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Today is: August 22, 2008Last Updated: August 6, 2008
The M1 Abrams MBT
 
The M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank is made by General Dynamics LandSystems Division of USA. The first M1 tank was produced in 1978, the firstM1A1 in 1985 and the first M1A2 in 1986. Production of M1A1 tanks for theUS Army is complete. Over 8,800 M1 and M1A1 tanks have been produced -3,273 M1 tanks were produced for the US Army. 4,796 M1A1 tanks were builtfor the US Army and the US Marines, and 555 co-produced with Egypt. Egypthas ordered a further 200 M1A1 tanks with production to continue to 2005. 77M1A2 tanks have been built for the US Army, 315 for Saudi Arabia and 218for Kuwait.For the M1A2 Upgrade Program, over 600 M1 Abrams tanks are beingupgraded to M1A2 configuration. Deliveries began in 1998. The US Armyplanned to procure a total of 1150 M1A2 SEP tanks but finally it was decidedto cancel future production of the M1A2 SEP from FY2004, but in June 2005ordered the upgrade of a further 60 M1A2 tanks to the SEP configuration. Afurther 60 were ordered in August 2006, and 180 in November 2006. Production of new M1A1 and M1A2Abrams tanks is in its final phase for Foreign Military Sales. In March 2004, the Australian Armyannounced the purchase of 59 US Army M1A1 tanks to enter service from 2007. The contract was signedin November 2005 and the first five were handed over in February 2006 at GDLS in Lima, Ohio. The first18 tanks were delivered to the Australian Army at the School of Armour in Victoria in September 2006.The remaining 41, to be based in Darwin, were delivered in March 2007.In June 2006, Saudi Arabia requested the foreign military sale of 58 M1A1 tanks and the upgradeof these and the 315 M1A2 already in the Saudi inventory to M1A2S configuration. The upgrade involvesrebuilding to a 'like new' condition, similar to the US Army Abrams Integrated Management Program
A US Army M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank, and personnel from A Company (CO), Task Force 1st Battalion, 35thArmored Regiment (1-35 Armor), 2nd Brigade Combat Team (BCT), 1st Armored Division (AD), patrol through Baghdad,Iraq, during Operation Iraqui Freedom. Photo: TSGT. John L. Houghton Jr., USAF, Nov 13, 2003.Courtesy US Army.
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(AIM). In August 2007, Egypt requested the foreign military sale of an additional 125 M1A1 tanks,which would bring the country’s fleet to 1,005 M1A1 tanks.Three versions of the Abrams tank are currently in service the original M1 model, dating from theearly 1980s, and two newer versions, designated M1A1 and M1A2. The M1A1 series, produced from 1985through 1993, replaced the M1's 105mm main gun with a 120mm gun and incorporated numerous otherenhancements, including an improved suspension, a new turret, increased armor protection, and anuclear-chemical-biological protection system.The newer M1A2 series includes all of the M1A1 features plus a commander's independent thermalviewer, an independent commander's weapon station with second generation thermal imager;commander's display for digital colour terrain maps; second generation thermal imaging gunner's sightwith increased range; driver's integrated display and thermal management system, position navigationequipment, and a digital data bus and radio interface unit providing a common picture among M1A2s onthe battlefield.In February 2001, General Dynamics Land Systems was contracted to supply 240 M1A2 tanks witha system enhancement package (SEP) by 2004. The US Army planned to procure a total of 1150 M1A2SEP tanks but decided to cancel future production of the M1A2 SEP from 2004. DRS Techologies has alsobeen awarded a contract, the Firepower Enhancement Package (FEP), which consists on the upgrade of the US Marine Corps M1A1 tanks with second generation thermal imaging sights.In August 2006, General Dynamics Land Systems was awarded a contract to produce 505 tankurban survivability kits (TUSK) for the US Army Abrams tanks. TUSK includes add-on reactive armourtiles, loader's armour gun shield (LAGS), tank infantry phone (TIP), Raytheon loader's thermal weaponsight with Rockwell Collins head-mounted display and BAE Systems thermal driver's rear-view camera(DRVC). TUSK entered service on M1A1 / M1A2 tanks in late 2007 and has been deployed to Iraq.In 31 July 2008, the US
Defense Security Cooperation Agency
notified Congress of a possibleForeign Military Sale to Iraq of M1A1 and Upgrade to M1A1M Abrams Tanks. The total estimated value of this option is around US$ 2.16 billion. Iraq intends to aquire 140 M1A1 Abrams tanks, upgraded to theM1A1M configuration (the specification of this configuration is presently unknown), plus spare parts andvehicles to support the M!A1 Abrams tanks operationally, etc.
View the US Defense SecurityCooperation Agency press-release on this proposed sale.
(PDF Format).
The M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank - Brief Historic Data.
 
