Polish Army Receives New Batch of Enhanced American Abrams Tanks

The Polish Army has received a second batch of M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams main battle tanks, with the delivery of 19 new vehicles bringing the total fleet up to 47 of a total of 250 tanks. The tanks were ordered in April 2022 under a $4.8 billion contract. This followed a prior order for 116 older M1A1 tanks from the United States, which although less sophisticated have almost identical maintenance requirements to the M1A2 ensuring high levels of interoperability. The final batch of M1A1 Abrams tanks consisting of 47 vehicles was <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/delivery-116-m1a1-poland-major-war" >delivered in July 2024</a>, just 13 months after the first tanks arrived in the country on June 28, 2023. Compared to the M1A1, the M1A2 SEPv3 benefits from thicker&nbsp;turret and hull front armour, is easier to maintain, and boasts an increased power generation and distribution capacity and superior network centric warfare capabilities. The vehicle is also compatible with the new M829A4 kinetic energy anti-tank round. The Abrams had been in service in the U.S. Army for 45 years since 1980, and remains one of just two tank classes in production in the Western world today alongside the German Leopard 2. The tank has continued to be incrementally modernised, with the M1A2 SEPv3 representing one of the most capable variants.&nbsp;<img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/05/12/article_6821fd2ad9b807_05748025.jpg" title="M1A2 Abrams Tanks Delivered to the Polish Army">Despite many formidable performance characteristics, the Abrams has been widely assessed to performed poorly in its first ever conflict with a peer level adversary when operated by the Ukrainian Army against Russian forces. Its performance has been&nbsp;<a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/dissatisfied-abrams-losses-technical-issues">reflected on poorly&nbsp;</a>by Ukrainian crews, who have complained of technical issues including vulnerability of electronic components to condensation, as well as the tank’s demonstrated vulnerability in combat. <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/new-footage-shows-ukraine-s-u-s-supplied-abrams-tanks-in-first-combat-images-indicate-possible-combat-loss" >In&nbsp;February 2024</a>&nbsp;the tanks saw their&nbsp;first engagements with Russian forces, taking&nbsp;heavy losses including to drones, anti tank missiles and the&nbsp;<a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/russian-t72b3-abrams-ukraine" >guns of T-72 tanks</a>.&nbsp;The Ukrainian Army&nbsp;<a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/ukrainian-army-withdraws-abrams-losses" >withdrew</a>&nbsp;the tanks from frontline positions in the final week of April 2024,&nbsp;with personal lamenting that the lack sufficient armour for modern battlefields.&nbsp;Vice Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Christopher Grady subsequently indicating that they had not been effective.&nbsp;<img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/05/12/article_6821fd4ce21143_31139182.webp" title="Abrams Tank Destroyed Near Avdiivka">The Polish Army is one of very few in the world procuring more than one class&nbsp; of main battle tank simultaneously, and alongside the 336 Abrams tanks it has ordered, the planned procurement of approximately&nbsp;<a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/poland-1000-k2-russia-obsolete" >1000&nbsp; K2 tanks </a>from South Korea are expected to make up the backbone of the fleet for decades into the future. The first 180 Korean tanks were ordered in July 2022, with deliveries beginning in December that year. The emergence of an <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/skorea-poland-stuck-impasse-k2-tank-sales" >impasse</a> in negotiations for the second batch of 180 tanks with South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem&nbsp;in April 2025, however, has raised the possibility that K2 procurements will be delayed or scaled down. Large scale procurements of the K2 and the Abrams in parallel has allowed&nbsp; Poland to supply its prior inventories German Leopard 2 and Soviet&nbsp; T-72 and PT-71 tanks to Ukraine in significant numbers, with a new batch of modernised T-72&nbsp;having been&nbsp;<a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/ukraine-receives-large-batch-t72-tanks-poland" >supplied</a>&nbsp;in early March 2025 bringing the estimated total supply to over 300.&nbsp;