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The M1 Abrams main battle tank is the principal combat tank of the United States Army and the United States Marine Corps, with three main versions being deployed starting in 1980: the M1, M1A1, and M1A2. The latest versions of the M1A2 have a new armor and electronics package. It is named after General Creighton Abrams, former Army Chief of Staff and commander of the Army's 37th Armored Battalion. The M1 Abrams replaced the M60 Patton in US service.
The M1 Abrams was designed by Chrysler Defense (In 1982, General Dynamics Land Systems Division purchased Chrysler Defense Division) and is currently produced by General Dynamics Corporation and first entered US Army service in 1980. An improved version of the M1, the M1A1, was introduced in 1985. The M1A1 has the M256 120 mm smoothbore cannon developed by Rheinmetall AG of Germany for the Leopard 2, improved armor, and an NBC protection system. The M1A2 is a further improvement of the M1A1 with a commander's thermal viewer and weapon station, position navigation equipment, digital data bus and a radio interface unit.
Further upgrades include depleted uranium armor for all variants, a system overhaul that returns all A1's to zero hours (M1A1 AIM), a digital enhancement package for the A1 (M1A1D), a commonality program to standardize parts between the US Army and the Marine Corps (M1A1HC), and an electronic upgrade for the A2 (M1A2 SEP).
In this article, "Abrams" is used to refer to all variants of the tank, while the specific variants are referred to as the M1, M1IP, M1A1, and M1A2.
During Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm and for Bosnia, some M1A1s were modified with armor upgrades. The M1 can be equipped with mine plow and mine roller attachments if needed. The M1 chassis also serves as a basis for the Grizzly combat engineering vehicle and the M104 Wolverine heavy assault bridge.
Over 8,800 M1 and M1A1 tanks have been produced.
Export variants, with the export armor package and different options (such as multi-fuel diesel engines) of the M1 Abrams are also used by the defence forces of:
Australia (59 M1A1 AIM, to enter service in 2007)
Egypt (777 M1A1)
Saudi Arabia (315 M1A2)
Kuwait (218 M1A2)
