US to speed up delivery of Abrams tanks to Ukraine
The United States is going to speed up the manufacture and delivery of the 31 Abrams tanks President Joe Biden approved sending to Ukraine, a U.S. official confirmed Tuesday.
Instead of making new tanks from scratch, the Department of Defense will now refurbish the hulls of several older models that will be equipped with more modern equipment, according to the official.
![](https://s.abcnews.com/images/Politics/us-abrams-tank-gty-mz-16-230124_1674584019489_hpMain.jpg)
The new delivery target date is fall 2023, the official said; previously the anticipated delivery time was believed to be mid-2024.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby hinted at the accelerated timeline on Tuesday.
"We're working on that," Kirby said on MSNBC. "There's some changes that you can make to the process to sort of speed that up."
-ABC News' Luis Martinez and Teresa Mettela