Romania intensifies search for more tanks and could look beyond Abrams
An Australian M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams taking part in a live fire trial; Romania has ordered the same vehicles. (Photo: Australian DoD)
Since signing a contract to purchase 54 M1A2 Abrams tanks last year, Romania has been looking into options to buy more tanks, but it could cast the net wider than Abrams with funding considerations potentially set to shape the outcome.
Romania has a programme of record for more main battle tanks, an issue reinforced by Lt Gen Dragoş-Dumitru Iacob, deputy chief of defence for the Romanian Armed Forces, at Defence IQ’s International Armoured Vehicles conference in Farnborough, UK on 22 January.
While Iacob said the effort had progressed to “investigating options”, some sources at the conference said movement on the effort may prove faster than implied, with a milestone in the process potentially being reached within “months”.
The country ordered 54 M1A2 System Enhancement Package version 3 standard (SEPv3) Abrams tanks in 2025 under Phase I, alongside 12 support vehicles, in
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