M-1 Main Battle Tank

Development

Jan. 1970
Germans pulled out of the MBT-70 program*.

After the German pullout, the U.S. tried to develop the
XM803 MBT, but this was killed by Congress in Nov.
1971, because of excessive cost and sophistication
to come up w/ the requirements of the next MBT.

The task force report was published in August 1972.

It was found to be too sophisticated, so the
'gold plating’ was removed, and the requirements were
approved by the Deputy Sec. of Defense in Jan. 1973.

Contracts to develope a prototype XM1 tank were given
to 2 companies, who competed for the final contract.

Each prototype was expected to meet the requirements,
and cost less the $508,000 (1972 $$$s)
for each production tank.

This was because Congress could not afford an
expensive tank due to the crippling economic
effects of the Second Indo-China War.

Each company was to deliver one full prototype, one engine
test vehicle, and one hull w/ turret for ballistic tests.

The Chrysler Corp. (Now the Land Systems Division of
General Dynamics) which was the maker of the M-60
tank, was given a $68 million contract for the prototype.

Allison Division of the General Motors
Corp. got an $87 million contract.

Dec. 74'
The U.S. and Germany signed an agreement to evaluate
their new Leopard II MBT prototype against ours,
hoping that both countries would have the same tank,
in an effort to make the tanks as similar as possible to
ease the maintenance problems in any future war.

The Army received it’s XM1 prototypes in Feb. 76.

Tests were conducted through April.

In Nov. 76' the Chrysler prototype was selected for production.

They didn’t bother to finish testing the Leopard II.

They got a 3 yr. contract to produce 11 XM1
test vehicles w/ spare parts for $196.2 million.

The first was finished in Feb. 78', the last in July.

During the contract’s 3 yr. test phase, the XM1s were
tested repeatedly at Fort Bliss Tx. Six of the M1s
were tested against it’s predecessor the M60A1.

A former soldier in the Nazi and Soviet Armies
helped fix the track throwing problem.

The improvements included, a new steel sprocket hub w/ mud discharge ports.

The suspension torsion bars were reindexed at each road wheel.

The track adjusting arm received a more robust pressure valve.

A faulty test instrument was re-calibrated
to insure the proper track tension.

Steel blocks between the hull and track w/ a retaining
ring on the outer edge of the guide wheel.

But the most important was the addition of a hull
mounted scraper bar to remove dirt from the track.

This modification had been learned by the former Nazi while
he was in the Soviet Army working on the Joseph Stalin tank.

POW Killer
Makes Contriversial Engine
Decision That Leads To War

A problem w/ turbine disintegration was traced to a poor fitting
air filter seal, which let sand into the spinning turbine.

The seal had been altered during a previous modification.

Some on site body work corrected the seal problem.

By early 82' the 3rd round of testing was finished,
54 M-1s had fired 40,000 rounds and 300,00 km.

It exceeded all expectation, except for it’s range.

It was expected to go 443km at 40km/hr.

The track tension change, to deal w/ the track throwing
problem, had changed the turbine’s gas mileage

To get around the contract requirement the speed was changed
to 48 km/hr because the turbine runs more efficiently at this speed.

In the end, the only requirement not met was track life, but
Wang Jun’s land mines will be blowing them off so it didn’t matter.

Then in March of 82' Chrysler sold it’s tank division to
General Dynamics Land Systems Division for $348.5 Million.

Their first production tank was completed in 1982.

By the end of 85' 2,500 M-1s had been delivered.

Production of M-1A1s w/ the German 120mm smooth
bore cannon and NBC protection started in early 1985.

M1s were devastating in the Gulf War against
Iraq’s poorly trained and equipped tank corps.

But, things would probably have been
different in a war against the Soviets.

Additional features of the M-1A1 are increased armor
protection, suspension improvements, and an NBC
protection system that provides additional
survivability in a contaminated environment.

The M-1A2 program builds on the M-1A1 mostly in the area of
communications to allow better battlefield command and control.

The M-1A2 includes a Commander's Independent
Thermal Viewer, an Independent Commander's Weapon
Station, GPS navigation equipment, a distributed data
and power architecture, and a radio interface unit
that allows, through the SINCGARS radio, rapid
transfer of situational data and overlays to
battlefield and theater commanders.

April 1994
A Milestone III decision review approved the
M-1A2 configuration for the upgrade program.

9/30/94
The upgrade contract was awarded.

1995
The first M-1A2 was delivered.

Production of M-1A1s for the Army is complete.
Low-rate production of the M-1A2 tank is complete
with 62 new M-1A2 tanks accepted by the Army.

"New" Abrams tanks will continue to be produced for Foreign Military Sales.
In lieu of new production, the Army has initiated an
Abrams upgrade program to convert approximately
1,000 older M-1s to the M-1A2 configuration.
This program received approval from the
Office of the Secretary of Defense on 12/18/92.

M-1 | POW/MIAs