Meet the M1A2 Abrams: A Beast You don't Want to Mess With

foreign [Applause] 's main battle tank nothing strikes fear into the hearts of America's enemies quite like the sight of an M1 Abrams tank rumbling in their Direction it's a supremely lethal machine equipped with 120 millimeter Smooth Bore cannon that can turn a man into mist from up to three kilometers away and those lucky or quick enough to escape that particular fate still have the Abrams 50 caliber an m240 machine gun turrets to contend with the Abrams tank has been so massively upgraded over the years that the 1980s era war machine is now almost an entirely new vehicle as it has new armor computers ammunition sensors and weapons however interestingly alongside the weapons and technology related reasons why the Abrams is still so relevant to Modern War there's another clear reason why the tank is not likely to go anywhere anytime soon the need for heavy armor this race is an interesting question particularly given that the Army's Next Generation combat vehicle program is focused on building lighter weight artificial intelligence enabled more expeditionary armored platforms and vehicles such as its mobile protected Firepower light tank and new optionally manned Fighting Vehicle infantry carrier unlike an Abrams which is simply too heavy for Air transport these new vehicles can deploy through the air and therefore operate with an ability to hit Warfare much faster should combat quickly break out the strategy here is of course to engineer armored combat vehicles that are more Deployable and able to better support advancing infantry by Crossing Bridges or reaching places otherwise inaccessible to a 70-ton Abram the thinking is to leverage Advanced long-range artificial intelligence-enabled targeting sensors lightweight armored Composites active Protection Systems improved Precision ammunition and perhaps most of all manned unmanned teaming so that forward operating robotic Vehicles can absorb the most combat risks and face enemy fire this approach however stands in a delicate balance with the current Army thinking that there will likely continue to be a need for heavily armored vehicles such as the Abrams for many years to come why there simply might not be enough technical breakthroughs with efforts to build lightweight Composites as survivable as heavy armor in the immediate future army weapons developers have explained so while newer lighter faster Vehicles may be less likely to be hit given its speed technical defenses and use of unmanned systems something like an Abrams is likely to still be necessary for certain high impact areas involving massive force on Force armored Warfare amid the incoming enemy fire what the Abrams May lack in speed mobility and fuel efficiency may be more than compensated for by its Firepower and heavy protective Armor after all an Abrams can in many instances survive an incoming hit from an RPG or even anti-tank missile in some circumstances and it's just not yet clear if there are yet lightweight armor materials able to do this however many weapons developers also recognize there's only so much a legacy platform can be upgraded before a new one is needed to meet modern threats despite the continued prominence and superiority of the Abrams [Music] these questions form the basis of ongoing discussion as they pertain to the pace of technological progress and the promise of emerging Innovations the former Vice Chief of Staff of the army General Joseph Martin talked about this with the national interests more than several years ago explaining that there would be a need for a new type of tank platform in the future but there's not yet consensus regarding what it should look like what continues to make the M1 Abrams one of the best is that it has been continually upgraded over the past four decades in service approved for production in 1990 the m1a2 represents the U.S Army's technological Improvement of the basic M1A1 design and the most modern battle tank in the world outwardly similar in appearance to the M1A1 the most notable exterior changes on the m1a2 are the redesigned Commander's weapons station and the addition of a Commander's independent thermal viewer on the left side of the turret forward of the loaders hatch internally however the m1a2 has been radically redesigned to take advantage of newer technology most notable of these improvements is the addition of the inter-vehicle information system approved for implementation in 1995 the m1a2 step is a technology upgrade and a standardization program whereby the Army's Fleet of m1s and m1a2s will all be brought to a common standard most notable among the modifications will be the introduction of a standard Under Armor auxiliary power unit and the addition of a crew compartment air conditioning and cooling unit also known as the m1a2c the sep version 3 Remains the current production version of the Abrams tank that was scheduled for first unit equipped in fiscal year 2020. the sep V3 is a tracked land combat assault weapon system possessing significant survivability shoot on the Move Firepower joint interoperability for the exchange of tactical and support information and a high degree of maneuverability and tactical agility this version is the most modernized configuration of the Abrams tank having improved Force protection and system survivability enhancements and increased lethality over the M1A1 and previous m1a2 variants said Lieutenant Colonel Justin shell the Army's product manager for Abrams the Army intends the m1a2 set V3 to enable the crew to engage the full spectrum of enemy ground targets with a variety of accurate point and area of fire weapons in urban and open Terrain the m1a2 set V3 is the first in a series of new or significantly improved vehicles that will be delivering to the Army's armored Brigade combat team said Major General David Bassett program executive officer for ground combat systems it's a great step forward in reliability sustainability protection and onboard power which positions the Abrams tank and our armored Brigade combat team for the future even in a fiscal environment that's greatly hampered our ability to move towards entirely new vehicles the set B3 shows we can still deliver meaningful and operationally relevant improvements meet the m1a2 Abram system enhancement package version 4. the m1a2 set B4 variant to fully emerge in coming years incorporates and extends a series of transformative upgrades which continue to ensure the Tank's continued combat performance there are many specifics to the version 4 upgrade some of which are not available for security reasons yet much of the adjustments related to breakthrough sensor Technologies other version 4 Innovations include new color camera adaptation Laser Rangefinder technology meteorological sensors and Fire Control or weapon sights improvements onboard networking will also be heavily emphasized in the m1a2 step V4 as it'll have a new ethernet switch to streamline information flow throughout the vehicle this will streamline information flow and also reduce the need for the number of boxes and reduce or consolidate the hardware footprint along with other modern tank variants such as the now arriving V3 Abrams tank the V4 will fire an advanced kind of ammunition called an advanced multi-purpose round the advanced multi-purpose round is an advanced ammunition technology which enables tank Crews to pick and adjust a specific blast effect from a single round fire [Music] for example high explosive anti-tank grounds multi-purpose anti-tank ammunition fragmenting canister rounds to attack dismounted fighters on the move and a penetration round this is made possible through a variable fuse ammunition data link and error burst technology the arrival of the set V4 speaks to an important and at times under recognized phenomenon which is that while the Abrams tank may have first emerged in the 1980s the platform has been upgraded so extensively that it's now an entirely different vehicle the Computing Electronics targeting technology armor protections and sensors are Generations beyond anything that first emerged the prevailing consensus among army weapons developers seems to be that the Abrams can remain Superior for many years to come and that heavy armor is here to stay [Applause] foreign [Music]

Channel: US Military News

Views: 722,535

Keywords: M1 Abrams, M1A1, M1A2, M1A2 SEPv2, M1A2 SEPv3, M1A2 SEPv4, SEPv4 Abrams Tank, Main Battle Tank, new abrams tank, abrams X, abrams tank video, m1 abrams tank firing video, best tank in the world

Id: lMxGBntkr4c

Length: 10min 2sec (602 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 14 2022