Remember last year’s story about development of the M1A2 SEPv3? It’s now out in the field and christened the M1A2C:
Soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, have begun receiving the US Army’s M1A2C Abrams main battle tank (MBT), also known as the M1A2 System Enhancement Package (SEP) version 3 (M1A2 SEP v3), and are preparing for upcoming live-fire exercises.
On 21 July, the service announced that over the past few weeks it has been delivering the vehicle upgrade to members of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division.
“This is the first time we have fielded a new tank in about 16 years,” said Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Sinclair, commander of 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment. “We will be the first ones trained on this so it’s really special to us to make sure we’re doing it right.”
Among the key features are full integration of the Israeli Trophy active protection system (to defend against RPGs, etc.), additional armor plates to the front turret face, and improved electronics.
The National Interest offered up this picture last year:
And here’s a video of it in action:
Tags: Ft. Hood, M1A2, Military, tanks, Texas, Trophy active defense, video
So, another bunch of weight slapped onto an undersized turret built using 1970s technology designed for the last, no, wait, for three wars ago.
Phelps, you must not have read the article or watched the video. There is much more to the new version than you are willing to admit.