M1 Abrams Tanks
United States President Joe Biden recently announced that he will send 31 state-of-the-art M1 Abrams battle tanks to Ukraine to help its troops push back Russian forces.
About M1 Abrams tanks:
- It is the United States main battle tank.
- The first M1 tank was manufactured by General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) in 1978 and was delivered to the US Army in 1980.
- It was named in honor to General Abrams, commander of US forces during the Vietnam War.
- The export version of the Abrams is used by the armies of Australia, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Poland, and Saudi Arabia.
Features:
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- It uses a powerful and complex turbine engine that produces 1,500 horsepower and requires four persons to operate.
- It is one of the heaviest tanks in service at nearly 62 metric tons.
- The M1 tanks have a maximum speed of 45
- Armement: The Abrams is armed with a 120 mm main gun and .50 caliber and 7.62 mm machine guns.
- It can destroy tank-size targets at a range of 2 km while firing on the move.
- In modern versions of the Abrams tank, there are layers of depleted uranium armour which provides substantial protection to those inside.