This Russian tank is at an American gas station – that’s what’s behind it

This case was puzzling: a Russian main battle tank appeared at a gas station in the US state of Louisiana. The military vehicle T-90A was left on a trailer near the gas station in a parking lot in the municipality of Roanoke. There was reportedly no trace of a driver.

A local resident discovered the tank. He took pictures of the military vehicle and posted them on the social media platform Reddit. The images circulated on social networks for several days – now the Pentagon has commented on them.

So says the US Department of Defense

The tank was idle and unarmed, a Pentagon spokeswoman told the US portal “The Warzone”. He was carrying no hazardous material and at no time posed a danger to the public.

Still, the question remains: how does a Russian tank get to an American gas station?

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As confirmed by the Pentagon “The Warzone”, the tank should be transported to a US Army research facility in the US state of Maryland – Aberdeen Proving Ground. However, the truck transporting the tank had a technical problem.

It was to this place that the tank would be transported

There has also been wild speculation about the tank’s destination and purpose on social networks – not least because “The Warzone” published a photo of a shipping label allegedly stuck to the tank. The following receiver is written on it: “USA Aberdeen Test Center, Building 358, 6850 Lanyard Rd., Aberdeen Proving Ground”.

The Aberdeen Test Center is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible, among other things, for vulnerability testing. The tank was shipped from the Polish port of Gdynia to Beaumont in the US state of Texas.

tank captured?

According to The Warzone, Ukrainian forces may have captured the Russian tank last fall. However, the Pentagon spokeswoman has not confirmed this. She also did not reveal what happened to the tank.

She only told the portal: “This is part of our ongoing commitment to providing Ukraine with what the country needs to counter Russian aggression.” For security reasons, she declined to comment further on this matter.

The tank should serve this purpose

The authors of “The Warzone” consider it likely that the tank could be used for weapons testing. Or that it could be used to familiarize troops with Russian equipment.

In any case, according to various reports, this would not be the first time. In the past, the United States had repeatedly purchased Russian-Soviet military equipment for testing purposes, ZDF reports, for example.

However, this is not yet known for a modern tank like the T-90A. According to the broadcaster, it should be “the first T-90 on American soil”.