Inside the classified mission to deliver Australian tanks to Ukraine
On a bleak winter's day in Poland we arrive at a location covered in fog and shrouded in secrecy.
Through the mist sit a dozen M1A1 Abrams tanks from Australia bound for Poland's war-torn neighbour Ukraine, which is locked in a brutal war with Russia.
While Australia's donation of 49 of these retired army tanks has been no secret, the details of the huge logistical effort to move them across the world and get them into Ukraine has been held tightly under wraps, until now.
The
first 37 tanks arrived in July, and the final 12 arrived in the past fortnight.
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) granted the ABC exclusive access to the classified operation and the team behind it — on the conditions that we did not reveal where in Poland we went and that we held off reporting until the mission was complete.
Colonel James Smith, commander of Operation Kudu, which is the ADF's commitment to training for Ukraine, told the ABC the secrecy was necessary to make sure the tanks made the journey safely.
"We won't do anything that compromises the security of Ukrainian [military] operations … what we're trying to do is keep the Ukrainians as safe as we can," Colonel Smith said.
"It is a huge undertaking to bring a 60-tonne tank halfway across the world and make sure when we hand it over it's ready for use … but we're very close now to having these final tanks ready to hand over."
