The Pentagon has announced a federal order for the supply of depleted uranium munitions, according to documents published in the US government’s Federal Procurement Register. The ammunition is for arming the Abrams tanks. Such depleted uranium munitions were already used by the US in the wars in the former Yugoslavia and Iraq despite the severe consequences of radiation for the local population.
According to the documents, on December 14 last year, the Pentagon announced an order for the production of M829A4 Cartridges, 120mm, Armor Piercing, Fin Stabilized, Discarding Sabot with Tracer (APFSDS-T). The documents state that these munitions contain depleted uranium and will be used for the Abrams tanks. The deadline for responding to the announcement expired a week ago, on January 18.
In parallel with this order, the Pentagon has announced a second one – for the supply of depleted uranium for the M829A4 from the American company Aerojet Ordnance Tennessee.
Russian diplomats have already warned that if such depleted uranium munitions were delivered on the tanks to Ukraine, Moscow would regard it as a “nuclear provocation”.
The head of the Russian delegation to the negotiations in Vienna on military security and arms control, Konstantin Gavrilov, called on the West to prevent “nuclear provocations” with Leopard 2 tanks, Tass reported.
“We know that the Leopard 2 tanks, as well as the Bradley and Marder armored personnel carriers, are armed with armor-piercing shells with uranium warheads. Their use leads to contamination of the area, as was the case in the former Yugoslavia and Iraq. In the event that such NATO-made tank ammunition is delivered to Kiev, we will consider this to be the use of a ‘dirty bomb’ against Russia with all the consequences that follow,” he said at an OSCE forum on cooperation in the field of security.
The German government decided earlier to send 14 Leopard 2A6 tanks to Ukraine. Separately, Berlin will allow re-exports from other countries. The US has announced that it will send 31 Abrams tanks.
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