The Origins of the M1 Abrams MBT:
 
Back in October 1973, one event would decisively influence the future of the new American mainbattle tank: the "Yom Kippur" war in the Middle East. This war involved the largest concentration of tanksin combat since World War 2. After careful investigation of the events occurred during this conflict, the
The Chrysler prototype, which would be the winner of the US Army contract for the M1 Abrams production.
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US Army concluded that the emergence of a new order of weapon lethality was dramaticallyrevealed in the Arab-Israeli War of 1973. Facing the nature of this threat, the new US doctrine set as itspriority the defense of NATO Europe against a quantitatively superior Warsaw Pact forces of greatlyincreased lethality. It accepted force ratios as a primary determinant of battle outcomes and argued thevirtues of armored warfare and the combined arms team. This notion of stronger inter-service integrationwould to be introduced as the "air-land battle" concept in 1976, and to result in the AirLand BattleDoctrine in 1982.The M1 Abrams tank represented a definitive change in US tank design since World War 2, and itsdesign reflects the objective to be an adequate response to the main threat of that era - theoverwhelming numerical superiority of the Warsaw Pact in practically everything when it came toconventional weapons. Until the late seventies/early eighties, NATO wouldn't have a MBT powerfulenough in the three main basic tank design areas (firepower, protection, and mobility) to provide thenecessary tactical superiority on the battlefield in order to compensate for the numerical inferiority.However, designing such a weapon was easier said than done. Until then, no nation had beencapable of developing a tank decisively superior in firepower, protection and mobility. The bottom linewas that tank designers were forced to make compromises between weight and mobility, and thisresulted, on the top of the scale, in tanks that had good firepower and an adequate protection, but ratherpoor mobility (like the British Chieftain), or on the other end of the scale, in tanks which had adequatefirepower, mediocre protection, and good mobility (like the French AMX-30/32). The ability to build atank which excelled in all three basic aspects of tank design was only possible through the incorporationof the new technologies that became available during the seventies.The way the US Army worked out the development of the new tank was very different than theway the German/American MBT-70 project was approached - instead of trying to build the best tank inthe world, they opted for building the best tank within a limited budget. With this perspective in mind,the following directives were established, by order of priority: crew survivability; surveillance and targetacquisition performance; first-round and subsequent hit probability; minimal time to acquire and hit;cross-country mobility; complementary armament integration; equipment survivability; crewenvironment; silhouette; acceleration and desaceleration; ammunition and stowage; human factors;production; operational range; speed; diagnostic maintenance aids; growth potential; supportequipment; and transportability.In its quest for the best possible tank design and subsequent development at the lowest costs, theUS Army opted for a competitive process between the Chrysler Corporation (which has built the M-60series) and the General Motors Corporation (which has built the MBT-70), with allowance for alternativesolutions. One of the main requirements was to reduce the unit costs compared to the failed MBT-70project, and this defined what technologies were or were not to be used in the new tank.In June 1973 contractors were awarded to both the Chrysler Corporation (which has built the M-60series) and the Detroit Diesel Allison Division of the General Motors Corporation (which has built the MBT-70) to built prototypes of a new tank designated M1, and later named the Abrams tank (after Gen.Creighton Abrams). These tanks were handed over to the US Army for trials in February 1976. InNovember 1976 it was announced after a four-month delay that the Chrysler tank would be placed inproduction. Production commenced at the Lima Army Modification Center at Lima in 1979 with the firstproduction tanks being completed in 1980.
To the left, one of the low-rate-initial-production M1 Tanks, named "Thunderbolt", after General CreightonAbrams' own tank, during World War 2. Right, another M1 from the LRIP program, painted in the old MERDCcammo scheme, at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds.
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