Dozens of Australian tanks will be saved from the scrap heap and gifted to Ukraine instead.
The M1A1 Abrams tanks have been Australia’s tank of choice for the past 20 years.
Rather than retiring its current fleet, the government has agreed to gift 49 vehicles to Ukraine.
The tanks have been in service since 2007 but have never seen active combat after being held back from deployment in Afghanistan.
In addition to new drones, missiles, and 120 Bushmasters, the delivery of tanks to Ukraine takes Australia’s total contribution to more than $1.3 billion.
source
Scrap metal value within weeks…other than the few that get sold on the black market
Oh well, no problem you dont need to support AUS
Ukraine is Saved!! Their power grid won't survive Winter, out of trained men, air defense, artillery/tubes, planes,etc. Ukraine's military is collapsing, America has moved on to Israel, Kiev is a very distant second in priorities. Ukraine can negotiate now or unconditionally surrender later. Sadly, Project Ukraine has failed. Show Mercy, the soldiers are fighting for nothing at this point.
Love our allies! Make sure you look at the difference between allies prepared to defend themselves with a little help vs a lot of help. Prioritize appropriately , make your own decisions 👍🏾
AUD$1.3B … and worth every last cent !
Zelensky has outlawed negative press, arrested journalist abd suspended elections indefinitely. All this after he took over in the 2014 US backed coup. He even occupied the Crimia for a time. A region that had previously had a refarendem that overwealmingly supported staying with Russia, as 90% of the region was primarily Russian speaking. Does anyone really think this is about protecting democracy?
What else we going to give away ??
As long as it's not money
Albo the proven liar more interested in sending our money and resources overseas than helping aussies
Does albo get some of the money our used tanks will generate on the black market
Who's gonna operate the tanks….
Absolutely ridiculous Ukraine is just on the take
Well this must indicate that we don't need to upgrade our own military, that we have an excess of defending ourselves, so we can give away what we don't need. Good news then when the next request for defense building comes through, no need to spend a cent, just give it away to others, we have enough.
I thought they didnt want them.
when is the West making a new modern heavy tank design? almost all of them are give or take 40 years old.
These tanks will turn things around for sure. I expect we'll see Ukrainian troops marching on Moscow any day now. Game changer!!!
They’re inflating the value of the tanks. Seriously. How can something that is written off and destined for the scrap yard suddenly be worth hundreds of millions? Aren’t they saving money not having to pick them apart?
Bonkers math.
China and Indonesia rattling the sabres to our North and we gift 49 bloody tanks to Ukraine,,,,??? ,, both sides of government are traitors to our great country ,, Wake up Australians ,, this is a bloody disgrace 😡😡😡🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺
There is no way we should give the Tanks to anyone, we need them to be kept here we might need them one day. We should be keeping old kit in storage because in a war if our frontline equipment gets destroyed we can then draw down on our reserves. But we won't be ab le to because we got a bad habit of getting rid of everything! Sheer madness
Why not wait 3 weeks until USA have their election ? I wish the Aussie election was only 3 weeks away.
Ukraine get better value at the Car Boot Sale in Kabul.
And wont see combat in Ukraine is 3 weeks time that racket 💸 will be over ..
Russia will appreciate the scrap metal.
Russia 🇷🇺 has now more targets for there killers drones Anthony abo easy Australia worst pm step forward Mr Dutton
These tanks need lots of work to make them useful, all doable, saves Aus a fortune in decommissioning them. It was too expensive to send them back to the US for rebuild when we bought the SEPV3's so I hope the Ukrainians or someone else is paying the transport bill
Ukra NaZii terrorists say “ thanks” 🤡
🥺 naww…I want a tank. 😮💨
And the word go one shame on you🥲😭😭😭
Liberal Shadow Minister approves 👍
Why, are we gifting a dictator our tanks.
This makes Australia a big fat target for Russian nukes , we have braindead communists running our once great country.
Idiots
Why there not keeping these Tanks, refurbish them and send them to Darwin NT and have there 1 Armored Rgt + 1 Armored Rgt. (50 Tanks) in Townsville QLD, from the 75 New Tanks there getting from the US? Plus get 700 Redbacks IFV and form 4 New Cavalry Rgts. (1 in Darwin NT, 1 in Townsville QLD, 1 in Brisbane QLD and 1 in Sydney NSW). Plus create 4 New Mechanised Brigades (1 Darwin NT, 1 Townsville QLD,
1 Brisbane QLD and 1 Perth WA).
Gifting nothing, they are not ours !! Complete rubbish story !!
Each bushmaster cost $500,000 to fix before sending them to Ukraine
Being an Australian citizen is becoming truly embarrassing. Richard Marles you are moron mate.
Why don`t they tell the truth we don`t own those Abrams they were traded in on the new ones they belong to America, they have just allowed Australia to ship them to Ukraine at our cost instead of sending to storage in the US. The government is just trying to get the praise for it. Some need refurbishing, and half of them are buggered and only good for parts. So the west keeps dumping their outdated trash to Ukraine claiming it as supporting them. It`s criminal to put anyone in those tanks if you haven`t already seen what happened to the one the US sent over. Same as the Leopard 1`s, Leopard 2`s and Challenger 2`s all rubbish all useless.
Another Game Changer Weapons 😅😂😅 nah😅😅
We agreed to protect Ukraine, we should do our best to support them
Putin's buddy boys are so mad today that Australia must be doing something right.
Australia, an island in the middle of nowhere that has so much weaponry, is nonsense except for a warlike policy.
Boost its arsenal.
we should be holding these in reserve! ffs look at the state of the world! we could fkin need them!
Another piece of rubbish Russia will display in the museum! 😂😂😂
Albo should go to help Zelensky!😂
Lots of clueless muppets in the comment section. These were destined to be scrapped but still have some life in them, it's not costing us in any capability loss.
Slava Ucraina 💛💙 Decommissioned, does not mean scrap, it is simply a lower generation that can no longer be upgraded… In Ukraine they have already sent American ABRAMS M 1A1 – German Leopard 2A6 – English Challenger 2, – French Leclerc, tanks in perfect working order but of a lower generation… In any case a generation superior to the best Russian scrap T90M…
Even including the 49 Abrams from Australia, the Ukrainians haven't got enough Abrams to form a single tank brigade. The Russians on the other hand still field many tank brigades and divisions.