General Dynamics receives new contract to produce more M1A2 Abrams tanks


According to a contract published by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) on December 10, 2021, General Dynamics Land Systems Inc., Sterling Heights, Michigan, was awarded a $93,519,000 fixed-price-incentive contract for M1A2 Abrams engineering, manufacturing, design, and production.
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U.S. Army M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tank MBT. (Picture source U.S. DoD)


Late in 1988, the US Army awarded General Dynamics Land Systems a contract worth over US$350 million to carry out Full-Scale Engineering Development (FSED) of the M1A2 program. The first production M1A2s were completed late in 1992 with IOC achieved in 1993. Approved by the United States armed forces for production in 1990, the M1A2 represents the backbone of the U.S. Army.

The M1A2 MBT provides enhanced operational combat capabilities over that of the M1A1 MBT. The improvements of the M1A2 include Improved Commander's Weapon Station (ICWS), Commander's Independent Thermal Viewer (CITV), an Inter-Vehicular Information System (IVIS), Position/Navigation System (POS/NAV), and several survivability initiatives.

According to the military balance 2020, the United States has a total of 2,389 Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) including 750 M1A1 SA Abrams, 1,605 M1A2 SEP V2, 34+ M1A2C (M1A2 Abrams SEP V3), and 3,300 M1A1/A2 in store. The M1A2 SEP V3 or M1A2C is the latest generation of M1A2 Abrams tanks in service with the United Armed Forces. 

The main armament of M1A2 Abrams consists of one 120 mm smoothbore M256 cannon which can fire a wide range of ammunition as the M829 APFSDS-T (Armor-Piercing, Fin-Stabilized, Discarding Sabot), M830 HEAT-MP-T (High Explosive Anti-Tank-Multi Purpose - Tracer), M831 TP-T training round and M865 TPCSDS-T training round.