Newly announced $2.6 billion package of military supplies for the Armed Forces of Ukraine includes a wide variety of ammunition, ranging from mortar shells and unguided 122mm rockets to Patriot air defense missiles.
Though we should pay extra attention to the 120mm tank ammunition, also mentioned in this list. As the Pentagon explained, those will are not only for the American M1 Abrams but as well for other Western tanks provided by Ukraine's allies. That includes Leopard 2 which is compatible with Abrams-type ammunition.
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This provision of tank shells from the United States gives a strong impression that the US will not stop short of sending depleted uranium (DU) ammunition because the tank shells will be provided under the Presidential Drawdown program, i.e. drawn directly from US Army's stocks.
The standard sub-caliber ammunition for Abrams in the US Army is the M829 projectile which is made with the use of DU. Modern versions of this ammo are the M829A3 and the M829A4.
The A3 version was created in the early 2000s as an answer to the russian new gen Kontakt-5 active armor kit. The M829A3 penetrator weighs 10 kg, it consists of a 10-cm head of steel and a 70-cm body of depleted uranium, the diameter is 25mm which is 3mm more than the previous versions. When accelerated to 1.55 km/s, this projectile guarantees penetration of the front armor of modernized russian tanks at any effective distance of real combat.
The upgraded M829A4 has been in development since 2015, the penetrator hasn't received any notable changes – the upgrades were in the propellant.
We should also note that besides the anti-armor projectiles, Abrams also utilizes the shaped-charge M830, the multi purpose M830A1 that works in either impact or proximity modes, and the M1028 canister which is very important against enemy manpower: each of these canister rounds contains over 1,000 tungsten elements effective even against personnel inside a fortification or a lightly armored vehicle.
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