General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) has been awarded a $150m contract for the Abrams Engineering Programme, intended to deliver new technologies for the US Army’s M1E3 Abrams next-generation main battle tank (MBT).
The bid by GDLS was the only one received, with work to be performed in Sterling Heights, Michigan, with an estimated completion date of 30 June 2027, using US Army fiscal 2025 research, development, test and evaluation, funds.
In 2023 the US Army first announced the pathway forward for the M1E3 Abrams MBT modernisation programme, moving on from the M1A2 SEP v4 effort to produce a new-generation tank that will be effective on the battlefield into the 2040.
According to the US Army the development of the M1E3 Abrams would include the “best features of the M1A2 SEPv4”, incorporating modular open systems architecture to enable the integration of upgrade packages more quickly that possible in contemporary vehicles.
Cited in the original 2023 description, this process would enable the US Army to design a “more survivable, lighter tank”.
The US Army is continuing to produce the M1A2 SEPv3 at a reduced rate until production transitions to the M1E3 Abrams, while technologies will also be carried forward into the SEPv4 Abrams process.
Initial operational capability of the M1E3 is anticipated in the early 2030s, although this timeline could well move to the right.
An Abrams lite or a heavy M10 Booker?
Replacing the 67-tonne-plus M1A2 MBTs of the US Army will be one of the largest industrial programmes of the generation, with the number of vehicles required likely to run into the thousands.
According to GlobalData’s military equipment inventories, the US Army has around 2,400 M1A1 and M1A2 MBTs, delivered by GDLS from 1980 onwards.
The original reference to a lighter, more agile MBT in the original M1E3 announcement is telling, with mobility of critical importance in a modern battlefield saturated by drones and other threats.
It is conceivable that the M1E3, in whatever form it takes, could weigh in somewhere between the M1A2 SEP v2/3 and the axed M10 Booker light tank (~40 tonnes).
The Abrams M1A2-series operate the M256 120mm smoothbore main gun, which is license-built variant of German prime Rheinmetall’s Rh-120 system.
Rheinmetall developed a 140mm tank gun under Project Ascalon, as part of the European Main Ground Combat System, which is effectively a next-generation tank programme.
Other capabilities such as hybrid drive, potentially an uncrewed turret, and both active and passive protection systems, could all potentially feature on the future M1E3.
