I’m personally feeling like they’ll dig up some of the fairly radical turret concepts from older ideas the Army proposed to lighten the Abrams. Probably won’t see a return of the TTB but I doubt GDLS will see much of their AbramsX in the M1A3 when it finally becomes reality. Something that might have similarities to the Leopard A-RC 2.0 with an integrated APS is decently likely, I bet.
This here you posted is probably the closest we have to the finalized design since we know the turret of the expo tank is a placeholder until the finalized design is ready. The Abrams staying at the top of the food chain with this new iteration.
If i am not mistaken this design was leaked along with one more before M1E3 prototype was built, so it will most likely look like the model
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I think it will depend on the advancement of rival 4th gen tanks. With the T-14 program ending up in complete failure, and China only unveiling the ZTZ-100 which look more like a Booker than a full-fledged MBT, Army might feel confident enough to keep an extended length 120mm(for now), possibly with slightly more powerful ammo to boast.
The program seems extremely grounded in reality, technologies that are ready, and capacity for new tech integration. The two first points are often what killed previous US weapon programs, so that’s good to see they’re staying pragmatic this time.
Second one somewhat looked like this
Edit: This is RCV-H(the right one of the third image and the two images above it) the other design that was leaked, and not M1E3 leaked design. The one on the left was leaked M1E3 design
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As per the recent Chieftain interview they are at least for now remaining with the baseline 120mm M256. The XM360 was directly referenced as being not yet mature enough.
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War Thunder mentioned at 9:03 XD
I wouldn’t be surprised if 70% + of new recruits in tanker school enlisted because of war thunder.