Poland Just Bought America's M1 Abrams Tank. That's Ironic. [View all]

[Dial H For Hero]

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a37026843/poland-buys-us-m1a2-abrams-main-battle-tank/



Poland will purchase 250 M1A2 Abrams SEPv3 main battle tanks from the U.S., replacing older tanks dating back to the Cold War. The tanks will arm Polish Army units guarding against incursions by the Russian Army.

The purchase is a pretty remarkable turnaround of events, considering the U.S. originally designed the M1 tank to fight Soviet and Polish forces on the battlefields of Western Europe.

The M1 Abrams main battle tank—a clean-sheet design equipped with a 105-millimeter main gun, Chobham composite armor, and gas turbine engine—debuted in 1981 as the most advanced tank of its kind. The tank has outlived several efforts to replace it, gaining upgrades like a larger, more powerful 120-millimeter gun; a layer of depleted uranium armor; a digital command and control system; and a separate “hunter-killer” thermal imaging viewer for the tank commander.

The idea that a 40-year-old tank design has a place in modern armies is a relatively new one. For comparison, in 1981, the 40-year-old M4 Sherman medium tank was thoroughly obsolete. The Abrams’s basic design, however, has remained robust enough to accept new technologies as engineers develop them.