How Will M1 Abrams Tanks Contribute to Taiwan's Defense?

TaiwanPlus News

A first batch of 108 U.S.-made M1 Abrams tanks ordered by Taiwan are due to arrive by the end of month. The tanks have been a mainstay of American armored warfare since the 1980s, but are they suitable for Taiwan's defense? TaiwanPlus speaks to Raymond Kuo, a security analyst at the RAND Corporation.

Transcript

00:00A fully equipped Abrams weighs over 70 tons and is roughly 8 meters long, much longer

00:06than the Taiwan's current M60 tanks, which weigh close to 55 tons and are less than 7

00:11meters long. And that's what some say is the problem. Their size could make them unsuitable

00:16for Taiwan's dense major cities. For more on Taiwan's new tanks and how they

00:21could be used in the conflict, our reporter Jaime O'Conn spoke to Raymond Guo, a security

00:26analyst at the RAND Corporation. So Raymond, Taiwan has reportedly received

00:32the first batch of these new U.S. Abrams tanks. I want to first ask, how are these tanks going

00:37to be used in Taiwan's defense? Now, for this particular Abrams component,

00:42the idea is that if there's a case of invasion, you need some kind of ground force with which

00:48to repel the attack, particularly in terms of beachheads. If the Chinese can establish

00:54a beachhead in one of those, was it 14, I think, red beaches? Well, you need to have

00:59something there that can knock them back into the sea. Tanks can be one of those things,

01:05but there are also a variety of other operational strategies that we can discuss, other tactics

01:10we can assess, that might be more cost effective. At least in my mind, there's a fairly limited

01:16role. It's almost kind of like a break glass kind of emergency. If the Chinese have a beachhead,

01:20that's when you use these guys. Now, these tanks are pretty massive, and given

01:24how dense some of Taiwan's major cities are, do you think these tanks are suitable for

01:29this kind of terrain? In terms of an urban environment, no, the

01:32Abrams tanks are not suited whatsoever. You know, tanks tend to do extremely poorly when

01:37they're in an urban environment because you can just kind of toss things down to the top

01:40of them where they have the thinnest armor. Also, you know, they're very, very heavy,

01:46and so just rolling a tank down the street will pretty much tear up most streets. Bridges

01:52have to be made so that they can support the weight of such a vehicle as well. Now, so

01:56in an urban environment, you know, the tanks tend to have relatively little utility. That

02:02said, there are geographic situations pertinent to Taiwan where they could have an impact

02:06or a pretty decisive impact. So, for example, if we're talking about beachheads, and so

02:11in rough terrain, you will want to attract heavy vehicles. You also want armor that can

02:15withstand, say, artillery barrages. You know, the expectation is that China will be barraging

02:20these beaches or kind of surrounding areas. So if you want to dislodge that beachhead,

02:24you need a vehicle that can actually survive that kind of force.

02:28These tanks are a bit of a deviation from the smaller asymmetric weapons route that

02:33many people say that Taiwan should be following. Do you think that these tanks are still a

02:37positive step in Taiwan's defense?

02:40Taiwan has been investing quite a lot in the asymmetric capabilities. I think if I recall

02:44correctly, it produces more anti-ship missiles than the United States does. There's a question

02:50about modernization of those systems. Do I think that there's a possibility that Taiwan

02:58would leave the asymmetric defense? I think the biggest thing in my mind is not operational

03:03necessity, but more about politics. There's also a prestige angle as well. I've written

03:08about this in the past that because Taiwan doesn't have a security commitment from the

03:11United States, it needs to take signals of U.S. commitment wherever it can find it. One

03:17of those things is prestige platforms. So, you know, an F-35, an F-16 Block V, even the

03:24Abrams tanks to some extent, the utility is not just in the operational side, but also

03:30in the sense that, you know, if the Chinese shoot down one of these planes, it's another

03:35sign that the United States, by giving us or selling us these weapons, really values Taiwan.

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