The Americans have "revealed the cards" of further modernization of their main battle tank. Yesterday, November 1, the portal armyrecognition.com He reported that US Congressman Tim Ryan boasted of "knocked out" funding for an Army Tank Plant in Lima (Lima Army Tank Plant, LATP).
In an open letter, the senator indicated that $65 million of funding will be additionally directed to LATP. This money will provide jobs, extending the service life of the Abrams tank, as well as conduct its further modernization, including installing an uninhabited turret on the machine.
M1A2C tank at the Yuma training ground
Image source: defence-blog.com
A new uninhabited tower with automatic loading may appear already in the modification M1A2 SEP V4 (M1A2D). Previously, the United States had already developed a tank with an uninhabited tower. The Abrams Tank Test Bed (TTB) was supposed to be a replacement for the M1 Abrams combat vehicles. It was assumed that the first serial tanks of the new model would enter the army around the mid-90s, but after the collapse of the USSR, many programs of rearmament of the American army were curtailed, and the Abrams TTB, almost ready for mass production, was out of business.
Prototype Abrams Tank Test Bed during Testing
Image source: warfaretech.blogspot.com
M1 Abrams is the main battle tank of the United States, which was developed in the 70s and has been mass-produced since 1980. The tank is in service with the Marine Corps and the US Army, as well as the armed forces of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Australia and Morocco. The M1A1 modification was developed in 1984 and differs from the basic version with a 120 mm smoothbore gun (the basic version is armed with a 105 mm rifled cannon), reinforced armor and an air conditioning system.
The most recent version of the Abrams tank is the M1A2 SEP v3, first presented at the AUSA Arms Show in October 2015. After passing the tests, the Abrams M1A2 SEP v3 was officially adopted as the M1A2C.
