Black Dog F35038 Australian army tank crew in Afghanistan

The Australian Army was formed in 1901 and is one of the elements of the Australian Defense Forces. Australian Defense Force). In 2018, these troops numbered approximately 47,300 soldiers, of which approximately 30,000 served in line units, and approximately 17,300 were the so-called active reservists. Due to the geographical location of the armored forces, it did not play and still do not play such an important role in the Australian army as, for example, in the European or US Army. This state of affairs can be dated back to the beginning of the Cold War, when in 1952 Australia decided to purchase about 130 Centurion tanks in Great Britain. About 20 years later - in 1974 - it was decided to replace them with the Leopard 1 AS tanks, but only about 90 were purchased. Another tank change in the Australian army took place only in 2004, when it was decided to purchase 59 M1A1 Abrams tanks, the first of which were delivered to Australia in 2006. Currently, the M1A1 Abrams are main tanks of the Australian Armed Forces. These cars are in the 1st Armored Regiment (41 tanks) and in the Armored School in the city of Victoria (the remaining 18 tanks). It is worth adding that by purchasing the Abrams Australia vehicles, Australia also decided to purchase the M88A1 Hercules technical support vehicles.