(tank blasting)
- [Narrator] The M1 Abrams tank
is one of the most powerful ground weapons
in the U.S. arsenal
equipped with a 1500 horsepower turbine engine
and a top speed of more than 40 miles per hour.
It comes with a 120 millimeter cannon, three machine guns,
and armor that can withstand frontal hits from enemy tanks
with minimal damage.
And these tanks could help Ukrainian forces
take back Russian occupied territories.
(tank blasting)
But Pentagon officials have expressed concerns
that these tanks could pose major logistical issues
for Ukraine.
- The Abrams requires a lot of support,
and if the Ukrainians don't have everything that it takes
to operate the Abrams, they might end up
being more of a detriment than they are a help.
- [Narrator] If Ukrainians want to take full advantage
of the M1 Abrams tanks,
they'll have to solve several major logistical challenges.
- So this binder right here,
this contains all the information and coordinating details
to operate a battalion of Abrams tanks
for four days in the field.
- [Narrator] Dan Grazier is a Marine Corps veteran
who operated Abrams tanks for almost a decade.
- Old Western tanks are a lot more complex
than the old Soviet tanks.
There's a lot of upgraded electronics.
They're much more intricately designed.
- [Narrator] Ukraine already has
a lot of skilled tank operators who have experience
working on older Soviet era tanks, like T-72s.
- You got to remember
they've been fighting the Russians since 2014,
so they are not gonna be starting from scratch
learning how to drive a tank here.
They will have to learn how to use the Abrams tanks.
They'll have to learn how to use the, you know,
the targeting system.
The Abrams is a four-person tank.
The Soviet tanks have three people in them.
So they'll have to learn details,
but if you know how to drive a tank,
you know how to drive a tank.
So one way to think about this
would be you go from a 10-year-old Toyota to a new Tesla.
You know how to drive.
You just have to learn how to do it on this new vehicle.
- [Narrator] These new Abrams tanks
boast impressive technology.
The tech enables troops to fire at night
from longer ranges than Russian tanks,
navigate through waters up to four feet deep,
and shoot rounds with a range of two and a half miles.
But the more complicated the technology,
the more likely it is to break.
And depending on what needs to be repaired,
the parts may need to be sent all the way back
to manufacturing plants in the U.S.
Then after they're repaired,
they'll need to be sent back to Ukraine.
- A lot of the individual components inside the tank
were designed not necessarily to be repaired in the field,
but to be replaced in the field.
It could be days or possibly even weeks for them
to get a replacement component.
- [Narrator] And if a tank has to wait
on a replacement part?
- If the tank doesn't get everything that it needs
in terms of spare parts, of fuel,
of even lubricants and hydraulic fluid,
you only have to lose one or two of those things
to render a tank ineffective and it becomes little more
than a giant 72 ton paperweight on the battlefield.
- [Narrator] And one of the most
logistically difficult parts
for maintaining an M1 Abrams tank is fueling it.
- The reluctance within the Pentagon
to sending the Abrams tanks had a lot to do
with how difficult it is to keep them in the fight.
- Abrams tanks use a lot of gas
because they're very large heavy vehicles,
so it takes a great deal of energy
to be able to even get that thing to start moving.
- [Narrator] In order to avoid the risk
of running out of fuel,
Abrams tanks typically travel with fuel trucks.
The tanks can store about 500 gallons of fuel
and can go about 275 miles on a single fill up.
And while it takes a lot of gas
to start and run an Abrams tank,
it also consumes a huge amount of fuel even when it's idle.
- Just the capacity is gonna be the big challenge.
Just making sure that they have enough fuel
to power these tanks, that might be a challenge for them.
Tanks are only one part of the overall equation.
The tanks require a lot of support.
So they require refueler vehicles,
they require maintenance vehicles,
they require ammunition trucks, you know, to support them.
And if you take those out,
if you're really able to disrupt that supply chain,
then the tanks are irrelevant at that point.
- [Narrator] Tanks are able to get through
a variety of terrains, but tank support vehicles
can have a difficult time traveling through mud,
snow, and other rough terrains.
- If conditions degrade, you know, bridges are out,
excessive mud, deep snow,
that can all disrupt the supply chain
and make it a lot harder to properly refuel
and re-arm those tanks. - [Narrator] And for the tanks
to operate the most effectively,
Ukrainian forces will need to manage
a pipeline of high quality fuels.
- The turbine engine in the Abrams is a multi-fuel engine.
The efficiency and the effectiveness of the, you know,
of the engine would be reduced
if you're using kind of a lower grade fuel.
The kind of diesel fuel that the military uses
will work quite well in the Abrams.
And as long as the Ukrainians have have access
to quality diesel fuel,
they should be able to operate the Abrams just fine.
- [Narrator] But the U.S.'s Abrams tanks
aren't the only tanks that Ukraine needs to plan for.
It will need to manage supply chains
to support multiple types of tanks,
including its existing Soviet era T-72s,
Britain's Challenger 2s, Germany's Leopards,
and the U.S.'s M1 Abrams tanks.
And while other tanks may not require
as much fuel as the Abrams,
Grazier says Britain's Challenger 2
and Germany's Leopard are also technically more complex
than Ukraine's current tanks.
- There are gonna be some differences in the details
as far as how they're supported. And I think that's gonna be
a big challenge for the Ukrainians
in having to maintain three separate supply chains
to be able to support these three different tanks
that they're going to be receiving there
over the next couple of months.
- [Narrator] So if Ukrainian forces
will need to navigate complicated technology,
gas guzzling engines,
and create multiple complex supply chains,
why did the U.S. decide to send the Abrams tank?
- Ukraine needs foreign tanks because the ones they have
keep getting blown up by the Russians.
They need more tanks, and the Abrams tank is a good one.
There aren't that many old Soviet tanks around
for Ukraine to go shopping for.
- It was designed for the Cold War
to fight the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe.
So for the Abrams to go to Ukraine now is, in a way,
almost like it's going home.
- Right now, what Ukraine needs is offensive capabilities.
Not so much defensive to protect their territory,
but offensive to enable them
to drive the Russians out of their turf.
If you wanna take back ground in a ground war,
you need that kind of heavy armor to do it.
(tank engine rumbling)