The M1 Abrams: The Army Tank That Could Not Be Stopped

[Compost]

During 2016 the Australian Army took delivery of six more 64-tonne M88A2 Super Hercules ARVs to supplement its heavy armour force of seven M88A2 and fifty-nine 60-tonne M1A1 Abrams MBTs procured from 2007-2009. Army’s other combat armour consists of fleets of ASLAV reconnaissance and Bushmaster and M-113 carriers all of which have laden weights of less than 20 tonnes. That light armour force of more than 1,500 vehicles includes ARV/fitter and engineer variants. The combat engineers also operate expediently armoured vehicles up to the size of superdozers. Army’s current armoured force is to be complemented by approved projects for acquisition of more than two hundred 30 to 40-tonne armoured reconnaissance vehicles together with several hundred similarly weighted infantry carriers and combat engineer specials.

Commencing in about 2015 there has been comment that Army lacks sufficient MBTs to adequately equip its restructured multi-role brigades.
http://dtrmagazine.com/wp-content/up...Supplement.pdf, p3-4.

It has not been disclosed if the recent batch of M88A2s was obtained to cope with a high rate of MBT and/or ARV breakdowns, dispersal at widely separated bases, or in anticipation of a yet-to-be announced procurement of additional Abrams MBTs. And even if the primary cause was breakdowns or dispersal, Army is presumably still advocating the need for a substantial increase of its small numbers of MBTs and ARVs, and acquisition of some fully armoured heavy mobility support vehicles.

[davidbfpo]

Opened thread at Compost's request for an update.

[Compost]

Australian Defence has scheduled an Industry Consultation Day on 21 February to survey a proposed expansion of Army's heavy armour force in projects LAND 907 Phase 2/ LAND 8160 Phase 1. https://www.defenceconnect.com.au/ev...nsultation-day

Phase 1 of LAND 907 involved acquisition of 59 M1A1 Abrams MBT, 7 M88A2 Hercules ARV and 14 tank transporters in 2007-08, and augmentation by 6 more A88A2 in 2016. Phase 2 is intended to result in upgrade of those MBT and ARV and acquisition of additional tanks to form a third operational squadron and to increase the reserve of vehicles held for maintenance and attrition.

LAND 907 was complemented in 2016 by announcement of a new project described as LAND 8160 Under Armour Breaching and Bridging. Its Phase 1 is expected to provide Army's three multi-role brigades - each of some 3,000 soldiers - with heavily armoured breaching, bridging and possibly combat engineer vehicles which would unlike the Hercules ARV probably be built on an Abrams chassis. http://dtrmagazine.com/wp-content/up...Supplement.pdf (p3-4, p12)

In combination the projects are reportedly intended to ensure that each brigade has a heavy armour component equipped with one squadron of 14 MBT, up to 12 mobility support ARV, ABV, AEV, AVLB and an undisclosed number of on-road/off-road transporters. It is not known if the Consultation Day will review the adequacy of such a small core force of MBTs.

[AdamG]

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Nine Abrams tanks the United States had provided to Iraqi forces for the battle against the Islamic State (IS) are now in the hands of the Iranian-backed Hashd al-Shaabi militias, a US military audit confirmed.
A quarterly inspector general report for the US mission in Iraq and Syria, released on Feb. 2, confirms that M1 Abrams battle tanks and other lethal equipment provided to the Iraqi government by Washington have ended up with the Hashd al-Shaabi, also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).

http://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/d...7-3f3021db71e2

[AdamG]

Pro-Iranian militias in Iraq got their hands on at least nine high-tech, U.S.-made M-1 tanks as early as 2015, the U.S. government acknowledged earlier this month. Along with the belated admission, the Pentagon and the U.S. State Department say they are trying to take back the tanks. But to a great extent, the damage is already done. The militias have already deployed them against some of America’s longtime Kurdish allies.

When the so-called Islamic State swept through northwest Iraq in 2014, Iraqi M-1s were in the thick of the fighting. Militants quickly destroyed five of them, damaged dozens more, and captured several intact M-1s. For a few months at least, ISIS possessed operational M-1s. Then pro-Iran Shia militias—collectively known as “Popular Mobilization Forces” or PMF—recaptured some the tanks, the coalition spokesperson said.
In January 2015, a video appeared online that showed an M-1 flying the flag of the Hezbollah Brigades, a U.S.-designated terror group that’s part of the PMF and fights alongside the Iraqi army. A separate video that appeared in February 2016 showed an M-1 sporting the flag of Kata’ib Sayyid Al Shuhada, another PMF militia.
Recaptured vehicles that the PMF seized from ISIS account for only “some” of the at least nine M-1s that have appeared in the militias’ arsenal, according to the coalition spokesperson. The Iraqi army appears to have supplied the balance of the tanks directly to the PMF, in violation of Iraq’s original contract for the M-1s.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...ack/ar-BBJmgTV

And yet Pax Americana still hasn't supplied their Kurd allies with a Battalion's worth.