U.S. Army’s M1A2 Abrams Tanks Tested in High-Intensity NATO War Drill in Germany.

U.S. Army armored forces with M1A2 Abrams tanks conducted Combined Resolve 26-05 at Germany’s Joint Multinational Readiness Center, training alongside NATO partners in high-intensity combat scenarios. The rotation strengthens NATO’s ability to rapidly generate credible heavy combat power on Europe’s eastern flank amid renewed focus on large-scale ground warfare.

U.S. Army armored forces maneuvering with M1A2 Abrams main battle tanks at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Germany are sharpening NATO’s ability to generate decisive heavy combat power on short notice in Europe. During Combined Resolve 26-05 at the Hohenfels Training Area, U.S. and NATO soldiers ran demanding tactical scenarios designed to improve mobility, survivability, and readiness for large-scale combat operations, while also testing mission command, sustainment, and combined-arms synchronization under realistic battlefield friction. The rotation also supports the Army’s continuous transformation push to adapt faster than potential adversaries.
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An M1A2 Abrams main battle tank maneuvers during NATO's Combined Resolve 26-05 at Honenfels, Germany, where U.S. armored forces and allies rehearse high-intensity combined arms operations to prove rapid reinforcement, interoperability, and credible deterrence on Europe's eastern flank (Picture source: U.S. DoW).

Combined Resolve 26-05 is a Combat Training Center rotation in the European theater, built to stress a brigade in a realistic threat environment under instrumented observation and a dedicated opposing force. The rotation involved more than 3,400 personnel and was built around the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team “Devils,” 1st Infantry Division, the primary training audience tasked to train, be assessed, and leave as a combat-credible formation for the continent. The rotation’s core tactical period ran in mid-to-late February at Hohenfels, where units were pushed through complex scenarios intended to build collective competence rather than isolated gunnery proficiency.

Hohenfels matters because JMRC is NATO’s closest analogue to the U.S.-based National Training Center model, but tailored to Europe’s geography, multinational force mix, and reinforcement problem set. The exercise architecture deliberately injects friction: degraded communications, dispersed logistics, weather and terrain constraints, and a thinking enemy. In this case, U.S. Army soldiers from 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment executed the opposing force mission, giving commanders a living adversary that forces real tactical decisions, not scripted outcomes.

On the battlefield, the Abrams is the formation’s shock and decision system. The M1A2’s core value is the ability to close with and destroy armored threats while surviving modern anti-armor fires, then exploit success at tempo. The M1A2 is a four-person tank centered on the manually loaded 120mm M256 smoothbore cannon, with a governed road speed of 42 mph and a cruising range of around 265 miles. Mobility is not just speed. The platform’s trench crossing and obstacle performance are designed for breach-and-exploit maneuver, including a trench crossing capability of about 9 feet and vertical obstacle performance around 42 inches, key for fighting through the broken ground and prepared obstacles that increasingly define eastern-flank defensive plans.

Survivability is where the Abrams translates into operational confidence for commanders planning counterattacks and mobile defenses. Beyond heavy passive armor, the Abrams modernization trajectory has focused on higher survivability and joint interoperability, including upgrades to power generation, networking, and protection against evolving threats. The Army has also moved to install the Trophy active protection system on Abrams SEPv2 and SEPv3 variants to improve survivability against anti-tank guided missiles and RPG-class threats, reflecting hard lessons from recent high-intensity conflicts where top-attack munitions, drones, and ATGM ambushes punish exposed armor. Not every tank on a given training lane will carry the same protection suite, but Combined Resolve is the kind of rotation where tactics, signature management, and crew drills must assume the modern anti-armor environment regardless of configuration.

Abrams' employment at JMRC is about combined arms timing. In a peer fight, tanks rarely win alone; they win when synchronized with dismounted infantry, engineers, artillery, air support, and electronic protection. The Abrams gives the combined arms battalion a stabilized direct-fire base that can suppress or destroy armor, punch through strongpoints, and provide protected movement for follow-on forces. In Hohenfels scenarios, that translates into deliberate breach rehearsals, rapid transitions from defense to counterattack, and fight-tonight readiness in restrictive terrain where fields of fire appear and disappear with vegetation, elevation, and built-up areas. The tank’s value is not only lethality but also the ability to regain freedom of maneuver when an enemy attempts to fix the brigade with fires and obstacles.

Combined Resolve is also explicitly about multinational interoperability. The exercise is a recurring, semi-annual event focused on readiness and interoperability for large-scale ground combat operations at Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels, bringing U.S. units together with NATO context and evaluation pressure. Rotations are structured to ensure NATO land forces and partner nations can execute multi-domain, large-scale combat operations together, which is the practical requirement behind alliance planning documents: common operational graphics, shared reporting formats, fires coordination, and mission command under time pressure. Even when a rotation’s participant list varies, the institutional purpose remains constant: reduce the risk of fighting together for the first time in a crisis.

The 26-05 rotation also sits inside a broader modernization narrative. The exercise framework integrates elements of the Army’s continuous transformation initiative, incorporating new technologies and systems intended to improve warfighting readiness and crisis response. In Europe, that modernization effort is increasingly framed through concepts such as a strengthened eastern flank deterrence architecture, leveraging attritable uncrewed systems, AI-enabled targeting, layered defenses, and an integrated mission command network aligned with NATO regional defense plans. The implication for Abrams units is clear: heavy armor remains decisive, but it must be connected, cued, and protected by a wider kill web that includes sensors and uncrewed systems, while learning to operate under persistent surveillance.

NATO has identified Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine as the gravest threat to Euro-Atlantic security in decades and has shifted toward stronger forward defense and the ability to rapidly reinforce any ally under threat through new regional defense plans. Combined Resolve 26-05 demonstrates that this is not purely a headquarters concept. An armored brigade combat team can deploy to Europe, integrate into a NATO-informed training environment, fight through a realistic opposing force, and validate its ability to maneuver, sustain, and survive in the kind of high-intensity fight that NATO is explicitly re-optimizing to deter.

The enduring takeaway from Hohenfels is that deterrence in Europe is increasingly measured in trained, integrated capability, not just presence. Abrams formations provide NATO with a heavy maneuver instrument capable of denying territorial grabs, restoring a breached defensive line, and imposing unacceptable costs on an attacker. Combined Resolve 26-05 is a reminder that the alliance’s credibility rests on whether these formations can fight at tempo in a contested environment, with allies beside them, on the terrain where the strategic stakes are highest.