU) armor in U.S.-operated M1A2 models. While DU enhanced armor excels in tank-on-tank battles, it offers little additional defense over tungten enhanced armor when facing attacks on sidde and rear armor by ATGM, and attack on the thin armor of its roof by Russian drones such as the the Piranha-10 and Lancet.
And while Abrams do have a great gun and excellent fire control systems, Russia’s T-72B3 and T-90M tanks used gun-fired Refleks ATGMS to outrange the Abram. Adding to theAbams’ woes, Russian tank killer units, incentivized by bounties like 5 million rubles ($70,700) for capturing an Abrams, made the Abrams a propaganda target. A captured Abrams displayed in Moscow in May 2024 underscored this focus.
Tactical missteps and logistical challenges compounded the Abrams’ vulnerabilities. Designed for NATO’s combined arms doctrine, it relies on air cover, artillery, and robust supply lines. In Ukraine, ammunition shortages, limited air support, and the M1A1’s maintenance-intensive nature—exacerbated by its 67-ton weight and high fuel consumption—left it exposed. Ukrainian crews noted NATO would never deploy the Abrams in such unsupported conditions against Russia’s fortified Surovikin Line, rife with mines, trenches, and drones.
Unlike Iraq’s antiquated forces, Russia’s drones, ATGMs, surveillance, and electronic warfare neutralized the Abrams’ strengths. Four tanks were lost in a 12-day span in April 2024, reflecting the realities of peer-level warfare. U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s 2024 assessment that the Abrams was “not useful” in Ukraine’s drone-heavy battlefield highlights this shift. The Abrams’ failure in Ukraine shows that Western wonder weapons,“wundwerwaffen,” will not just atutomatically dominate a peer competitor like Russia.
The fate of the Abrams underscores the need to reassess assumptions about U.S. weapon-system effectiveness that was formulated based on how they performed against non-peer competitors.
Editor’s note: the full version of this article can be found at: https://www.theepochtimes.com/opinion/most-us-abrams-tanks-in-ukraine-now-lost-captured-or-abandoned-5888353