Army Overhauls Its 70-Ton Behemoth--the Abrams Tank.

• Author: Kennedy, Harold
• Position: Modernization of armoured vehicle fleet

While the U.S. Army, at Fort Lewis, Wash., is busy creating new, mote easily deployable brigades that will be equipped with light-armored vehicles (LAVs), it also is modernizing the much-maligned, two decade-old, 70-ton Abrams tank.

The focus of the modernization effort is half a continent away, at Fort Hood, Texas, home of the III Armored Corps-- nucleus of the Army's heavy combat force. Known as "the Phantom Corps" for its World War II tactic of hitting the enemy when and where least expected, the III Corps prides itself on being ready to deploy anywhere, anytime. Its units have deployed to such hot spots as Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Somalia and the Balkans.

In recent years, the corps' ability to deploy quickly has been called into question, primarily because of the size and weight of the Abrams, which is the key weapon in its arsenal. Row after row of them--painted desert camouflage--line the dusty tarmac at Fort Hood. Located on 340 square miles of the rolling, semiarid hill country north of Austin, Fort Hood is the only post in the United States large enough to station and train two armored divisions.

The Abrams, manufactured by General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS), of Sterling Heights, Mich., has been the Army's main battle tank since it was first fielded in 1978. Altogether, nearly 9,000 of them have been produced in several configurations, from the original Ml to the most recent M1A2. More than 5,000 are still in the Army's inventory, according to Lt. Gen. Paul J. Kern, military deputy assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology.

The Abrams was designed to fight the heavy tank divisions of the Soviet Union on the rolling plains of Central Europe. That never happened, but suddenly in 1991, the Abrams was deployed in Operation Desert Storm to defend Kuwait against invading Iraqi forces.

The result: According to one Pentagon report, Iraq lost 3,700 of its 4,280 Soviet-made battle tanks, many of them in shootouts with the Abrams.

In one incident, a U.S. tank--mired in mud--was attacked by three Iraqi T-72 tanks. Iraqi rounds hit the Abrams repeatedly, but failed to damage it, according to the after-action report. The Abrams returned fire, destroying all three, including one that was completely hidden behind a sand berm.

Key to the Abrams' advantage in such encounters, GDLS spokesman Peter Keating explained, were two components:

* A 120-mm gun, capable of first-shot kills at distances of two miles or more.

* Highly classified armor, made of titanium, depleted uranium and steel, which can withstand all but the most devastating hits from other tanks.

Armored bulkheads of the Abrams separate the crew's compartment from the fuel ranks, Keating explained. The top panels of the tank are designed to blow outwards in the event of a hit by enemy fire, he said. "The number one thing that the Abrams was designed to do was to protect the crew," he said.

That is important, said Lt. Col. Robert L. Groller, program manager for the Army's M 1A2 tank system, at Warren...