Romania Evaluates M1A2 Abrams Tanks During Large-Scale U.S. Army Combat Exercise.

From January 29 to February 4, U.S. Army M1A2 SEPv2 Abrams tanks trained alongside Romania’s TR-85M1 Bizonul in a combined defensive and counterattack exercise at Smardan. The drills offered a practical look at NATO armored interoperability as Romania prepares to transition from legacy tanks to the Abrams platform.

From January 29 to February 4, 2026, U.S. M1A2 SEPv2 Abrams tanks operated alongside Romania’s TR-85M1 Bizonul in a combined defensive scenario that deliberately transitioned into a counterattack. The pairing of Romania’s 284th Tank Battalion “Cuza Voda” with a U.S. detachment fielding five Abrams was not designed for optics. It was a practical test of interoperability at the point where alliances succeed or fail, inside the turret and on the radio net. In a region where Russia’s land warfare lessons continue to evolve and NATO deterrence depends on credible forward readiness, the ability to integrate armor quickly and fight as a single formation is no longer a training aspiration. It is a prerequisite, and Romania’s ongoing shift toward the Abrams ecosystem makes exercises like Smardan an early indicator of how smoothly that transition can be operationalized.
Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link

M1A2 SEPv2 Abrams combines a 120 mm smoothbore gun, advanced day-night sights and digital fire control, heavy composite, and high mobility from its AGT1500 gas-turbine powerback (Picture source: U.S. DoW).

In the scenario described by Romanian military officials and relayed by national defense media, the mission was to delay an attacking force, stabilize the fight, then generate combat power for a counterattack, with day and night live-fire integrated into the sequence. That structure matters. A delaying action exposes the seams that often stay hidden in scripted range events: how quickly crews share target data, how reliably units shift from travel to firing formations, and how efficiently logisticians keep heavy tracked platforms fed with fuel, ammunition, and recovery support while the plan is still evolving. Romanian reporting noted a Romanian platoon of 16 soldiers, four per tank, mirroring the U.S. crew construct, while also highlighting that the U.S. element arrived with a larger logistical footprint, an unsurprising reality when a 70-ton class platform is deployed as a training signal as much as a combat tool.

The U.S. Embassy statement framed the deployment as part of a persistent, rotational U.S. Army presence, noting elements of the 16th Infantry Regiment moving from Novo Selo, Bulgaria, into Romania with the five M1A2 SEPv2 Abrams to conduct joint training. The redeployment detail is not a footnote: it reflects the operational logic of eastern flank deterrence, where armored capability is circulated across ranges and corridors to prove mobility, rehearsal discipline, and the political will to show up repeatedly. Romanian officials added that after Smardan the U.S. forces and equipment were expected to move back toward Novo Selo, reinforcing that this was a regional rotation pattern, not a one-off photo opportunity.

Smardan offered a rare side-by-side look at two very different answers to the same battlefield problem. The M1A2 SEPv2 Abrams is a mature digitized variant built around the 120 mm M256 smoothbore and a hunter-killer engagement model, where commander and gunner can work parallel target cycles to compress time-to-first-round hit. Its design emphasizes survivability through heavy composite armor and protected ammunition stowage concepts, while mobility is delivered by the AGT1500 gas turbine powerpack, trading fuel appetite for acceleration and sustained maneuver in difficult terrain. Romania’s coming SEPv3 fleet pushes that logic further with a modern electronic architecture and an under-armor auxiliary power unit that can keep sensors and mission systems running when the main engine is shut down, a practical advantage for silent watch and reduced thermal signature management in static defense.

The TR-85M1 Bizonul, by contrast, is Romania’s domestically upgraded Cold War lineage platform, optimized for national sustainment and pragmatic modernization. At roughly 50 tons with an 860 hp diesel engine, it brings respectable tactical mobility and a simpler fuel and maintenance posture than an Abrams, particularly for domestic training cycles and dispersed defensive tasks. Its 100 mm A308 rifled gun, paired with upgraded fire control and thermal sights, can still deliver accurate fire in the engagements typical of Romanian training areas, and the vehicle’s smoke launchers and laser warning elements support survivability against legacy threats. But in a direct comparison with an Abrams, the limits are structural: smaller main gun caliber, less growth margin for modern armor packages, and a sensor and networking ecosystem that was never designed for today’s brigade-level data sharing at NATO speed.

Romanian soldiers did not try to disguise that gap: Lieutenant Colonel Mihai Banescu emphasized that the exercise demonstrated the rapid integration of a Romanian platoon under a foreign command structure, specifically a U.S. tank company, and when asked about differences between the Abrams and TR-85M1, he pointed directly to engine power, protection and armor, and the caliber of the main armament. His comment reads like a checklist of what matters in modern armored combat: mobility that enables repositioning under fire, protection that buys time against precision anti-armor effects, and lethality that overmatches at range. U.S. Army Colonel Matthew Kelley described the training as an opportunity to operate together and argued that repeated combined training makes both forces stronger, while praising Romanian ranges and professionalism, an acknowledgment that the terrain and training infrastructure in Romania are now central to NATO’s readiness story.

Strategically, this is more than a range day because it sits on top of a real procurement transition. Romania’s Abrams purchase has moved beyond political intent into the concrete architecture of a future armored brigade: a U.S. government notification outlined a potential Foreign Military Sale for 54 M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams tanks, along with recovery vehicles, bridging assets, breaching systems, engines, and significant 120 mm ammunition, including modern multi-purpose rounds. That package signals how Romania intends to fight with Abrams, not just own them: with organic gap-crossing, recovery, and obstacle reduction, enabling armored maneuver rather than static tank employment.

The Smardan event functions as an early human-systems bridge into that future. Familiarization is not simply letting crews “see” an Abrams, it is learning the cadence of its gunnery tables, its maintenance demands, its crew drills, and its command relationships inside NATO formations. This matters in Romania because U.S. presence is not abstract. Rotational deployments under Operation Atlantic Resolve have made Romania a recurring hub for U.S. forces, with American troops regularly operating from Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base and participating in exercises across the country. Romania also hosts key U.S. and NATO infrastructure, including the Aegis Ashore ballistic missile defense site at Deveselu and a multinational NATO battlegroup at Cincu. Against this backdrop, Abrams and TR-85M1 crews training together at Smardan represent both a snapshot of current capability and a preview of a coming armored transformation, where Romanian formations move decisively from legacy platforms toward full-spectrum NATO interoperability anchored by the Abrams.

Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst.

Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.