The M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank (MBT) was named after the late General Creighton W. Abrams, who served as out nation’s Army Chief of Staff and commander of the 37th Armored Battalion. The M1 Abrams is the spine of the United Stated military’s armored forces and even several of our allies use them as well. This mobile artillery weapon provides the battle scene with moveable firepower in armored formations in order to do combat with and destroy any opposing vehicle known to man, while offering security for its crew at the same time. The M1 Abrams is capable of engaging its targets in rain, sun, snow, sleet, hail, and any other weather condition, while also in both day and night. The surrounding environment plays no effect on the Abrams capacity for destruction as it is capable of climbing rocky hillsides and steep drops. It combines the capacity of firepower, maneuvering capabilities, and shock effect in its quest for domination over the battlefield.

Over 8,000 M1 and M1A1 battle tanks have been produced for the US Army, US Marine Corps, and the armies of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. The M1A2 Abrams is also in its last production phase for Foreign Military Sales. Overall, there’s three active editions of the M1 Abrams which are in service at this time. Those include the original M1 Abrams, the M1A1 Abrams, and the M1A2 Abrams. Collectively, these are the most damaging battle lords in the world. When the M1A1 came out, it upgrades the original M1 Abrams’ 105 mm main gun with a 120 mm gun and also upgraded the suspension, a new turrent, extra armor, and even a nuclear-chemical-biological defense system. The M1A2 also brought along even further enhancements, including an independent commander’s thermal viewer, an independent commander’s weapon control station, navigational equipment, and a link to any other M1A2 Abrams in the area which allowed them to share a common visual on the battlefield.

Right now, the US Army is upgrading about a thousand of the older M1 tanks to the new M1A2 model. They also upgraded the M1A2′s digital command and control capabilities and increased its Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) to make the Abrams even more lethal and versatile in limited visibility. They are now dispatching the M1A2 to the First Calvery Division in Ft. Hood, Texas. Over the next few years, the Army will continue to field the M1A2 to other “first to fight” units, including the CONUS contingency corps.

All of the tanks in the M1 series are equipped with a 1500 horsepower Lycoming Textron gas turbine engine and an Allision hydrokenetic transmission with four forward gears and two reverse gears. They have a cruising range of 275 miles. Even though the Abrams is extremely heavy, it can reach speeds of up to 45 miles per hour. The main gun is a 120 mm smooth bore cannon which is equipped with a laser range finder to help it find its target even in the darkest surroundings. That also includes a thermal imaging night sight, an optical day sight, a digital ballistic computer, which makes the Abrams accuracy nearly impossible to beat. The fuel and ammunition are kept in separate compartments to ensure that even if the Abrams is attacked, it has maximum survival capabilities. The hull and turrent are protected by advanced armor and, when need be, the Abrams can even be equipped with reactive armor which makes armor piercing munitions pretty much useless.

When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, the Abrams got its chance to show the world just what it was made of. Even though it would be the first time it would have to do continuous battle for months at a time without being repaired and a lot of people were worried about both the survival of the turret system and how the Abrams would behave in the sands of the middle east, the Abrams was and still is capable of defeating any tank that Iraq could throw at it. It was a difficult process to relocate these heavy machines, though, as the largest cargo aircraft that the US Air Force has, the C-5 Galaxy, could only carry one Abrams at a time. When they finally got there, however, the Allied Forces were very happy.

Most of the Iraqi Army’s fleet were purchased from the Soviet Union, which gave them a wide variety of combat equipment. The largest single model that they had were 500 T-72s which were armed with a 125 mm smooth bore main gun and had astounding similarities as the Abrams itself. While it was designed well, the T-72s turned out to be drastically inferior to the M1A1′s and more closely resembled the older M60A3 tanks that the US Marine Corps used in the same battle. Iraq also used 1600 T-62s and 700 T-54s, both of which were definitely inferior to the Abrams, as they were developed in the 1960s. The battle allowed tacticians to view global tank development in a way that hadn’t been achieved since World War II.

