During the course of the month of May, the United States Army (US Army) has awarded General Dynamics Land Systems the contract to begin the design phase of the new M1E3 Abrams tank. This is a version that aims to considerably reduce the weight of the platform, and that seeks to integrate a series of new technologies that improve its survivability on the current and future battlefield.
The decision comes shortly after the cancellation by the US Army of the M1A2 System Enhancement Package version 4 program, from which the SEP v3 improvements had emerged, and the proposal of a future SEP v4 version that will ultimately not take place, for the current tank. main force. Along these lines, all future modernization efforts would be framed within the M1E3 program, for which there are still no details about its delivery schedule.
In turn, the US Army is working on organizing a tender to see which company will produce the future replacement for the current Bradley IFVs, taking into account the XM30 vehicle projects from Rheinmetall Vehicles and General Dynamics Land Systems. This is not a minor fact as senior US military commanders stated that they were seeking to align the schedules of the M1E3 Abrams with those of the XM30, in the words of Brigadier General Geoffrey Norman: “I think it would be really beneficial to the Army if the can do is an open question at this point.”
For now, plans for a future M1E3 Abrams tank have undoubtedly been heavily influenced by the lessons learned in Ukraine with the use of the current M1A1 platform. The focus is undoubtedly on reducing the tank’s logistical footprint by reducing operating costs for large-scale deployments, something that in concrete numbers is denoted by the intention to reduce the weight of the future tank by more than 10 tons. Norman himself has made statements in this regard: ““That might be a little aggressive, but we are quite ambitious (…) we anticipate having to change the crew configuration, potentially looking for opportunities to go to a remote turret or an optionally manned turret to save space under the armor.”
Delving into the improvements expected for the new model, we can mention developments such as the ability to operate with an automatic loader that keeps the crew protected from shots at the turret, new propulsion systems that reduce fuel consumption and the integration of modern active protection systems. To them must be added the integration of third generation infrared targeting systems (3GEN FLIR), an improved laser rangefinder (LRF) and a new color camera for the main gun operator.
*Images used for illustrative purposes
You may be interested: The US Army orders the purchase of more Oshkosh FMTV A2 trucks
