They also need to update the effectiveness of the armor.
M1a1 and m1a2 got s2 materials. Very similar to how Chobham and Dorchester or the 2a4 and 2a5 endgame have the exact same nera dimensions and armor but are 25-40% more effective.
The m1a2 completely retooled the Nera arrays when adding the DU. That’s why all Abrams in incidents have to come home and be recertified. Because they now use ceramic tiles from United defense and high hardened steel.
The fact that every other tank is now using high hardened steel and the m1a1/2 isn’t for its 38mm upper, or the face on the turret or hull is insane.
Every single modern main battle tank uses that as the initial plate on it skin or the first plate on the array.
Do you want your hardest steel in the very beginning so it won’t deform and we will defeat the round if it’s too soft.
There’s also a reason they use the thinner plate in the front and the thickest plate in the rear. The thickest plate has to be softer. Otherwise, he would crack because it’s so brittle.
The Abrams would not only be 19 and 38 mm except for the fact it uses high hardened steel. If they were using normal RHA even if it ricochets at 81 degrees It’s going to warp or ruin the whole upper front plate.
HHS is in between ceramic and steel so it handles shots a lot better, but doesn’t break on every instance.
Lastly, the M1 A1 physically added hull armor on top of adding better materials. When they lengthend the hull, by more than a foot it was increased. Probably by 2 array blocks which is 8 inches.
This lines up with every number we have from Jane’s to Hannicut to Doyle to multiple senators like McCain bragging on camera he got the funding passed for the M1a1s frontal protection increase.
Also, there’s a congressional letter in 1995 from a few congressmen saying they were pissed some of their constituents children had to ride in less protected in ones while the others got M1a1s and they got a reply back saying, he check army ordinance and all M1a2s will be receiving 2x all the frontal armor.
He then goes on to say the M1 was insufficient to stand up against Russia’s latest round. The M1 A1 did better on the turret, but still missed the mark. The M1 A2. Will be completely in vulnerable And he said specifically “ I was in a classified briefing, they can be shot at high or low and it won’t matter. We are sparing no expense.”
And the list goes on and on and on. The armies reason for not needing DU in the lower hull was its protection was being increased and is already gaining 2.5 tons. It can add 2 tons in the lower and DU.
So why we don’t know specifics, we do know it’s damn well, not the same number the M1 is in game and it’s at least with the leopard has.
Thats why with the Sep general dynamic said all we can do is add a ERA and imaging systems because we’ve already upgraded the quality of armor and used every inch we can….
But if you go look at the M1 A1 or M1 A2 in game you can see a fat 8 inch gap where there is no nera for no reason. Tanks take a crap ton of weight to cover. You would not leave an 8 inch gap for no reason. There is no dead space in tanks. If they had that extra 8 inches, that would be enough to store half of their electronics and computers, and they wouldn’t be fighting to make room elsewhere.
Gaijin is so off on everything with the US
The m735 is the perfect example…. The M111 from Israel is literally a licensed copy of the M735 that they used to joke around that was an American round.
My friend still fires them in Israel for training because they made so many of them…. The Israeli tanks boars produce produced way less pressure because they were based on the L7 not a high-pressure bore.
Since it is Israeli, it gets almost 340 mm of Pen from 1455 m/s…. But since it’s American 290mm and it’s faster by 41 m/s.
Literally the same round, shot at 41 m a second less gets 50mm pen advantage.
Or how about the m111 and m735 both testing as 390mm and 400mm against flat targets and getting 50-100mm nerf.
How about the fact that the M735 was superior to all of our steel darts but it has the same exact penetration as a 90mm t95e1 with a shorter rod made of steel at less velocity?
How about the 76 mm that’s super short and has less velocity on the Italian dart that only does 15 mm less pen while being half as long, 30% less mass and much slower?
It’s nonstop. But they hate the Abrams and the XM one was king for to long. They nerfed it three times a year for three years in a row until it finally died.
Look how quickly they nerf any American outlier while the Russian outliers simply get power crept.
The 57mm aa that one shot anything is still OP but it’s not top-tier any longer. The object 279, is7, kv220, kv1e, T 44, T 54, t64 were all absolute scary monsters who never got nerfed. They only came out with new tanks.
Meanwhile, anything US like the hellcat goes from 4.7 to 6.0 or the T 29 6.7-7.0 to reload nerfed.
