The M1 Abrams is the main battle tank made in the United States; it is named after General Creighton Abrams, former Army Chief of Staff and Commander of US military forces in Vietnam from 1968 to 1972. The M1 Abrams is a well designed, heavily armed and highly mobile tank weighing in at 70 tons, and is one of the heaviest tanks in service made for modern ground warfare. It also features a very powerful gast turbine engine and the most sophisticated composite armor on the market. One of its key safety features include separate ammunition storage in a blow-out compartment for crew safety.
The first attempt to replace the outdated M60 series of tanks was the MBT 70 developed in partnership with the West German tank builders. Like many weapons built in 1960s the MBT 70 was a very ambitious project with the additions of gun launched missile system, kneeling suspension, a driver housed in the turret, and various other ideas that eventually proved unsuccessful. It is the failure of the MBT 70 that clearly paved the way for a more modern M1 Abrams Tank.
The XM1 Abrams was originally built by Chrysler Defense. However, in 1979 General Dynamics Land Systems Division purchased Chrysler Defense Division. The first version of the M1 Abrams was put on display in 1980 and was armed with the license built version of the 105 mm Royal Ordnance L7 gun. The improved version of M1 Abrams the M1A1 entered service in 1985 with incorporated M256 120 mm smoothbore cannon developed by Rheinmetall AG of Germany built for the Leopard 2 , improved armor, and a CBRN protection system. The further developmental work and imporvement of the M1 and M1A1 series of tanks introduced the M1A2 and M1A2 SEP. Such improvements made the M1 Abram a fully operational tank of the 21 cetntury with a commander's independent thermal viewer and weapon station, position navigation equipment, digital data bus and a radio interface unit. The M1A2 SEP; System Enhancement Package added digital maps,...