Staff Sgt. Jordan Ashdown holds a 4th Infantry Division flag on top of an M1A2 Abrams main battle tank during the Sullivan Cup competition at Fort Benning, Ga., on May 6, 2026. The 4th Infantry Division crew took first place in the tank side of the competition. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
After more than a week of firing, fixing and testing, a 4th Infantry Division tank crew and an Irish cavalry crew took top honors at the 2026 Sullivan Cup armor crew competition on Friday at Fort Benning, Ga.
The 4th ID tankers from Fort Carson, Colo., bested the second-place crew from Poland’s 1st Warsaw Armoured Brigade by more than 100 points. Meanwhile, the Irish crew, from the Irish Defense Forces’ 1st Armoured Cavalry Squadron, squeaked past the top-finishing U.S. team from the Mississippi Army National Guard’s 155th Armored Brigade Combat Team to claim the top Bradley fighting vehicle crew title.
The Sullivan Cup, held every other year by Fort Benning’s Maneuver Center of Excellence, challenges tank and Bradley crews on their gunnery skills, their maintenance skills, their physical fitness, and their knowledge of their platform and tactics.
Brig. Gen. Chad Chalfont, the Army’s Fort Benning-based armor commandant, said all of the crews impressed him.
“The display that you put on is remarkable,” Chalfont told the competitors Friday morning at the end of the competition. “I want to congratulate you all on the payback in the investment in readiness that your formations made in each and every one of you and your crews.”
The win was the second for a 4th ID tank crew in the last three Sullivan Cup competitions, after a Fort Carson crew also won in 2022. This year’s winning crew was made up of Staff Sgt. Jordan Ashdown, Sgt. Jose Medina, Spc. Alexander Hernandez and Spc. Samuel Vo.
The Irish team was the first non-U.S. crew to win either side of the Sullivan Cup since it was first held in 2012.
A cavalry crew from the Irish Defense Forces’ 1st Armoured Cavalry Squadron competes in the Sullivan Cup competition to determine the world’s best Bradley crew at Fort Benning, Ga., on May 5, 2026. The Irish team topped six American M2 Bradley crews to win the Sullivan Cup this week and become the competition’s first non-U.S. champion. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
The Irish crew — Lt. Colm Meade, Sgt. Shane Molloy and Tpr. Tristan Regan — won the competition despite little experience on the M2 Bradley fighting vehicle. The Irish Defense Forces do not have Bradleys, and their cavalry forces largely use wheeled armored vehicles such as the Piranha III, according to the Irish military.
Instead, the crew received a three-week crash course on operating and fighting with the Bradley ahead of the competition, officials said. They will return to Ireland having bested six American units which have long used Bradley fighting vehicles.
The Irish team excelling meant “we probably did something good [in the train-up] that translated to a better performance,” said Army Col. Justin Harper, whose unit trained the international crews.
A British tank crew, which typically operates a Challenger 2 tank, was also given a crash course on the M1A2 Abrams for the competition. The Polish tank crew comes from a unit that owns Abrams tanks.
Chalfont told the Sullivan Cup competitors that they now must share all the knowledge and experience they gained in the competition with other soldiers in their units.
“You’re charged with the responsibility to take back what you learned here to your formations to drive readiness so that we’re ready for the next fight,” he said.
