The M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank (MBT) is the namesake of the late General Creighton W. Abrams, former Army Chief of staff and commander of the 37th Armored Battalion. manufactured by General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS). the first M1 tank was created in 1978, the M1A1 in 1985 and the M1A2 in 1986.
The M1 has a four crew. the driver in the hull and forward of the turret, while the loader, gunner and tank commander occupy the turret, with the loader situated to the left of the main gun and the gunner and tank commander sitting in tandem on the right {ide. The driver's hatch has three periscope vision blocks which offer for forward vision. the middle vision block could also removed and replaced with an AN/TVS-2 low-light periscope.
The main armament is the 120mm M256 smoothbore gun, developed by Rheinmetall Waffe Munition GmbH of Germany. The 120mm gun fires the subsequent ammunition - M865 TPCSDS-T and M831 TP-T training rounds, the M8300 HEAT-MP-T and the M829 APFSDS-T which has a depleted uranium penetrator. Textron Systems provides the Cadillac Gage gun turret drive stabilisation system.
The commander has a 12.7mm Browning M2 machine gun and the loader has a 7.62mm M240 machine gun. A 7.62mm M240 machine gun is also mounted coaxially on the right hand side of the main armament.
