How Trump Saved the Abrams Tank

Soon after his first inauguration in January 2017, President Trump saved the Abrams tank. What started as a Fox News interview on lowering the price of tanks quickly turned into a dedicated plan to rejuvenate Army tank production and rebuild the Midwest defense industrial base, too.

Then, the Obama Administration withdrew U.S. tanks from Europe as it pushed its “reset” approach to Russia. At one point, the U.S. Army even proposed shuttering the Lima production facility when faced with budget reductions. America’s armored vehicle defense industrial base shrank dramatically as activity at the Lima tank plant in northwest Ohio, which had once produced 60 Abrams per month, worked on only 12 per year. Only additional funding from Congress kept a minimal Abrams workforce and supply chain in place. 

“The fact is we have the best tanks driven by the best soldiers, made by the best workers anywhere in the world,” Trump said when he visited the Joint Systems Manufacturing Center in Lima on March 20, 2019. 

The Trump Administration subsequently returned American tank brigades to Europe. In particular, recognizing Poland’s dramatic defense budget increases and modernization in response to Russian aggression in Ukraine, a U.S. Army armored brigade was based in that front-line NATO country. Encouraged by the Trump Administration, Poland also became the first NATO ally to purchase nearly 400 Abrams tanks for its forces. Poland needs many more tanks. 

Yet this story is not a one-dimensional story about military weapons like so many others. President Trump not only recognized the need for more armor in Europe and for our allies, but he also uniquely tied this defense industrial base spending to domestic social cohesion. With his key first-term White House aides Peter Navarro and Alex Gray, Trump recognized how the hollowed-out Midwest industrial base was a cause of family breakdowns, drug addiction, and other grim societal problems. During his first term, Trump was able to tie an overseas strategic goal to a domestic reform that lifted up the local communities that had suffered so much from overseas manufacturing competition and the winding down of defense spending at the end of the Cold War. It was quite an insight and quite a plan. 

The Biden Administration then reduced tank modernization funding, even as Russia initiated a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Congress continued adding funds to sustain the tank industrial base. Meanwhile, foreign military sales of Abrams tanks have continued to U.S. allies and partners Poland, Romania, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia and Morocco. Those overseas sales help keep the unit cost of each tank lower than if only the U.S. Army was buying them. 

The Abrams main battle tank is an iconic symbol of U.S. military power. That will continue even as the lessons of modern conflict are accommodated. Having previously saved it from virtual extinction, the President can now put Abrams on a path to remain one of the definitive instruments of conventional deterrence.

The U.S. Army will remain a key element of NATO’s deterrence credibility in Eastern Europe. It must be supplied with the most modern upgraded tanks, air defense and fighting vehicles. The Trump Administration should budget to resume the President’s schedule for Abrams upgrades and initiate production of the improved “Abrams X” during his second term in office. Poland should be encouraged to continue its impressive defense build-up and acquire additional Abrams tanks to stand alongside U.S. Army armor units based in Poland. The U.S. and Poland should agree to base a second armored brigade there to deter Russia and pursue plans to rearm Ukraine with hundreds of tanks. 

Having saved the Abrams tank, President Trump owns it. Its modernization, deployment with U.S. forces, and the purchases by NATO allies guarantee that the Abrams tank will continue to be a valuable tool in his strategy to deter aggression and avoid new wars. Like Franklin Roosevelt, who used New Deal stimulus monies in the 1930s to launch what became the massive World War Two defense industrial colossus, Donald Trump has creatively merged his overseas strategic goals with his ambitious efforts to help domestic constituencies in need. And it is working on both fronts.

Merrick Carey is CEO and founder of the Lexington Institute, a public policy think tank established in 1998 and based in Arlington, Virginia.