The Republic of China Army third Battalion, 269th Mixed Arms Brigade, has performed workout routines testing the concentrating on capabilities of its newly operationalised M1A2 Abrams principal battle tanks, which have been procured from america in 2025. The brigade is the second within the Army to have acquired the autos, following the 584th Armored Brigade, with the Defence Ministry having ordered 108 of the autos that are anticipated to equip three brigades. Personnel utilised vehicle-mounted weapons such because the M153 distant weapon station, and employed an inside bore gunnery coaching system to simulate tank cannon firing. Workout routines reportedly verified the effectiveness of the tank crew’s weapons operation, and demonstrated glorious outcomes.
M1A2 Abrams tanks started deliveries to the Republic of China Army in December 2024, with the service having operationalised the autos on October 31, 2025. Coaching for crews on the Hukou Armor Coaching Command started in early 2025, whereas in July 2025 4 of the tanks participated in a live-fire train on the newly constructed Kengzikou Vary as a part of the Han Kuang 41 army drills. Commenting on the Abrams’ efficiency, Army Captain Cheng Yu-chun noticed that it offered “a serious leap ahead in firepower, mobility and safety” in comparison with the ageing M60A3 tank beforehand relied on to equip elite models. Commander of the 584th Armoured Brigade, Main Common Chou Kuang-i on the time noticed of the tank’s superior “hunter-killer” system: “It permits the gunner to interact a goal whereas the commander makes use of an impartial thermal sight to find the following one.” “This drastically will increase engagement effectivity and situational consciousness in comparison with older-generation tanks,” he added.
Though the Abrams represents a big enchancment in capabilities over the Republic of China Army’s earlier Vietnam Conflict period M60 and Korean Conflict period M48 principal battle tanks, its viability for top depth fight operations within the occasion of hostilities within the Taiwan Strait has been extensively questioned. The Abrams has confirmed extremely weak to assaults utilizing even comparatively fundamental anti-tank weapons when deployed by the Iraqi Army and the Ukrainian Army, and by early June 2025 the Ukrainian Army was assessed to have misplaced 87 % of the American sourced autos, with 27 of the 31 Abrams tanks destroyed or captured. This was regardless of the autos having solely begun to be deployed to the frontlines in February the earlier yr, extensively up-armoured, and regularly withdrawn from the frontlines to restrict attrition. The far superior anti-tank capabilities of the Chinese language mainland’s Individuals’s Liberation Army in comparison with the Russian Armed Forces has been among the many components main analysts to foretell that the Abrams fleet will seemingly not final lengthy in a possible excessive depth battle.
