Increasing U.S. Tank Production Helps National Security and the Industrial Base (From RealClearDefense)

From the outset, the Trump Administration has been committed both to rebuilding America’s military and revitalizing the industrial base that supports it. To serve both of these goals, the White House made the decision to substantially increase the production of the latest variant of the Abrams main battle tank. In Fiscal Year 2019, the Army will receive 135 Abrams tanks in the state-of-the-art M1A2 System Enhancement Package Version 3 (SEPv3) configuration, a number sufficient to equip 1.5 Armored Brigade Combat Teams. The decision to fund a significant increase in production of the SEPv3 version of the Abrams, if sustained, will have both near and long-term positive impacts on the U.S. Army and its supporting industrial base. I have written more on this subject for RealClearDefense here.