M1 Abrams
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| General Characteristics | |
| Length: | 8,48 m (27.82 ft) |
| Width: | 3,64 m (12 ft) |
| Height: | 2.43 m (8 ft) |
| Weight: | 69.5 tons |
| Speed: | 67 km/h (42 mph) (road) 48 km/h (30 mph) (off-road) |
| Range: | M1: 498 km (310 mi)
M1A1: 465 km (288 mi) M1A2: 391 km (243 mi) |
| Primary armament: | M1: 105mm gun M1A1 and M1A2: 120-mm smoothbore gun |
| Secondary armament: | .50 caliber machine gun 7.62 mm machine gun |
| Power plant: | 1119 kW (1500 hp) gas turbine |
| Crew: | 4 |
The M1 Abrams main battle tank is the principal combat tank of the United States Army. It is named after General Creighton Abrams, former Army Chief of Staff and commander of the Army's 37th Armored Battalion.
| Table of contents |
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2 Combat history 3 Armour 4 Armament 5 Movement 6 Crew 7 See Also: 8 External links |
Production history
The M1 Abrams was designed by the General Dynamics Corporation and first entered US Army service in 1980. An improved version of the M1, the M1A1 was introduced in 1985. The M1A1 has an 120mm smoothbore gun developed by Rheinmetall GmbH of Germany, improved armor and an NBC protection system. The M1A2 is a further improvement of the M1A1 with a commander's thermal viewer and weapon station, position navigation equipment, digital data bus and a radio interface unit. The army has upgraded all older M1s and M1A1s to the A2 configuration; the US Marine Corps still uses M1A1 tanks that have not yet been upgraded to the M2 configuration.
A further upgrade of the A2 called the System Enhancement Program (SEP) was began in 1999.
In this article, "Abrams" is used to refer to all variants of the tank, while the specific variants are referred to as the M1, M1A1, and M1A2.
During Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm some M1A1s were modified with add-on armor and others were equipped with mine rollers (Panther II) and mine plows (Grizzly) for breaching obstacles and clearing minefields.
Over 8,800 M1 and M1A1 tanks have been produced.
Reduced capability export variants of the M1 Abrams are also used by the defence forces of:
- Egypt (777 M1A1)
- Saudi Arabia (315 M1A2)
- Kuwait (218 M1A2)
Combat history
The Abrams remained untested in combat until the Gulf War in 1991. A total of 1,848 M1A1s were deployed to Saudi Arabia. The M1A1 was vastly superior to the Soviet produced T-72, T-62 and T-55 tanks fielded by the Iraqi as only 18 M1A1s were taken out of service due to battle damage. The M1A1 was capable of making kills in excess of 3000 m.Further combat was seen during 2003 when US forces invaded Iraq and deposed the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The campaign saw very similar performance from the tank with no Abrams crew member being lost to hostile fire during the battle in Iraq. However, on October 29, 2003, two soldiers were killed and a third wounded when the tank was disabled by a land mine, which may have been combined with other explosives to increase its effect. This marked the first time deaths resulted from an assault on the M1 tank.
During the major combat operations in Iraq, Abrams crew members were lost when one tank with the US Army's 3rd Infantry Division, and US Marine Corps troops, drove onto a bridge. The bridge failed, dropping the tank into the Euphrates River, where one soldier drowned.
No Abrams tank has ever been destroyed as a result of fire from an enemy tank, though a number have been disabled in ambushes employing short-range antitank rockets like the Russian RPG7 and RPG18.
Armour
The Abrams is protected by composite armour formed by multiple types of simpler armor. It may also be fitted with reactive armour if needed, however, this modification has never actually been done. Fuel and ammunition are in armored compartments to protect the crew and reduce the risk of cooking off if the tank is damaged. Protection against spalling is provided by a kevlar liner. Some late-production M1A2 tanks incorporate depleted uranium reinforcing rods in their armor at the front of the turret and the front of the hull. Other models incorporate the famed British Chobham armour.
The main armament of the M1 variant was the M68A1 105mm rifling cannon firing a variety of APFSDS, HEAT, and high explosive rounds (tanks in US service carried no high explosive rounds, only APFSDS, APFSDSDU, HEAT, white phosphorous smoke, and a highly efficient and lethal antipersonnel flechette round).
The main armament of the M1A1 and M1A2 is the M256 120mm smoothbore cannon, created by the Rheinmetall Corporation of Germany and manufactured under license in the US by General Dynamics Land Systems Division in their plant in Lima, Ohio. It fires depleted uranium armor-piercing shells and a high explosive shaped-charge HEAT round that incorporates a sophisticated multi-mode electronic sensing fuze mechanism allowing it to be used effectively against both armored vehicles and personnel, or even, theoretically, low-flying aircraft--though this latter capability has never been tested in combat.
The Abrams tank has three machine guns:
The Abrams is equipped with fire control computer that takes data from a thermal imaging sensor system, a laser rangefinder, a wind sensor, a tilt sensor, and data on the ammunition type (a switch above the thermal sight viewer at the gunner's station provides settings for different ammunition types), and computes a firing solution. Either the commander or gunner can fire the gun.
The Abrams's fire control system is highly sophisticated, extremely efficient, and very deadly; it is the sensors and fire control system, as much as the armor and the powerful main gun, that make the Abrams so fearsome on the battlefield. With a skilled crew at the controls, it can see the enemy in smoke, rain, fog, snow, or total darkness, from four kilometers away, or more, and often hit a target the size of a tank on the first try from that distance.
The M1 Abrams is powered by a 1500 HP Lycoming gas turbine, and a 4-forward/2-reverse speed transmission, giving it a top speed of 42 mph (67 km/h) on roads, 30 mph (48 km/h) cross-country. The tank can be fueled by diesel fuel, any grade of gasoline, kerosene, or JP-1 jet fuel, or even (theoretically) alcohol. Its cross-country speed is astonishingly high for such a heavy vehicle, though its fuel consumption is also very high.
The Abrams is so large that the largest US transport aircraft, the C-5 "Galaxy", can only carry one at a time. This has caused serious logistical problems when deploying the tanks for the first Gulf War: the 1,848 tanks used had to be transported by ship.
The Abrams has a crew of four:
Armament
Main armament
Secondary armament
The turret is fitted with two six-barreled smoke grenade launchers. These can create a thick smoke that blocks both vision and thermal imaging. The engine can also be used to create a smokescreen.Aiming
Movement
Crew
See Also:
See also: List of tanks, Leopard, Merkava, T-80