Why Does Taiwan Need M-1 Abrams Tanks?

Why does Taiwan need M-1 Abrams tanks?

The U.S. State Department has approved a Taiwanese request to buy 108 M-1A2T Abrams tanks. The U.S. Congress still has to approve the $2 billion sale, which includes fourteen M88A2 Hercules tank recovery vehicles, and several thousand rounds of 120-millimeter shells of various types.

“The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region,” stated the State Department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency. China, which considers Taiwan to be a renegade Chinese province, most vehemently disagrees.

But there is a more practical question: of all the weapons that Taiwan would need to defend itself against a Chinese invasion, should main battle tanks be at the top of the list?

First, Taiwan is an island. To forcibly conquer Taiwan, China will have either bombard it into submission with missiles and aircraft, or conduct an amphibious and airborne invasion across the 110-mile-wide Taiwan Strait. If China can land a sizeable force on Taiwan, then it has achieved sufficient air and naval superiority in the face of Taiwanese—and quite possibly U.S.—defenses.

Presumably, those 108 M1A2, and the five hundred or so older M60A3 and M48 tanks would counterattack the beachhead. But as the Nazis discovered in Normandy, this is no easy matter: the attacker has surprise and local superiority, while the defender has to run a gauntlet of interdicting air bombardment and naval gunfire (today supplemented by ballistic missiles). And China will have no shortage of tank-killing weapons, including smart bombs, attack helicopters, and People’s Liberation Army marines and paratroopers that will be armed with plentiful anti-tank rockets as well as amphibious armor and airdroppable light tanks. If that’s not enough, China is developing missile-armed drones that could stalk tanks.

Put another way, if China can successfully land and maintain several divisions on Taiwan, then Taiwan is in trouble.

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