On the evening of February 26, 1991, an American company that included 12 M1 Abrams tanks emerged
from a sandstorm in the middle of the desert to face an entire Iraqi armored division.
The Americans were severely outnumbered, but the old Soviet-made T-72s were no match for them;
in just over 30 minutes, the US tanks had shredded through 28 enemy tanks,
16 trucks, and 30 armored utility vehicles, with not a single M1 Abrams being damaged.
Known as the Whispering Death for its overwhelming firepower and swift,
silent movements, the M1 Abrams debuted during Operation Desert Storm,
where no force on Earth could contain its rampaging trail of destruction.
As the war progressed, Iraqi forces became so frustrated with not being able to put a
dent in US tanks that they improvised devastating mines connecting dozens of
150-millimeter rounds together in a desperate attempt to destroy the unassailable vehicles.
Still, the Abrams tank was destined to change the world,
and no enemy defenses would be able to cripple its advance. Ironically,
the only thing that would be able to stop it in its tracks was another M1 Abrams…
An Expensive Venture
The Cold War had just begun, and the Western Powers were racing against the Soviets to
produce the most capable weapons on the planet. Tanks were no exception, with both sides of the
Iron Curtain pouring millions of dollars into new Armored Combat Vehicle technology.
American and West German authorities were grappling with the fact that the new Soviet
T-62 and their 115-millimeter smoothbore guns were a severe threat to the M60 tank and the Leopard 1.
Their armored divisions would soon be outclassed if they didn't immediately respond to the menace.
In response to the Soviet tank, America and West Germany joined forces to design the MBT-70,
an ambitious main battle tank project that was projected to surpass the capabilities
of the Soviet vehicles. The new design incorporated a hydropneumatic suspension,
1,500-horsepower-class engines, and a 152-millimeter gun.
But in a continuous effort to outdo the Soviets, the project became increasingly more ambitious,
and the tank’s projected weight soon reached infeasibility.
So many new systems were being included in the design that by 1969
the cost of development had quintupled, leading to the program’s cancellation.
Unwilling to abandon the quest for a modern main battle tank,
the US introduced the XM803 project, in which they would attempt to salvage some of the
progress from the MBT-70 and incorporate it into a cheaper and lighter tank.
Early tests showed that the XM803 prototypes did not perform better than the older M60,
resulting in the project's cancellation. However, the Army was allowed to allocate
the budget from the canceled project to the design of another main battle tank.
GM Vs. Chrysler
In 1973, a new project was born. The new program was focused on providing heavy armor
to defeat the severe threat posed by the T-62's 115-millimeter gun while remaining fast and agile.
The other essential requirement was that the tank had to be able to resist any hit
from a Soviet gun within 800 yards and 30 degrees to either side of the hull.
Chrysler Defense and General Motors submitted designs for the new tank,
with each company delivering great prototypes to the Army.
By 1976, the decision to go with the GM design was all but signed into paper.
Their tank offered better performance, and Chrysler's engine had numerous flaws
both from a reliability and fuel consumption standpoint.
In July of 1976, Lieutenant Colonel George Mohrmann delivered a letter informing Congress
of the decision to move ahead with the GM design, but in a remarkable series of events,
United States Secretary of the Army Martin Hoffman and a group of generals interceded
at the last minute arguing that the new tank needed to have a turbine engine.
As such, on November 12, 1976, the Defense Department awarded a 20-billion-dollar
development contract to Chrysler, whose proposal already had turbine propulsion.
Manufacturing began in 1978, with a total of 3,273 M1 Abrams tanks produced from 1979 to 1985.
The initial iterations were armed with an M68A1 105-millimeter gun,
but in an attempt to keep up with the heaviest Soviet vehicles, the Abrams
was soon updated to an M256 120-millimeter smoothbore cannon developed by Rheinmetall.
Despite criticisms that its fuel efficiency was abysmal compared to other tanks of
similar power and effectiveness, such as the Leopard 2, the Abrams was regarded as
the most powerful tank in the world from the moment it came off the assembly line.
Inside the Machine
The Abrams was soon deployed to several US Army divisions across the world,
and with good reason: it was a formidable marvel of engineering.
Hefty and destructive, the M1 weighs close to 70 tons or as much as ten African elephants.
The mechanical behemoth is powered by an equally powerful Honeywell AGT1500
gas turbine engine that gives the heavy tank a max speed of over 45 miles per
hour and an acceleration of 0 to 20 miles per hour in just six seconds.
Seventy tons of metal reaching 45 miles per hour in less than ten seconds proved to be
a genuinely awe-inspiring achievement, and watching the main battle tank rush
across a battlefield or skid like a race car is still a shocking scene to behold.
The Abrams' weight can be attributed to its thick and resilient armor. The M1 was one of
the first modern tanks to include Chobham armor, a composite shield of ceramic tiles
encased within a metal framework and bonded to a backing plate and several elastic layers.
The exact construction formula of the shielding remains a secret to this day.
Besides the standard armor, different Abrams iterations are protected with additional defenses,
like reinforced armor plates or TUSK explosive reactive armor packages,
making the tank one of the most survivable in the world.
