U.S. to provide Ukraine with depleted uranium munitions in September – media

The United States will soon send armor-piercing rounds with depleted uranium to Ukraine for the first time.

This is reported by Reuters, citing its own sources.

These shells are intended for American Abrams tanks, which will be delivered to Ukraine in the coming weeks.

The tank munitions are part of a new military aid package to Ukraine to be announced next week.

The upcoming tranche of defense support from the United States is estimated at between $240 million and $375 million, whichever comes in. Its cost and content are still being clarified.

Tank armor-piercing shells with depleted uranium and other weapons will be provided directly from the U.S. Army reserves.

In June, it became known that the White House was ready to provide Ukraine with depleted uranium shells for Abrams tanks, following weeks of internal debate.

Previously, ammunition with depleted uranium was provided to Ukraine by the United Kingdom for Challenger 2 tanks.

Depleted uranium is a byproduct of the uranium enrichment process for execution in nuclear power. Its radioactivity is less than that of natural uranium.

The core of uranium alloys with other metals has a large penetration capacity of tank armor, and pyrophoricity can inflict damage on the crew and equipment of the tank inside after hitting. Such shells have been used for several decades, both in the U.S. Army and in other countries of the world.

American projectiles

For the Abrams tank, an armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot tank rounds with a depleted uranium penetrator is standard. The U.S. Army currently uses its modern versions of M829A3 and M829A4.

M829A was created in the early 2000s. The total length of the penetrator is 800 mm, while the front part of steel is 10 cm, and the rod of depleted uranium is 70 cm. The diameter of the core is 25 mm, and the weight is up to 10 kg. At an initial velocity of 1,550 m/s, such a projectile is able to penetrate at least 700 mm of tank armor at a distance of 2 km. Currently, the latest version of the M829A4 is in serial production. The shell has received improvements that allows it to penetrate even thicker tank armor.