Morocco has reportedly taken delivery of another batch of M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks from the United States.
On June 4, 2017, Moroccan media reported that a new batch of Abrams tanks would soon be delivered to Casablanca. Footage of the tanks prior to shipping had been seen previously.
Looks like another shipment of #Morocco M1A1 SA Abrams from #US are enroute http://t.co/M6FJfJm71B pic.twitter.com/tPHpKefJvm— Joseph Dempsey (@JosephHDempsey) May 22, 2017
Several days later, on June 7, several images as well as a video emerged, purportedly from Casablanca, showing the tanks being transported, with netting covering them. It is unclear how many vehicles were delivered in this batch.
Video of new vehicle delivery to #Morocco from US. Uploader referred to it as Abrams MBT delivery— Derek Bisaccio (@DerekBisaccio) June 8, 2017
Hello what have we here? http://t.co/qVZDXKSOA3 pic.twitter.com/HSVopr7hre— Derek Bisaccio (@DerekBisaccio) June 7, 2017
The tanks were seemingly shipped straight to Morocco from the United States.
The ship was undoubtedly RoRo ARC Resolve (IMO 9080297) which arrived at 2017-06-07 09:52Z and left at 2017-06-07 21:56Z, went to Algeciras— Steffan Watkins 🇨🇦 (@steffanwatkins) June 8, 2017
Came direct from the US; ~14hrs in Wilmington NC, then ~13hrs in Dundalk MD— Steffan Watkins 🇨🇦 (@steffanwatkins) June 8, 2017
In 2012, the United States approved the sale of 200 M1A1 Abrams tanks to Morocco, with an estimated value of just over $1 billion. Morocco ultimately is to receive 222 tanks.
The first delivery occurred last year, in July. 22 tanks were delivered to Morocco.
Military markets analyst, covering Eurasia, Middle East, and Africa.
