On Tuesday the US State Department approved potential sale of M1A1 Abrams tanks along with associated ordinance and equipment for an estimated $3.75 billion, the US Department of Defense has announced.
Negotiations are likely ongoing, and a final contract has yet to be signed, but the impending deal appears to be in response to heightened Russian military action in Ukraine, particularly after the “close call” missile strike on Polish territory along the border, at the village of Przewodów on November 15.
That strike was initially widely blamed on Russian forces, as they were in the midst of a large-scale aerial attack on Ukrainian infrastructure at the time, but that later proved to be false. The Ukrainian government tried to use the incident, which actually was caused by an errant anti-air missile fired by Ukraine forces, to argue in favor of NATO Article 5 – potentially unleashing a WW3 scenario.
But Washington is now moving to bolster both the US troop presence in NATO-member Poland, which shares a lengthy border with Ukraine to its southeast, and defense equipment transferred to Polish armed forces.
The Pentagon is actually in the middle of a current build-up in Poland as part of ‘Operation Atlantic Resolve’ in response to the Ukraine war:
Eight hundred pieces of American military equipment, including cars and tanks, arrived in Poland over the weekend and were unloaded at the port of Gdynia.
As part of the Atlantic Resolve operation, the equipment and American soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division will be stationed in the country and Europe for the next nine months, after which they will be replaced with other soldiers, Polish News reports.
This is the 20th transhipment of American equipment carried out at the terminal, said the commercial director of the BCT terminal, Michał Kużajczyk. “Equipment transshipments have been taking place since 2018. So far, exports have been the most common, but now the equipment that will be used in Poland has arrived,” he said.
🇺🇸 🇵🇱 American tanks arrived in Poland
700 combat vehicles for the 1st Infantry Division of the US Army, including tanks and other armored vehicles, were delivered to the port of Gdynia in Poland. pic.twitter.com/Cd7wuko0Wk
— AZ 🛰🌏🌍🌎 (@AZgeopolitics) December 6, 2022
As for the impending deal to sell $3.75 billion in M1A1 Abrams to Warsaw, Reuters has listed the below primary contractors involved in the negotiations, per a DOD notification…
“The principal contractors will be AAR of Wood Dale, Illinois; Allison Transmissions of Birmingham, Alabama; Anniston Army Depot of Anniston, Alabama; BAE Systems of Sterling Heights, Michigan; General Dynamics Land Systems (GD.N) of Sterling Heights, Michigan; Honeywell (HON.O) of Phoenix; L3Harris of Melbourne, Florida; Leonardo DRS of West Plains, Missouri; Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Maryland; Palomar of Rancho Santa Margarita, California; Pearson Engineering of Phoenix and US Ordnance of McCarran, Nevada,” the Pentagon detailed.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/07/2022 – 06:55
