Army | Challenge Yourself

M1 ABRAMS TANK

The M1-A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank is Australia's newest fighting vehicle. It is one of the fastest, most manoeuvrable, heavily armoured and deadly tanks in the world today.

The 120mm smoothbore cannon is the main weapon of the M1-A1 Abrams. A key feature of this gun is the smoothbore barrel which unlike hand held guns, has no rifling. This allows for a greater muzzle velocity and a longer effective range (up to 4000m). The drawback is it requires the projectiles to have their own stabilising fins to retain their accuracy during flight.

M1 Abrams Performance
Weight: 61.3 tonnes
Length: 9.83 metres
Width: 3.65 metres
Max speed: 67 kph
Crew: 4
Main Armament: Cannon 120mm

Ammunition

The Abrams main cannon fires 2 main types of ammunition. Sabot rounds have no explosive charge and are typically a long, very dense metal rod with a sharp tip and rear stabilizing fins. When the fired rod hits a tank's armour, both the rod and armour partially liquefy under the tremendous pressure, sending molten fragments ricocheting throughout the inside of the vehicle. This usually causes a fire, and if it reaches stored ammunition inside the tank, leads to catastrophic explosions. Rounds of this type can penetrate armour up to 70cm thick.

Fitter Armament

Fitter Armaments are the Arms equivalent of a fitter and turner. You will maintain a diverse range of weapon systems everything from 9mm pistols, sniper rifles to 0.50 Calibre Machine Guns and 120mm tank armaments.Learn more

HEAT

HEAT stands for High Explosive Anti Tank. These rounds can be used effectively against tank armour and also helicopters and bunkers. Used against armour, it will create a narrow blast of gas and molten metal that will cut through thick steel plate. Used against helicopters, it can be set off with a proximity sensor, exploding if it gets close to the target.

Maintaining the main cannon of an Abrams tank, are the Army's Fitter Armaments. They service and repair a wide range of the Army's weapon systems from the 120mm cannon right down to the small arms carried by soldiers.

Vehicle Mechanic

The M1 Abrams Tank is maintained by the Army's qualified Vehicle Mechanics. They inspect, service and repair the engines and much of the equipment aboard the tanks to keep them running.

Vehicle Mechanic

Vehicle Mechanics repair and service a diverse range of equipment in fixed and mobile workshops. They maintain everything from four wheel drives and trucks to Armoured Personnel Carriers and tanks. Learn more

Tracks

Tracks are used instead of wheels on all heavy tanks. Tracks help a tank to distribute its weight evenly over a larger surface than wheels can, allowing it to keep control in areas where a wheeled vehicle of the same size would sink and to be able to cross holes and gaps that wheels would drop into. Tracked vehicles can also turn on the spot, making them very manoeuvrable. They do this by reversing the direction of one track, while driving forward with the other.

The AGT1500 gas turbine
This animated diagram shows the inner workings of a gas turbine engine, as used in the M1 Abrams.

Engine
The Abrams tank uses a gas turbine power-plant as opposed to a traditional diesel engine. This was chosen because it offers a better power to weight ratio and is much smaller in size. It also has the value of running on any available fuel, with less noise.

One of the Fastest, most Manouverable, Heavily Armoured and Deadly Tanks