Abrams tanks arrive for duty
THE first 18 of the Australian army’s 59 new Abrams tanks arrive in Melbourne today, bound for the School of Armour at Puckapunyal.
Army chief Lt-Gen Peter Leahy was at Melbourne’s Webb Dock to greet the 67-tonne monsters when they trundle off a cargo ship.
The 59 tanks will replace the army’s ageing Leopard tanks, which entered service in 1976 but have never fired a shot in anger.
The Government ordered the Abrams tanks in 2004 as part of a plan to update the army so it can fight effectively on the type of battlefield more likely to be encountered in the 21st century.
