Abrams.pdf

ABRAMS

A History of

the American Main Battle Tank

Volume 2

By R.P. Hunnicutt

ABRAMS

A History of

the American Main Battle Tank

Volume 2

R.P. Hunnicutt

Line Drawings

O.P. Dyer and Dan Graves

Color Drawing

Uwe Feist

Foreword

Brigadier General Philip L. Bolté USA-Retired

PRESIDIO

FIRST EDITION

NO PART OF THIS BOOK MAY BE REPRODUCED

IN ANY FORM WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Published by Presidio Press

31 Pamaron Way, Novato, California 94947

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hunnicutt, R.P., 1926-

Abrams / by R.P. Hunnicutt; line drawings by O.P. Dyer and Dan

Graves; color drawing by Uwe Feist; foreword by Philip L. Boité.

p. cm. — (A History of the American main battle tank; v. 2)

Includes bibliographical references (p.

ISBN 0-89141-388-X

1. Ml (Tank)—History. 2. Tanks (Military science)—United

States—History. I. Title. II. Series: Hunnicutt, R.P., 1926-History of

the American main battle tank; v.s.

UG446.5.H844 1990

358'. 18-dc20

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

Introduction

PART I ADVANCING THE STATE OF THE ART

The T95 Tank Program

PART II THE ULTIMATE MAIN BATTLE TANK DESIGN

The Requirement for a New Main Battle Tank

Main Battle Tank 70

117

152mm Gun-Launcher Tank XM803

143

PART III AN AFFORDABLE MAIN BATTLE TANK

159

A Fresh Start

161

Full Scale Engineering Development

195

Upgrading the Abrams

224

PART IV VEHICLES BASED ON THE MAIN BATTLE TANK

AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

251

Combat Engineer Vehicles

253

Bridging Equipment

264

Recovery Vehicles

268

The Future

274

PART V REFERENCE DATA

283

Color Section

285

Vehicle Data Sheets

293

Weapon Data Sheets

307

References and Selected Bibliography

316

Index

317

Foreword

New Design Concepts

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Contributions to the research for this armored vehi-

cle history came from a wide variety of sources. Among

these was Brigadier General Philip L. Bolté, U.S. Army,

Retired, who also kindly agreed to write the foreword for

the book. During his military service, he was familiar with

many of the projects described as both a user and a

developer of armored vehicles.

Leon Burg of the Technical Library at the Tank

Automotive Command (TACOM) was instrumental in

tracking down key sources of information on the early

experimental programs. Also at TACOM, Clifford Brad-

ley, Oscar Danielian, Major General Oscar Decker, Dr.

Herbert Dobbs, Colonel Thomas Huber, Dan Smith, and

Joe Williams, all now retired, were extremely helpful.

Roland Asoklis and J. B. Gilvydis provided much of the

background leading up to the Ml development program.

Eugene Trapp was a prime source of information on the

MBT70/XM803 project. Arthur Volpe of the TACOM Pub-

lic Affairs Office located photographs of the ROBAT and

various Ml modifications.

At General Dynamics Land Systems Divsion, formerly

Chrysler, Dr. Philip W. Lett, Joseph Yeats, and Briggs Jones

were extremely helpful in finding both data and photographs

of the various Ml modifications. Also at GDLSD, David

H. Bartle located information on the armament of several

vehicles and Steve Payok tracked down the dates of vari-

ous design changes.

John Purdy, Steven Maxham, and David Holt made

the resources of the Patton Museum available to the author

during several trips to Fort Knox. Larry Bolls, Mark

Falkovitch, David Holliday, and James Montgomery of the

TEXCOM Armor Engineer Board were a great help in

finding rare photographs. Mr. James Schroeder of BMY,

Division of Harsco Corporation, provided photographs and

data on BMY's counter obstacle vehicle and the program

to develop the M88A1E1 recovery vehicle. As usual, Phil

Dyer and Uwe Feist did the line drawings and the dust

jacket painting respectively and Dan Graves contributed

the four view drawing of the combat engineer vehicle

XM745. Michael Green, Russell P. Vaughn, and Greg

Stewart provided numerous photographs for the research

program.

At Aberdeen Proving Ground, Major General Andrew

H. Anderson made available the resources of the Test and

Evaluation Command (TECOM) and Robert Lessels was

extremely helpful in locating data and photographs.

Other contributors included Joseph Avesian, Carl Bachle,

Lieutenant General Robert Baer, Timothy Balliett, George

Bradford, William D. Bunnell, Major Fred Crismon, Paul

Denn, Gregory Flynn, Jr., Robert W Forsyth, Donald F.

Hays, Joseph Hayes, Robert Hesko, William Highlander,

Edward R. Jackovich, Marvin Kabakoff, Glenn W. Kroge,

Charles R. Lemons, Michael A. Leu, Jacques Littlefield,

Lieutenant Colonel James Loop, Donald J. Loughlin,

Dr. Richard E. McClelland, Jim Mesko, Colonel Samual

L. Myers, Jr., Ernst Niederbuehl, Richard Ogorkiewicz,

Colonel Jimmy Pigg, Larry Roederer, Michael E. Rogers,

R. Paul Ryan, Richard D. Scibetta, Don Selby, Roger Smith,

Walter J. Spielberger, Bruce Stainitis, Lyle Walcott, and

Steven Zaloga. Also, special thanks go to Alan Millar and

HMS Typography, Inc. for help with the final preparation

of the book.

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