Secretary of State Baker promised Mikhail Gorbachev that we would not be sending missiles into eastern Europe after the collapse of the Berlin wall to make a nuclear first strike against Russia possible. That is despite the US having much inferior missiles. Ukraine makes a tank that is far superior to America's Abrams and even superior to the best that Russia has. Europe rates tanks in competition and America does not do well. Ukraine's tanks are rated superior to the German Leopard tanks as well. In fact Ukraine won a contract to sell tanks to an Asian country. But they could not fulfill the contract and make any deliveries because of corruption and financial instability.
If we were rational, we would sell off our Abrams tanks and buy the right to manufacture Ukraine's superior tank.
But all this Russia Russia nonsense is in part due to a desire to sell inferior American weapons to Poland, Ukraine and the rest of eastern Europe as part of NATO expansion. I would rather have an AK-47 than an M-16 in combat, especially if it were made to higher standards like the Century Arms version.