The beast, as the M1 is also called, is armed with a robust 120-millimeter main gun capable
of reaching targets over 2,500 meters away and has three hull-mounted machine guns:
a .50-caliber browning gun and two M240s.
Its armament is managed by a state-of-the-art Fire
Control System capable of adjusting firing parameters according to gun inclination,
terrain, wind, and weather conditions to achieve the highest possible accuracy.
In addition, the tank's main gun can launch several ammunition types,
including depleted uranium rounds that allow the
Abrams to utterly shatter any armored vehicle that dares face it in battle.
Furthermore, the M1 is designed to protect its crew from biological and chemical attacks.
All the air inside the vehicle is filtered through
a unique vent that keeps toxic substances away from the team.
Variations
The impressive speed, raw firepower,
and silent operation of the engine earned the M1 the nickname of the Whispering Death.
At the same time, it also earned a reputation for being extremely poor in fuel efficiency.
To make up for the low mile-per-gallon ratio, the tank was fitted with a fuel reservoir
of over 500 gallons, propelling the tank for close to 300 miles.
And as if those features weren't enough, the M1 Abrams has undergone several
upgrades throughout the decades, resulting in even more powerful
and versatile tanks that can fulfill a wide variety of roles during a battle.
As the backbone of the US armored forces for the past 40 years, the M1 has evolved
into dozens of variations and upgraded versions for almost any scenario imaginable.
The M1A2 Abrams is among some of the most noteworthy iterations.
It was produced in the early 90s and upgraded with thermal vision capabilities
and an advanced firing system capable of targeting two objectives simultaneously.
The M1A2 SEP included digital maps, Force XXI Battle Command Brigade
and Below Linux communications system functions for commanders,
and an improved cooling system to compensate for heat produced by the different computer systems.
Then came the M1A2 SEP V2, which went all out by adding Common Remotely Operated Weapon
Station or CROWS support, color displays, better interfaces, a novel operating system,
better front and side armor plates, and an upgraded transmission for enhanced durability.
Since the first SEP upgrade, the Abrams was also upgraded with advanced depleted
uranium and graphite armor capabilities to further
boost its resilience to even the most potent weapons systems in the world.
A new SEP version 3 is currently being tested with an upgrade kit designed to
bring the Abrams into the age of electronic warfare with advanced communications systems,
enhanced power distribution configurations, and a full-fledged vehicle health monitoring system.
Desert Rampage
American M1 Abrams tanks first tasted combat during the Gulf War in the early 1990s.
The groundbreaking armored vehicles immediately proved to be a devastating game-changer that
many analysts credit at least partially to the swift resolution of the Middle Eastern conflict.
Not only was the Abrams' armor virtually invulnerable to anything the Iraqi forces
could throw at it, but its gun also had a much longer range than the old Soviet tanks used by
the Iraqis, leading to devastating mow downs in which the American tanks would destroy dozens
of Iraqi armored vehicles while they couldn't even get close enough to the US tanks to pose a threat.
On February 26, 1991, during the Battle of Al Busayyah, 12 M1 Abrams faced off against an entire
Iraqi armored division. Rushing at breakneck speed through the desert and engaging the T-72 enemy
tanks with lethal accuracy, the Abrams took care of the much larger force in just half an hour.
Without suffering a single casualty, the American armored company destroyed dozens of Iraqi
tanks and armored vehicles, inflicting severe casualties and forcing the enemy to rout in fear.
The Abrams became a nightmare for Iraqis, as they could not seem to hurt the American vehicle
as hard as they tried. One M1 Abrams even survived without much damage after being shot with 18 RPGs.
During the first phase of Operation Desert Storm, only 9 M1 Abrams were destroyed.
Seven of them were struck by friendly fire from other Abrams tanks,
while the remaining three M1s were disabled by American troops for tactical purposes.
Ironically, the only weapon capable of obliterating an M1 Abrams during
the Gulf War was another M1 Abrams and some unfortunate human error.
With time and after much frustration, the Iraqi forces devised elaborate schemes to
destroy the mighty US tanks, including wiring dozens of 150-millimeter rounds
to ground mines to destroy the M1s as they drove over the traps.
Still, throughout the Gulf War, only 28 M1 Abrams were destroyed,
while the vehicle is credited with neutralizing over 2,000 Iraqi tanks
and several thousand other armored cars, making it the most successful modern tank in the world.
Legacy
With over 10,000 M1 tanks produced, the Abrams is one
of the most pervasive and far-reaching armored vehicles currently in service.
After the Gulf War, the Abrams participated and were crucial in the War in Iraq,
the War in Afghanistan, the Yemen Civil War, and NATO operations across the globe.
And even when Russia and China have recently developed remarkable 4th-generation tanks
like the T-90M or the Type 99 with comparable capabilities to the M1 Abrams,
the ongoing upgrades the M1 continues to take keep the vehicle not only relevant but arguably
at an advantage over other tanks that were built decades after it was first envisioned.
Thanks to its long successful history, the vast industry built around it,
and the high versatility of the Whispering Death, the tank is still the backbone of US armored
divisions and continues to be a formidable and affordable solution in modern warfare.
Many future variations are being designed and tested, and it is expected that the
Abrams and its crews will continue to serve the US and its allies for years to come…
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