Taiwan has received 38 advanced “Abrams” combat tanks from the United States, the Defense Ministry announced, at a time when the island is strengthening its military capabilities against any possible Chinese attack.
Washington has long been Taipei’s most important ally and biggest arms supplier, angering Beijing, which says Taiwan is part of its territory.
The Ministry of Defense said that the M1A2 tanks, the first batch of 108 tanks ordered in 2019, arrived in Taiwan, late, and were transferred to an army training base in Hsinchu south of the capital Taipei, according to the”Agence France-Presse”.
The semi-official “Central News Agency” reported that the M1A2 tanks are the first new tanks delivered to Taiwan in 30 years.
The “Abrams” tanks are among the heaviest in the world.
The current Taiwanese tank force consists of about 1,000 Taiwanese CM11 Brave Tiger tanks and American-made M60A3 tanks, which are old technology.
The government had allocated the equivalent of more than 1.2 billion dollars for tanks of the 108th model “Abrams”.
Taiwan faces a constant threat of invasion from China, which has refused to rule out the use of force to subdue the island.
While Taiwan has a domestic defense industry and is modernizing its equipment, it relies heavily on US arms sales to strengthen its security capabilities.
Taiwan ordered modern M1A2 tanks in 2019. The rest of the order is expected to be delivered in 2025 and 2026, an army official told the”Agence France-Presse”.
