  
"The MIAl Abrams is like a shark, evolved to a point of absolute perfection. It is the undisputed king of the jungle. No other tank on earth can even begin to damage it. It is wrapped in armor made out of a depleted uranium core sandwiched between rolled steel plate. The armor is dense and impregnable. Battlefield shells and rockets and kinetic devices bounce right off it. But its main trick is to stand off so far that no battlefield shell or rocket or kinetic device can even reach it. It sits there and watches enemy rounds fall short in the dirt. Then it traverses its mighty gun and fires and a second later and a mile and a half in the distance its assailant blows up and burns. It is the ultimate unfair advantage ... eleven feet wide, twenty- six feet long, nine and a half feet tall. Seventy tons." Lee Child 'The Enemy'
The M1A1 Abrams Main Battle tank, while not quite as invincible as Mr. Child describes in the excerpt quoted above, is indeed a formidable weapon, and the most powerful tank ever made. Named after the late General Creighton W. Abrams, former Army Chief of Staff and commander of the 37th Armored Battalion in the United States, the M1A1 Abram is the ultimate mobile ground-based weapon. Its function is to provide mobile firepower that can close with and destroy any opposing armoured fighting vehicle in the world, while protecting its crew in any combat environment. It can engage the enemy in any weather, day or night.  Three versions of the Abrams tank are in service, including the original M1 model, dating from the early 1980s. Newer versions include the M1A1, produced from 1985 through 1993, and the M1A2, which is an upgraded version that includes such high-tech devices as thermal imaging, GPS navigation and digital communications.
The M1A1 weighs 50 metric tonnes, and is 10 metres long when the gun turret is pointed forward. The tank is 3.7 metres wide, with a ground clearance of half a metre. It's powered by a 1500 horsepower gas turbine engine, and supports a crew of four: Commander, Gunner, Loader and Driver. The M1A1 can climb over obstacles over a metre high, and traverse ditches 3 metres deep. It has a top speed of close to 70 km/h, can accelerate from 0-32 km/h in just 7 seconds, and has a cruising range of 440 kilometres. The replacement cost for and M1A1 Abrams tank is over 4 million dollars US; over 8000 have been made.  The main armament on the M1A1 is the 120 mm smoothbore gun, which can fire a variety of ammunition, including a depleted uranium penetrating round. (Depleted uranium has a density two and a half times greater than steel and provides high penetration). Other armament includes various machine guns and smoke grenade launchers. The M1A1 tank is protected by steel-encased depleted uranium armour. The depleted uranium provides a higher level of protection against anti-tank weapons. The tank is protected against nuclear, biological and chemical warfare, and the crew are equipped with protective suits and face masks. During the Gulf War, of 1,955 Abrams M1A1 tanks in battle, only 18 were taken out of service due to battle damage; no crewman was lost in the conflict, while inside the protection of the M1A1's armour, by enemy fire. Nevertheless, the M1A1 Abrams is not invulnerable. It can be disabled by land mines, and incapacitated by RPG's - rocket-propelled grenades - if struck on the treads or between the treads and the deck. However, battlefield results have shown that an M1A1 can survive without damage after sustaining direct hits by T-72 tank rounds.  ABOVE: Loading an M1A1 into a C17 Globemaster  |