U.S. Tank Shift to Gulf Starts Europe Cutback : Military: The transfer of powerful M-1A1s begins a redeployment that will cut firepower on the Continent.

The transfer of hundreds of America’s most advanced tanks from stockpiles in Germany to the front lines in Saudi Arabia is the first wave of a post-Cold War redeployment that will reduce U.S. firepower in Europe even below proposed arms control ceilings, officials said Saturday.

The tank movements could be followed by transfers of American troops currently assigned to NATO defenses in Europe as the United States adjusts its armed forces to the new challenges in the Middle East as well as the reduced threat of a Soviet attack on the Continent.

The powerful new M-1A1 Abrams tanks will be deployed on the front lines against Iraq in place of more limited American armor in an unexpected addition to a U.S. buildup that had been regarded as largely complete, according to military officials.

Sources said the shift of the top-of-the-line tanks is intended in part to counter a recent increase in Iraqi forces that has presented American commanders with opposition more formidable than when the initial U.S. deployment was planned.

At the same time, the reduction of American firepower in Europe marks a clear ratification of changing U.S. defense priorities in anticipation of what could become an extended military presence in the Persian Gulf.

U.S. officials did not specify the exact number of tanks to be included in the transfer, but said the reassignment will involve “several hundred” M-1A1s currently stationed in Europe as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization defense forces.

The number of U.S. tanks in Europe currently exceeds a limit of 13,300 expected to be imposed by the end of the year with the signing of a treaty on conventional forces in Europe, requiring significant cutbacks by NATO members and the Soviet Union.

But in messages to its European allies and to the Soviet Union, a Pentagon spokesman said, the United States proposed that the tanks being sent to the Middle East still be counted under the treaty, leaving NATO’s overall tank destruction requirement unchanged.

That concession to the Soviet Union means that the West soon could have fewer tanks in place on the Continent than the number actually allowed under the proposed conventional forces treaty, which as now drafted would limit NATO as a whole to 20,000 tanks.

The Soviet Union previously had withdrawn some of its European-based tanks to positions east of the Ural Mountains in a unilateral step announced by President Mikhail S. Gorbachev in a speech at the United Nations in December, 1988.

But the M-1A1 transfer is the first such unilateral step by the United States involving its conventional weapons in Europe. It could be followed by transfers of U.S. troops stationed in Europe as part of a Pentagon plan to begin rotating units assigned to Operation Desert Shield.

In announcing the move, military authorities here said in a statement that the additional tanks are intended to “enhance the capability” of the more than 200,000 American troops now arrayed against Iraq under Operation Desert Shield.

They stressed, however, that the addition of the new armor would bring about no overall increase in the size of the U.S. front-line force here because older M-1 tanks would simply be “swapped out” to make room for the more powerful arrivals.

Until now, virtually every piece of American armor, weaponry and aircraft gathered in Saudi Arabia has come from bases in the United States, despite the proximity of more-advanced stocks in Europe.

Most irksome to field commanders here, the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division was dispatched to the gulf with only second-rate M-1 tanks from its base in Ft. Hood, Tex., while its own M-1A1s were kept in storage in Germany.

Of about 1,000 U.S. tanks now in Saudi Arabia, only about one in 10 is the top-of-the line Abrams model, officials said. The American armor is arrayed against an Iraqi force estimated at 3,500 tanks.

The newer M-1A1s, fitted with a 120-millimeter gun instead of the 105-millimeter gun on earlier models, have far greater range and firepower than the M-1s. In addition, the M-1A1s include an air-conditioning system that offers better protection against chemical weapons.

In moving to bring the more advanced tanks into the gulf, the military appears to be embarking on a long-term strategy of improving ground-force capabilities against an Iraqi tank force that still outnumbers the Americans by more than 3 to 1.

The new American tanks may not be fully in place until year’s end, officials said. But one source noted that their addition could provide the United States with the capacity, in case of combat, to draw on the hundreds of older M-1s transferred to the rear.

Meanwhile, military officials here called attention to the imminent shipment to Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain of 220 older M-60 tanks from U.S. stocks under a previously announced arms sale.

The deal, which is in the final stages of approval, will add a further contribution “to the security of the Persian Gulf area,” the military said in statement.