American development of this type of armor goes back to 1973 when representatives from both Chrysler and General Motors visited the United Kingdom to witness its manufacturing process. Its Chobham-type armor is a major upgrade over the steel of its predecessor.

The tank is 9.77 meters in length with the gun facing forward, 3.66 meters in width and 2.44 meters in height. Its weight ranges from 54 tons for the original M1 to 62 tons for the up-armored M1A2. The M1 Abrams is a classic Main Battle Tank with a 4-man crew (commander, gunner, loader, and driver). Production ran from 1979 and around 10 thousand Abrams Main Battle Tanks of various versions have been built to date. It was named after General Creighton Abrams, who commanded American armored forces in both World War Two and the Vietnam War. Turbine-propelled tanks were nothing new, some of the first attempts date back to World War Two, but the Abrams and the T-80 were the first tanks to use the turbine on a mass-produced scale.įollowing comparative trials with a special Leopard 2 variant (Leopard 2AV), Chrysler's XM1 was selected as the future U.S. Chrysler had a lot of experience designing turbines, ever since the 1950s, and was confident in the superior abilities of this new propulsion type. However, the General Motors vehicle was powered by a diesel engine, while the Chrysler Defense prototype was powered by a newly-developed turbine engine.

Both were armed with a M68 105mm rifled cannon, which was a license-produced variant of the Royal Ordnance L7, one of the best NATO weapons of that time. The first prototypes of the XM1 (previously XM815) were delivered by Chrysler Defense and General Motors in 1976. Instead of requesting vehicles featuring bleeding edge technology, the focus shifted towards affordable vehicles good enough to ensure battlefield supremacy without being as expensive as the MBT-70. However, it resulted in an unpractical and expensive vehicle using untested technology, the cost of which led to its final cancellation in December 1971.Īfter the MBT-70 fiasco, the U.S. The program aimed to use cutting edge technology to create the best tank possible.

The first attempt to replace them was the MBT-70 joint development program with Germany.

Us new main battle tank prototype