Morocco Renews Tank Fleet and Moves to Obtaining Fifth Generation of F-35

The Moroccan armament, with the latest technology, tanks and modern military equipment, is receiving great attention from Spain, which is impressed by the modernization of Moroccan military equipment.

The Spanish newspaper “El Espanol” revealed that Morocco has modernized its army’s ground forces, by modernizing its tank fleet, noting that restoring relations with Israel will open the door for Morocco to acquire the fifth generation of “F-35” fighters.

El Espanol said, “Morocco’s investments have increased in renewing its army over the past few years; Spain’s neighbor has achieved this with the United States, the partner and supplier of military materials par excellence for the North African country.”

The same newspaper added that “the restoration of diplomatic relations with Israel has opened the door to the fifth generation of ‘Lockheed martin F-35’ fighters, which join the confirmation of the receipt of ‘predator’ drones, and a project that has been in operation for nearly nine years: owning a modern tank.“

The Spanish newspaper drew attention to “these armored tanks are the backbone of any army on the ground, as the fighters are in the air,” considering that “having a large fleet of these well maintained vehicles ensures a very important force on the ground, which is more important in these new times where electronic warfare plays an essential role.”

As is the case with the “M60 Patton” tank groups in the 1990s, the same source adds, “Morocco again requested the United States in 2012 to purchase a fleet of ‘M1 Abrams’”, noting that” this model is the armored vehicle par excellence for the United States Army to participate in battles such as in Iraq or Afghanistan.”

The newspaper went on to say, “to know the beginning of Morocco’s relationship with the Abrams tanks, we must return to June 2012, about nine years ago, when the American Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) announced that the Moroccan government requested 222 “M1A1 Abrams” tanks from U.S. military”.

After only five years, the newspaper recalls: “That is, in 2017, the DSCA itself announced approval to purchase 162 other battle tanks, in this case the M1A2 model, and Morocco’s land army will have a fleet of 364 Abrams tanks of different models and from developed countries.”

El Espanol indicated that the M1A2 variant was the type that received the most of attention in recent months. As part of the fleet upgrade policy, Morocco announced last October that it would invest 12 million dollars to upgrade the SEPV3 version″, stressing that “the Moroccan units will start upgrading and modernizing throughout 2021, to end work in the first quarter of 2022.”

The same source stated that, in terms of specifications, “the dimensions of the new version of the Abrams tanks are 9.77 meters in length, 3.7 in width and 2.4 in height. The maximum speed is 68 kilometers per hour, its range is 425 kilometers, and weighs 66.8 tons”, noting that “currently, Morocco has 162 M1A2 units awaiting upgrade, which were purchased from the United States for1.25 billion dollars in 2017.”

The cost of each of the “M1A1 Abrams”, which has already been modernized, is five million dollars. In addition to Morocco and the United States, “Abrams has a presence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Egypt and Australia”.