HOME | DD

Description
Today we have the M1 Abrams. M1A2 to be exact. Battle proven with 10,000 made of several variants, the Abrams is a contender for best MBT in the world.

The story starts back in the 60s, with a joint US-west German project called "MBT-70". MBT-70 would see 14 prototypes built and find itself being as costly as it was over engineered. Plagued by arguments and controversy over every bit of its design, MBT-70 was abandoned by the West Germans who would instead go on to develop the Leopard 2. The US stayed with the project until 1971 when it was finally ended by congress.

The M60's had held up really well in the Vietnam war, along with the other countries they were shipped off to. Problem was the next generation of soviet tanks that would soon roll out would have better defense and firepower than before, so how do we create a design that can not only meet our needs for today but in the future as well?

Funding now went into project XM1 Abrams, taking lessons and technology from MBT-70(and from the M60A2 starship, which we will draw later). Chrysler Defense(known now as General Dynamics Land Systems) and General Motors brought the first prototypes in 1976, and under the designation of M1, was approved for production in 1979. It's also fun to note that the Abrams prototype was presented with a leopard 2 for comparison.

It first saw combat in the 1991 Gulf war, where The (M1A1)Abrams stomped everything the Iraqis had. But was this really just a sign of how dated the Iraqi equipment was?

The Iraqis had a max firing range of what? 6,000 maybe 7,000 feet? Where Abrams were able to fire from over 8,000 feet away. In a wide open desert that's pretty useful.

There were other advantages too, but it wasn't like other tanks in the coalition also didn't make the Iraqi equipment look dated. Hell, Challenger 1s destroyed 300 Iraqi tanks without a single loss.
A while back I had met a guy in Doha at this traditional market not far from the downtown area. He had this photo of him next to an AMX-30 which led to him discussing Khafji. According to him the shell of a T-55 bounced right off the front of his tank.

Now Speaking of T-55s, I really want to do the Enigma variant. Talk about something that would be mad fun.
Anyway, There were also T-72s, T-60s ect ect, but the point is the Iraqi tank fleet was aged heavily. Add that in with the fact that the Iraqi army was just a hollowed out shell from the war with Iran. It's probably better to save all that for another post though.

In an age of asymmetrical warfare a lot of people question if tanks will be obsolete in the future if they are not already, and to be honest I'm not sure. The future always gives us signs, but historically we haven't always been accurate in our assessment of those signs...but that's another load we can talk about later.

I got a Taiwanese tank I'll be putting out next, in the meantime let's vote for the next one after that, a leopard 2 or merkava 4?

Description
Today we have the M1 Abrams. M1A2 to be exact. Battle proven with 10,000 made of several variants, the Abrams is a contender for best MBT in the world.

The story starts back in the 60s, with a joint US-west German project called "MBT-70". MBT-70 would see 14 prototypes built and find itself being as costly as it was over engineered. Plagued by arguments and controversy over every bit of its design, MBT-70 was abandoned by the West Germans who would instead go on to develop the Leopard 2. The US stayed with the project until 1971 when it was finally ended by congress.

The M60's had held up really well in the Vietnam war, along with the other countries they were shipped off to. Problem was the next generation of soviet tanks that would soon roll out would have better defense and firepower than before, so how do we create a design that can not only meet our needs for today but in the future as well?

Funding now went into project XM1 Abrams, taking lessons and technology from MBT-70(and from the M60A2 starship, which we will draw later). Chrysler Defense(known now as General Dynamics Land Systems) and General Motors brought the first prototypes in 1976, and under the designation of M1, was approved for production in 1979. It's also fun to note that the Abrams prototype was presented with a leopard 2 for comparison.

It first saw combat in the 1991 Gulf war, where The (M1A1)Abrams stomped everything the Iraqis had. But was this really just a sign of how dated the Iraqi equipment was?

The Iraqis had a max firing range of what? 6,000 maybe 7,000 feet? Where Abrams were able to fire from over 8,000 feet away. In a wide open desert that's pretty useful.

There were other advantages too, but it wasn't like other tanks in the coalition also didn't make the Iraqi equipment look dated. Hell, Challenger 1s destroyed 300 Iraqi tanks without a single loss.
A while back I had met a guy in Doha at this traditional market not far from the downtown area. He had this photo of him next to an AMX-30 which led to him discussing Khafji. According to him the shell of a T-55 bounced right off the front of his tank.

Now Speaking of T-55s, I really want to do the Enigma variant. Talk about something that would be mad fun.
Anyway, There were also T-72s, T-60s ect ect, but the point is the Iraqi tank fleet was aged heavily. Add that in with the fact that the Iraqi army was just a hollowed out shell from the war with Iran. It's probably better to save all that for another post though.

In an age of asymmetrical warfare a lot of people question if tanks will be obsolete in the future if they are not already, and to be honest I'm not sure. The future always gives us signs, but historically we haven't always been accurate in our assessment of those signs...but that's another load we can talk about later.

I got a Taiwanese tank I'll be putting out next, in the meantime let's vote for the next one after that, a leopard 2 or merkava 4?