What are these real challenges? Artillery? IEDs? Mines? Ukrainian lack of expertise?
M1A1 has proved itself in conventional war and deadly insurgency situations. M1A2 has also done well in urban combat situations and deadly insurgency situations. Losses have been "low."
But it is a common theme to see Russian tanks blow up in conventional war and deadly insurgency situations.
Tell me about Leopard 2A6 as well. ISIS knew how to defeat this tank, same ISIS found it difficult to defeat even downgraded Iraqi M1A1M.
Some of you have bought into Russian hype a bit too much. Russia - Ukraine war is indeed a high-intensity conventional war between two European powers, both countries have demonstrated impressive warfighting capacity, but neither stand a chance against US army in conventional war.
Do you recall the thrashing that US delivered to Russian Wagner in Syria in 2018? Russian army does not stand a chance against US army in conventional war. What you see in Ukraine is a clash of two mediocre armies in comparison to US army.