Saturday, July 10, 2021

Poland may buy 250 M1 Abrams tanks


 Poland’s Defence Ministry is reportedly preparing to buy about 250 M1 Abrams tanks from the United States. The ‘Defense News’ reports after Gazeta.pl that:

“It has been rumored many times that such a thing is possible. Now it’s more than that. The details are being worked out, although the final decision has not yet been made.”

Polish Defence Ministry neither confirmed nor denied rumors. They did confirm that the purchase of Abrams tanks is one of the options. But the rumor is that it will happen soon. 

The Polish Armed Forces are reportedly interested in acquiring up to 250 tanks in the M1A2 SEPv3 variant and a further dozen tracked vehicles for training under a deal estimated to be worth between $2.9 billion (11 billion PLN) and $5 billion (19 billion PLN).

Polish industry was preparing to design and build its next-generation tank after Germany and France refused to let Poland join their program even though Poland plans to build more units than both of those countries together. One of the options they seriously looked at was to make it based on Korean K2 Black Panther. That option may still be on the table even after the purchase of Abrams tanks because it would take a while to start the production, and Poland needs new tanks now.