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, the US Army's principal combat tank is named after General Creighton W. Abrams, former Army Chief of Staff and commander of the Army's 37th Armored Battalion.
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2 Combat history 3 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 older M1s and A1s to the A2 configuration.
A further upgrade of the A2 called the System Enhancement Program (SEP) was began in 1999.
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 M1 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.
See also: List of tanks, Leopard, Merkava, T-80
