Complete article can be seen here:

M1A1-SA Tank

$107.8M to RESET and Produce the First 155 M1A1-SA Tanks

Posted 16-Aug-2006 10:21

General Dynamics Land Systems in Warren, MI receives a pair of delivery order amounts for M1A1 vehicle material sets, used in the AIM process. They include one order for $63.4 million as part of an $81 million firm-fixed-price contract, and another for $44.4 million as part of a $125.5 million firm-fixed-price contract [TL. = $107.8 million]. Work will be performed in Lima, OH (77%), Scranton, PA (20%), and Muskegon, MI (3%), and is expected to be complete by June 30, 2008. These were sole source contracts initiated on December 29, 2005 (DAAE07-01-G-N001).

A subsequent GDLS release notes that this funding will put 155 M1A1 Abrams tanks through the AIM tear-down and rebuild process, while adding a new "situational awareness" refit set which we describe in-depth here...

The new tanks, which we'll refer to as "M1A1-SA" in future, will have gear added including:

Blue Force Tracking (BFT)/Force Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2), which shows the positions of friendly forces and identified enemies on a computer screen. DID's in-depth article and links re:

* FBCB2 can be found here.
* 2nd-generation FLIR sights.
* Far Target Locate
* An eye-safe laser rangefinder
* A thermal sight for the tank's .50 cal machine gun, which is als useful
when providing overwatch and surveillance.
* Driver's vision enhancements
* A power distribution box
* A rear slave receptacle. An auxiliary power (slave) receptacle is used to start a vehicle when its batteries are unable to supply starting current.

A tank-infantry phone that is mounted on the outside of the tank, and can be picked up by accompanying infantry. This modification has been used on tanks for decades, but was left out of the M1. It improves coordination, without forcing the tank crew to come out and expose themselves to enemy fire. This has been a frequent request from infantry troops in Iraq, whose urban situations make this feature especially useful.

Interesting! Good candidate for future DML kit :-)

Only why oh why the photo illustrating the article and captioned "M1A1" shows M1A2SEP...

Pawel

At the beginning of October, I'll be playing on one of these, doing some comparisons. If I get permission to discuss it, I'll try to write something up.

Some of the adjustments, though, are just part of what's getting modified onto all tanks, like the Phone, the rear slave receptacle, etc.

Jed