Padre said:We Aussies are about to replace our Leopard AS1 tanks with the American Abrams tank. Is it true though, that the Abrams tank has lots of weak spots, and these are being exploited by Iraqi insurgents who have claimed a few Ab tanks with just small armaments?
During the Gulf War only 18 Abrams tanks were taken out of service due to battle damage: nine were permanent losses, and another nine suffered repairable damage, mostly from mines. Not a single Abrams crewman was lost in the conflict. There were few reports of mechanical failure. US armor commanders maintained an unprecedented 90% operational readiness for their Abrams Main Battle Tanks.
masterblaster said:the only weak spot that I have heard of is the exhaust pipes. If an RPG hits the end of the pipe and slides up it before it blows, you can destroy the engine. The ammo has blow out plates so it the ammo burns, the gas is not exhausted into the turret, therefore the crew is uninjured. This happened a few times, In Iraq this time, the worst trouble has been tanks sliding into canals and sinking. the only tank lost in the first gulf war was the crew's fault. The m-1 pulled up besides a burning Iraqi tank and the thing blew up setting our tank on fire. dumb.
bulldogg said:The Abrams is good but value for the money I am surprised that Aus did not follow India's lead with purchasing the T-90. As of yet there is still no ATGM capability for the Abrams and its a tad more expensive. I am sure this purchase was more than nominally influenced by political pressure to help prop economies up amongst allies. Nothing wrong in that I suppose. I would like to see the T-90 get battle tested so there can be a better source of comparison between it and its American brother.
bulldogg said:CadSea, I was talking about the ATGM system, not the defenses. The Russians use it for variety of options. What if you don't have LOS? Then that 2.6 mile range is pretty useless. It gives you one more tool for your three man crew to dismantle the enemy. Nothing wrong with one more tool eh? Its like saying, nah, I don't need any grenades this M4A1 carbine has a longer range and I'm dead on with it mate. It won't hurt, it can only help.
FULLMETALJACKET said:its funny me and a few friends were discussing this tank just the other day and with a history teacher that served in the army, tanks are becoming obselete, a helicopter can take a tank out with out the tank even seeing it...
mmarsh said:Cadet Seamen
I seem to remember that a Abrams was destroyed by a wire guided AT missile (thought to be an AT-6) fired from the back of a technical about 1 mile away, hitting the tank on the right side. This was back in 2003 in the advance toward Baghdad.
Also there was another mystery in Iraq. An Abrams was disabled by "something" the only damage was a hole about a nickel in diameter in the right side of the Abrams armored shirt just above the 1st wheel. Saw this on CNN, at the time there were unable to explain what it was.
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