#shorts On 1/25/2023, a reporter asked White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, “John. Can you tell us a little bit more about how the U.S. settled on the number of tanks it’s providing: 31?

MR. KIRBY: Yeah.

Reporter: That’s a very specific number.

MR. KIRBY: I kind of got to it a little earlier. It’s basically the size of a Ukrainian tank battalion. In Amer- — and I’m getting a little bit astray of my knowledge; I was a naval officer. But as I understand it, an American tank battalion has about 50 tanks in it, and it’s organized with more companies to comprise the battalion than in Ukraine.

That’s just the way the Ukrainian army is organized. It’s not right or wrong, it’s just that their battalions are basically, I believe, two companies. So, they’re just smaller. And — and so, two companies — that’s about 15 tanks a company, and that’s how you get to 30, 31.

And then, usually, at least one of these tanks is — the commander is in there. And so, you got a command-and-control tank that sort of is in charge of how they’re operating on the field. And now I’m really, really going astray of my expertise. But I think that’s about as far as I can go.

other clips of this published longer video is here: https://youtu.be/ZGpX_af9Gp4
Q: how the U.S. settled on the number of tanks it’s providing: 31?