Author Norman Friedman writes in his book about the Gulf War, “Desert Victory – The War for Kuwait”, that “The U.S. Army in Saudi Arabia probably had about 1,900 M1A1 tanks. Its ability to fire reliably when moving at speed over rough ground (because of the stabilized gun mount) gave it a capability that proved valuable in the Gulf. The Abrams tank also has… vision devices that proved effective not only at night, but also in the dust and smoke of Kuwaiti daytime. On average, an Abrams outranged an Iraqi tank by about 1,000 meters.” The Department of Defense states that  A total of 1,848 M1A1 and M1A1 “Heavy Armor” (or HA) tanks were deployed between the US Army and Marine Corp (who fielded 16 M1A1′s and 60 M1A1{HA} tanks).

As Operation Desert Shield evolved into Operation Desert Storm, the Abrams darted forward and demolished Iraqi tanks as often as they could. As they had done before in the Iran-Iraq war, Iraq used their tanks as fixtures of anti-tank technology rather than a brigade of mobile firepower. They dug their tanks into the ground to prevent target signature, but signed their own death warrants at the same time, as they made themselves a lot slower. Allied air power quickly dominated them by destroying 50% of their tanks before the Allied tank division had even crossed the border. With much fewer tanks to take care of now, the Abrams moved forward and crushed the Iraqis before they even knew what hit ‘em.

Even as thick black smoke erupted over the battlefield, the result of Kuwaiti oil wells being set on fire, the Abrams’ thermal sights weren’t bothered at all. Many Gunners even used their night vision sights during the day, as it was dark. The Iraqi tanks weren’t as fortunate and were pummeled in all directions by units that they couldn’t see. During the entire Gulf War, only eighteen Abrams had to be taken out of commission due to damage. Nine of those Abrams were destroyed and another nine suffered far too extensive damage, mostly due to mines, to be redeployed. While eighteen measly machines were lost, not a single crewman died. There were extremely few reports of mechanical errors and US armor commanders kept a constantly 90% readiness for their Abrams Main Battle Tanks.

Complete Capabilities of the Abrams
The M1A1 Abrams is equipped with an NBC overpressure protection system, a Deep Water Fording Kit (DWFK), a Position Location Reporting System (PLRS) which is similar to GPS, enforced ship tiedowns, a Digital Electronic Control Unit which saves a large amount of fuel, and Battlefield Override.

The M1A1′s M256 120 mm smooth bore cannon, designed by a German company known as the Rheinmetall Corporation, is able to engage enemies from up to 4,000 meters away and did so during Operation Desert Storm. This bringer of doom is also equipped with a armor piercing ammunition capabilities and works by firing a round ,known as the APDS-FS, (short for armor-defeating, fin-stabilized, discarding sabot) tipped with depleted uranium, at the opposing forces. Depleted uranium is known to have much high density (two and a half, to be exact) than steel and works great for penetrating armor. There’s also several other types of munitions aboard also. the M1A1 Abrams has a hit/kill ratio higher than that of any other tank in the world.

Nearly every tank that the US puts on the battlefield comes with the .50 caliber Browning M2 Heavy Barrel machine gun called the “Ma Duce” and is connected to magnification scope that can multiple the viewer’s eyesight by three times or more. Aside from that, the Abrams is also assembled with an additional two separate 7.62 mm M240 machine guns. One of the M240s is fixed to the main gun so that when the main gun is faced with an enemy, the Abrams hits its opponents hard with two weapons at once. The other M240 is given to the Loader.

The Abrams is designed to hold four passengers: the Commander, the Gunner, the Loader, and the Driver. The Loader sits on the left side of the turret and the Driver sits on the center front side of the hull, while the Commander gets his own station. The Commander’s station has six periscopes so he can what’s going on in a 360 degree turn of all sides of the tank at once. The Commander can access automatic target cueing of whatever the Gunner sees at the moment without needing to talk, automatic sector scanning, complete backup control of the main gun, and an additional device called the Independent Thermal Viewer which also gives the Commander constant day and night vision of all sides of the tank.