{"id":400713,"date":"2019-03-21T23:18:47","date_gmt":"2019-03-21T22:18:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/pouring-6-bn-into-tank-factory-trump-says-the-m1-abrams-is-best-in-the-world-is-it-really-rt-usa-news\/"},"modified":"2019-03-21T23:18:47","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T22:18:47","slug":"pouring-6-bn-into-tank-factory-trump-says-the-m1-abrams-is-best-in-the-world-is-it-really-rt-usa-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/pouring-6-bn-into-tank-factory-trump-says-the-m1-abrams-is-best-in-the-world-is-it-really-rt-usa-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Pouring $6 bn into tank factory, Trump says the M1 Abrams is \u2018best in the world.\u2019 Is it really? \u2014 RT USA News"},"content":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump pledged a hefty sum of $6 billion to upgrade America\u2019s M1 Abrams tanks, lauding them as the best tanks ever built. The statement has more PR value than truth to it, military experts have told RT.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cAmerica does not need conflict. But if conflict comes, and you know the story \u2013 you\u2019ve got to be strong if conflict comes \u2013 we will dominate the battlefield, and we will win, win, win. We\u2019re now set up to win, win, win,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Trump said on Wednesday, as he appeared at the Lima Army Tank plant in Ohio.<\/p>\n

\n

Read more<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\"Pentagon<\/source><\/source><\/picture>

<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

The facility used to produce the M1 Abrams main battle tanks, and now it will be busy again, as Trump has pledged to pour $6 billion into it over the next three years in order to upgrade the ageing war machines.<\/p>\n

The US president praised the plant, its workers, himself and, naturally, the tank, describing it as a true \u201cwarhorse\u201d<\/em> of the US ground forces and dubbing it \u201cthe most effective, reliable, and lethal battle tank in the history of war.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSo how does this compare with the tanks made in China and Russia and other places? What do you think? Can we take them? They say it\u2019s much better,\u201d<\/em> Trump bragged, as he pretasted the game-changing upgrades.<\/p>\n

The assessment raised a few eyebrows, as the M1 Abrams could hardly have attained such a title. Trump\u2019s statement, however, is perfectly legit as an over-the-top advertisement for the tank, Viktor Litovkin, a military expert with TASS, believes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have to advertise American weaponry. Trump is making such advertising, yet it\u2019s a big question if it really corresponds with the reality,\u201d<\/em> Litovkin told RT.<\/p>\n


\n
\n
\n Also on rt.com<\/span>
\n Pentagon relaunches Cold War-era Assault Breaker program to fend off Russia & China \u2013 report<\/span>
\n <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Modern war machines, produced in Russia and China, surpass the iconic US tank in many respects, military expert Alexey Leonkov told Vzglyad newspaper.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe latest [Chinese] Type 99 model is quite a decent tank with an automatic loader,\u201d Leonkov said. \u201cThe top-notch M1 Abrams lacks an automatic loader. Its \u2018loader mechanism\u2019 is a serviceman. The rate of fire, the aim precision depends on how fast this soldier operates. And a loss of him makes the task hardly doable altogether.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Abrams is a decent tank, but it belongs to the past century.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Adding further upgrades to the M1 Abrams could make the machine, which weight over 60 tons, even heavier, turning it into an old-school heavy tank rather than a modern main battle one, Leonkov speculated. Aside from the tonnage, the Abrams has quite impressive dimensions, which make it easier to hit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we compare its silhouette with one of the T-90, the Russian tank has significantly lower projection. It is a hard target at the battlefield at a distance of 2 km.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The history of the M1 Abrams use clearly shows it\u2019s not the \u201cbest ever\u201d<\/em> tank, as Trump described it. Whereas the US campaigns in Iraq \u2013 where the majority of Iraqi armor was destroyed by aviation and not in land combat \u2013 might have produced such an impression, the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East have clearly shown its vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we recall how these tanks were fighting for Saudi Arabia against the flip-flop-clad Houthis \u2013 the latter have shown in Yemen that Abrams can be penetrated from various sides and burns very well. Therefore the experts simply cannot call the M1 Abrams a flawless tank.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Like this story? Share it with a friend!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump pledged a hefty sum of $6 billion to upgrade America\u2019s M1 Abrams tanks, lauding them as the best tanks ever built. The statement has more PR value than truth to it, military experts have told RT. \u201cAmerica does not need conflict. But if conflict comes, and you know the story \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":400714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-400713","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}