At that time, both the M48 and M60, derived from the postwar M47 proceeded from the same 1st generation basic design, with classical RHA protection, and the upgrade of the British L7 105 mm “sniper gun”. US Army already evaluated the Leopard when in Germany in the 1960s and it was clear that both countries learned a great deal about the evolution of tactical warfare and ideas revolving on new concepts based on armored mobility, with new standards both in protection and firepower. The MBT 70 (For “Main Battle Tank, 1970) was an attempt to devise a joint US-German project for a new battle tank. The MBT-70 as built, in full speed trials at Aberdeen proving grounds in 1968.

In all these operations, the M1 reigned supreme and washed over any armored opposition with apparent ease, earning a solid reputation as one of the world’s very best MBTs. The two companies chosen were without surprise, Chrysler Corporation (builder of the M60) and the General Motors Corporation (builder of the MBT-70).Įventually, the M1 proved its excellence in combat, during the first Persian gulf war (1991), and the post nine-eleven operations in Afghanistan and Irak. Since any MBT is a compromise, the process was not simple, and the Army chose to play for a competitive process, each company trying the best possible tank design for a development at the lowest cost. The approach taken by the Army staff was not to build the best tank overall, but to reach any objectives within the lowest budget possible. The future tank was to be capable of tactical superiority on the battlefield in order to compensate for the numerical inferiority.

Since numerous reports from the 1973 Yom Kippur war were carefully dissected, this was expressed inside NATO as the “air-land battle” concept in 1976, formulated in 1982 as the AirLand Battle Doctrine, which emphasised adequate combinations of land and air power to deal with a considerable fleet of soviet tanks with increased lethality. If you spot anything out of place, please let us know! Hello dear reader! This article is in need of some care and attention and may contain errors or inaccuracies. It represented a definitive change in US tank design since World War 2 and was engineered with the crew protection in mind, but without sacrificing either the firepower or mobility. The M1 Abrams eclipsed for the last thirty years all past MBTs to date, including the M48/ M60 series.

Main Battle Tank – 9,000 Built The American iconic MBT

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