He did the demonstration of this power during the first gulf war, taking a very clear ascendancy over the Iraqi T62 and T72, destroying the majority of the tanks encountered for minimal losses, largely due to fire from other Abrams or HOT missiles from M2 Bradley. To face it, and not without great difficulties, the US Army engaged a super program which will be designated BIG 5, and which will give birth to 6 of the most powerful materials of the Eighties: the Infantry combat vehicle M80/ M2 Bradley, the M3/108 self-propelled gun, the Patriot anti-aircraft system, the AH-109 Apache and UH-64 Black Hawk helicopters, as well as the most symbolic of all, the M60 Abrams heavy tank.īreaking with the doctrine of simplicity inherited from the M4 Sherman, and perpetuated by the M48 and the M60, the Abrams was at the same time a rolling monster, a concentrate of technology, and had a firepower equaled to the only Leopard 2 German at that time. This was notably the case of the M60 Patton tank, derived from the M48 and in service since 1960, but which, in many areas, was surpassed by the Soviet T-64, as well as by the new T-72 which will enter service in 1973. In 1972, at the end of the Vietnam War, the US armies were exhausted, handicapped by 10 years of investment in a specific theater, and many of its land and air equipment no longer offered significant added value in the face of their Soviet equivalents. A final article will present the Turkish Atlay, the South Korean K2 Black Panther, the Japanese Type 10 and the Italian C1 Ariete. This one features the American M1A2C Abrams, the British Challenger 3 and the Russian T-90M and T-14 Armata. This article is the second of a series of 3 intended to present the main models of modern combat tanks which equip or will equip the armed forces in the world.Ī first article presented the German Leopard 2, the Chinese Type 99A, the Israeli Merkava Mk IV and the French Leclerc. After their planned disappearance was almost announced with the appearance of new weapon systems, heavy tanks are once again becoming a key marker of the military power of an armed force, and this, in all theaters.
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