An Australian Army M1A1 Abrams Tank during Exercise Southern Jackaroo 23, in Townsville, Queensland. (Credit ADF Cpl. Nicole Dorrett)

SYDNEY —  Australia is transferring 49 M1A1 tanks to Ukraine, ending months of speculation about when, or if, Canberra would provide armor to Kyiv’s defense.

The formal announcement will be made in Brussels at the NATO Defense Ministerial meetings tomorrow by Pat Conroy, minister for defense industry and capability. The tanks have an estimated value of $245 million AUD ($164 million USD), bringing Australia’s military assistance to Ukraine to more than $1.3 billion. Conroy announced the transfer during a Wednesday press appearance in London.

“These tanks will deliver more firepower and mobility to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and complement the support provided by our partners for Ukraine,” Conroy said in a statement. The United States did have to approve the transfer as Australia bought them from America, which requires permission for countries to send US weapons to third countries, the minister noted.

Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko welcomed the news, calling the new armor in an interview with the ABC a “significant contribution” to Ukraine’s war effort.

“These tanks will be an essential part of our land defenses, and we have already been operating some of those tanks which we’ve been provided by the Americans in the past, so we already have teams of people who know how to use that equipment. The armor they have, the missiles that they also use will be of huge help to Ukrainians on the battlefield, especially where we build those defense lines,” the ambassador said in audio shared with Breaking Defense.

The sending of Abrams represents an about-face for the government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Back in late February, Defense Minister Richard Marles told a reporter that supplying Ukraine with these tanks was “not on the agenda.” The Abrams announcement also comes against the backdrop of months of criticism of the Australian government for not transferring its prematurely retired Taipan helicopters to Ukraine. Instead, the military here has stripped them for parts, which they’ve resold to Airbus, and scrapped the airframes.

Some of the tanks, because they are near the end of their lives, may need to be cannibalized or rebuilt to some degree, a decision that will be up to Ukraine.

This is all made possible because the Australian Army has begun receiving the first of its new M1A2 fleet of 75 tanks. “The reason for this timing is because we have begun receiving the M1A2 tanks, so this is the logical time to do this,” Conroy said in London. A small number of the 59 old tanks will be retained to assist the transition to the new tanks.

Just how effective the Abrams has been in Ukraine is a bit of a debate. Earlier this year, the Associated Press reported that Ukraine has decided to pull its fleet of American-supplied M1A1s from the front lines because they are too vulnerable to Russian weapons, and at least five of the 31 from the US have been lost to enemy fire. Since then, Ukraine has put reactive armor on the M1s and provided them with jammers to better protect them.