The 3rd Combined Arms Battalion of the Republic of China Army’s 584th Armored Brigade became the first Taiwanese military unit to be equipped with M1A2T main battle tanks, with an official commissioning ceremony held on October 31.
The M1A2Ts replace the CM-11 Brave Tiger tanks previously operated by the 3rd Combined Arms Battalion, with the battalion now operating two companies of 14 M1A2Ts each.
In his speech at the commissioning ceremony at the unit’s headquarters in Hukou, Hsinchu County, Taiwanese president Lai Ching-te said Taiwan’s military needed new training and new mindsets to match its new equipment in order to deliver the spirit of asymmetric warfare, improving combat effectiveness and implementing Taiwan’s overall defense strategy of “resolute defense and multilayered deterrence”.
Other senior officials in attendance included defense minister Wellington Koo.
Taipei currently has 108 M1A2Ts on order, with 80 tanks already delivered to the Republic of China Army. The remaining 28 are scheduled to arrive in early 2026. The M1A2T is believed to be broadly equivalent to the M1A2 SEPv3 in equipment and performance, with the U.S. armor package replaced with the current export armor package.
According to the Central News Agency, the next units in line for the M1A2Ts is the 1st and 2nd Combined Arms Battalions, which will have two tank companies equipped with M1A2Ts, and a single tank company of an infantry battalion under the 269th Mechanized Infantry Brigade.