On Monday, April 27, 2026, Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) reported the third and final shipment of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks, completing the contract for 108 vehicles. The previous deliveries, comprising 38 and 42 tanks respectively, arrived on the island on December 16, 2024, and July 28, 2025.
Illustrative photo: Ministry of National Defense of the Republic of China
According to CNA, yesterday, shortly after midnight, at 12:10 a.m. local time, tractor-trailers with low-loader semitrailers carrying American-made tanks began leaving the docks of the Port of Taipei in the Bali District of New Taipei. The convoy, escorted by police and military police, headed along the eastern coast expressway to the armored forces training center of the 584th Armored Brigade, headquartered in Hsinchu in northwestern Taiwan.
It should be noted that on October 31, 2025, an official ceremony marking the entry into service of the M1A2T Abrams with the Republic of China (Taiwan) Army was held at the Hukou barracks of the 3rd Tank Battalion of the 584th Brigade. Earlier, in May, the first field training exercise took place, including live firing of the main armament at the Hangzikou training area in Hsinchu.
According to plans by Taiwan’s armed forces command, made public on January 22, 2024, 98 tanks went to Hsinchu, while the remaining 10 were also assigned to the 269th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, headquartered in Taoyuan in the same part of the island and subordinate to the Department of Equipment and Training. The Abrams tanks are replacing CM-11 Brave Tiger tanks in the 6th Army Corps.
The first two M1A2T tanks were presented at the Taiwan-US Army New Combat Vehicle Project Management conference in July 2022. Taiwan received approval to purchase the tanks on July 8, 2019, and an intergovernmental agreement on the matter was signed by the end of that year.
The contract value was estimated at a maximum of around 2 billion USD, while according to the agreement it amounted to 39.8 billion TWD, or 34% less. Deliveries were originally scheduled to be completed by June 30, 2028, but the timetable was significantly accelerated thanks to increased production capacity at the Joint Systems Manufacturing Center in Lima, Ohio, which is owned by the US Department of Defense but managed by General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS).
In addition to the tanks, Taiwan requested 14 M88A2 HERCULES armored recovery vehicles and 16 Oshkosh M1070A1 HET heavy equipment transporters with the same number of M1000 low-bed semitrailers. The package also included support equipment and weapons; the launch of domestic production of 120 mm ammunition is also planned – editor’s note.
The M1A2T is a variant of the M1A2SEPv3 without special armor with depleted uranium inserts and not adapted for the installation of a hard-kill active protection system (APS).
Meanwhile, deliveries of M1A2SEPv3 tanks to Poland, 146 of 250 delivered, and Australia, 46 of 75 delivered, are ongoing.
The vast majority of these M1A2T Abrams will arm the 242nd and 584th Combined Arms Brigades located in northeast Taiwan.
Two battalions, the 1st and 3rd Combined Arms Battalions of the 584th, have already commissioned Abrams into service, replacing older CM-11s.
Our… https://t.co/o1IOSBvOve pic.twitter.com/Yokg9hxRFM
— Taiwan Security Monitor (台灣安全觀測站) (@TaiwanMonitor) April 27, 2026
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