Washington’s city council might not be thrilled about President Trump’s decision to bring tanks to the district for the Fourth of July, but the 80-ton vehicles have long been a favorite of legislators on Capitol Hill.
Two M1A1 Abrams tanks arrived in Washington from Fort Stewart, Georgia, via freight train Tuesday ahead of Trump’s “Salute to America” event. The Abrams has served as the military’s main-battle tank for four decades and has been at the center of political debates for years.
“We have said it before, and we’ll say it again: Tanks, but no tanks,” the Washington City Council tweeted.
Despite the criticism, the tanks will be featured, although they will remain stationary so as to not damage city streets.
“We have some incredible equipment, military equipment on display, brand new,” Trump said this week. “And we’re very proud of it. You know, we’re making a lot of new tanks right now. We’re building a lot of new tanks in Lima, Ohio, our great tank factory that people wanted to close down until I got elected and I stopped it from being closed down, and now it’s a very productive facility.”
The Army had considered shuttering the Lima Army Tank Plant from 2013 to 2016 in an effort to save more than $1 billion, setting off a fierce debate on Capitol Hill. In 2012, former Army chief of staff Gen. Ray Odierno told Congress that “we don’t need the tanks. Our tank fleet is two-and-a-half years old on average now. We’re in good shape, and these are additional tanks that we don’t need.”
Critics questioned the usefulness of a main-battle tank at a time when the United States was embroiled in counterinsurgency and counterterrorism missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The tank’s supporters argued it was crucial to national security interests. General Dynamics, the manufacturer of the Abrams, said closing Lima would cost $380 million and restarting the production line would cost another $1.3 billion.
Ultimately, Congress continued to appropriate money to the Abrams to keep the production line running. Aside from the national security argument, tank production employed hundreds of voters in the districts of some members.
The Army also appears to have shifted its position, requesting $1.753 billion to upgrade 165 M1A1 Abrams variants and another $362 million for improvements to the tank’s firing systems, powertrain, diagnostics, and training aids in March. The recently passed Senate version of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act includes the requested funds.
Sen. Rob Portman and Rep. Mike Turner, both Republicans from Ohio, have been two of the Abrams’ biggest supporters for years. Portman told the Washington Examiner that he is pleased to see the tanks will be included in the Fourth of July celebration.
“I’m proud to see Lima and the Joint Systems Manufacturing Center’s work showcased as they continue to work hard every day to provide Abrams tanks and Stryker vehicles to our troops both at home and around the globe,” Portman said. “The newest Abrams tank is a vital investment for our soldiers to meet the realities highlighted in the latest National Defense Strategy, and they come off the line at JSMC in Lima.”
The Lima plant has produced tanks for the military since World War II. It employs more than 600 people, many of whom were added to the workforce in the last few years. That number is expected to grow significantly, with more than 350 jobs reportedly posted in May, many of which require high-skilled labor and come with good pay. While the plant employs far fewer people than its Reagan-era peak of 3,800, it is still a significant employer in a town of 37,000, many of whom voted for Trump in 2016.
Trump won Allen County, in which Lima is located, with 66% of the vote and Ohio with 52%. Trump’s promise to revitalize U.S. manufacturing and bolster the military to counter conventional adversaries such as Russia and China was a boon for towns like Lima. Trump visited the plant in May and was greeted with applause and chants of “USA! USA! USA!”
“Well, you better love me; I kept this place open, that I can tell you,” Trump said. “They said, ‘We’re closing it.’ And I said, ‘No, we’re not.’ And now you’re doing record business. The job you do is incredible. And I’m thrilled to be here in Ohio with the hardworking men and women of Lima.”
Part of the argument in favor of keeping Lima open is “parochial,” according to Rick Berger, a former Senate Budget Committee staffer who researches defense budgets for the American Enterprise Institute, but there is also a logistical element.
“It’s getting the tooling back. And the physical plant property and equipment is expensive, but you also lose that workforce, and you have to retrain it,” he told the Washington Examiner.
Dan Grazier, a former Marine tank officer who researches defense for the Project on Government Oversight, was skeptical that some of the new upgrades make for a better tank, but he also noted the importance of keeping the production line active.
“God forbid we find ourselves in a crunch, like a military crunch, where we need to restart something like this from scratch. It would be a very, very difficult proposition,” Grazier told the Washington Examiner. “I don’t know that we need to stock these things at the level that politicians looking out for their districts say we need to, but I think it is important to maintain a kind of basic level industrial base.”
