The Great M1 Abrams Tank Redesign Has Arrived

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Key Points and Summary: The U.S. Army’s AbramsX tank demonstrator represents a revolutionary leap in armored warfare, addressing deficiencies in the M1A2 SEPv4 upgrade program.

-Unlike its predecessors, the AbramsX features a hybrid-electric powertrain for reduced fuel consumption and stealthy operation. Its modular design includes an unmanned turret, lowering the tank’s profile and increasing survivability. Active protection systems offer enhanced defense against threats like loitering drones and anti-tank missiles, key lessons from the Ukraine war.

-While still in development, the AbramsX promises extended range, improved digital situational awareness, and reduced logistical burdens, marking a new chapter in the evolution of the M1 Abrams platform.

The M1 Abrams Keeps Getting Lots of Upgrades 

The M1 Abrams main battle tank has been the backbone of the United States Army’s armored forces for over four decades. Introduced in 1980, it has been continuously upgraded to offer tankers incrementally better capabilities: better firepower, more robust armored protection, and better situational awareness.

The most recent upgraded variant is the M1A2 System Enhancement Package Version 3, better known by its SEPv3 abbreviation. While the SEPv3 offers the Abrams significant improvements in onboard electronics, armor protection, and lethality, the pace of threats facing the tank has necessitated the development of an entirely new main battle tank concept: the AbramsX tank demonstrator.

Built by General Dynamics Land Systems, the AbramsX tank concept vehicle addresses deficiencies in the SEPv4 program — deficiencies that have come to light partly thanks to the ongoing war in Ukraine — which was ultimately canceled in favor of pursuing more advanced, next-generation capabilities.

AbramsX: an Entirely New Main Battle Tank

The AbramsX is genuinely a new kind of main battle tank. Although it is still a prototype, its planned enhancements to survivability, lethality, and mobility are nothing short of radical. Thanks to an active protection system, a new powertrain, and lighter weight, the platform holds real promise.

Powertrain and Digital Architecture

Another significant difference from the traditional Abrams design is the AbramsX’s hybrid-electric powertrain. This system combines a conventional internal combustion engine with electric motors, which reduces fuel consumption significantly. It also would allow the AbramsX to operate almost noiselessly in all-electric mode, offering not only a much reduced acoustic signature. Still, it would also eliminate a strong heat signature from the tank’s exhaust and engine compartment. 

By contrast, the SEPv3 and the planned SEPv4 variants would rely on the Abrams’ Honeywell AGT1500 turbine engine, which, though a powerful engine, is well known for its high fuel consumption and logistical requirements, and is infamous for its high fuel consumption and logistical demands.

The AbramsX also incorporates a raft of new digital technologies that would significantly augment the tank’s situational awareness and networking with other nodes on the modern battlefield, addressing shortcomings of the SEPv4 design, which may have had difficulty integrating newer, emerging technologies. A reduced crew workload and better on-the-fly decision-making in high-stress environments is anticipated.

Armored Protection Package

Although the M1 Abrams is one of the most capable main battle tanks in the world today, it is also among the heaviest main battle tanks in existence. Not only does this negatively affect the tank’s operational range, but it also makes the tank’s logistical footprint much larger. One criticism the Abrams has sustained has been its ability to navigate civilian infrastructure like bridges, which are designed for much, much lighter vehicles. The turret design of the AbramsX partially addresses this shortcoming.

Unlike the SEPv3 and SEPv4, which retained the traditional manned turret configuration, the AbramsX features an unmanned turret. This design change not only reduces crew exposure to incoming fire but also gives the tank an overall lower profile, making it more difficult to detect and target. It also reduces the weight of the tank somewhat, though until the AbramsX is finalized, it is not known by how much.

M1 Abrams Tank: Lessons from the War in Ukraine

The ongoing war in Ukraine has made the evolving nature of modern armored warfare very stark — and provided lessons for future tank design, including the AbramsX. First and foremost among those lessons is the vulnerability of armored vehicles to precision-guided munitions like anti-tank missiles, and in particular to loitering drones.

In Ukraine, tanks and other armored vehicles have frequently been targeted and destroyed or disabled by these aerial threats, underscoring the need for enhanced active protection systems. The AbramsX tackles this challenge head-on via an APS capability that is designed to intercept projectiles before they strike the vehicle, reducing the risk of a knock-out strike. APS could also afford the AbramsX with a significantly lighter armor package as well, affording the tank a lighter footprint and lighter logistical requirement, as well as extending range by reducing fuel consumption.

“We appreciate that future battlefields pose new challenges to the tank as we study recent and ongoing conflicts,” said Brigadier General Geoffrey Norman, director of the Next-Generation Combat Vehicle Cross Functional Team, in a U.S. Army statement. “We must optimize the Abrams’ mobility and survivability to allow the tank to continue to close with and destroy the enemy as the apex predator on future battlefields.”

“The Abrams Tank can no longer grow its capabilities without adding weight, and we need to reduce its logistical footprint,” said Major General Glenn Dean, Program Executive Officer for Ground Combat Systems. “The war in Ukraine has highlighted a critical need for integrated protections for Soldiers, built from within instead of adding on.” 

SEPv4 Cancellation

The Army’s decision to cancel the SEPv4 program is a reflection that incremental upgrades to a forty-plus, Cold War-era main battle tank would not be sufficient to address today’s challenges on the battlefield.

The SEPv4 was envisioned as a comprehensive upgrade that would build upon the SEPv3 with improved sensors, a more powerful engine, and enhanced firepower, including the integration of the XM1147 Advanced Multi-Purpose (AMP) round. This munition would have combined several kinds of tank rounds into a single package, a potential logistical boon.

However, the SEPv4 program faced significant challenges. First and foremost was weight and power output. Balancing upgrades to the platform and integrating upgrades onto the aged Abrams chassis proved to be a challenge and made clear the diminishing returns of continuous, incremental Abrams upgrades.

M1E3

Until the AbramsX comes online, however, the Army will rely on the newest Abrams variant, the M1E3. “The M1E3 Abrams nomenclature is a return to the Army’s standard use of its type classification and nomenclature system for our combat vehicle fleet,” said a United States Army spokesman.

“The ‘E’ designation represents an engineering change to an existing platform that is more significant than a minor modification and serves to designate the prototype and development configuration until the vehicle is formally type classified and receives an ‘A’ designation. This is distinct from the ‘XM’ designation used for new prototype systems.”

Into the Future for M1 Abrams 

The AbramsX tank demonstrator represents a significant step forward in the evolution of the Abrams main battle tank and addresses substantial deficiencies in the SEPv4 upgrade program. The AbramsX’s emphasis on extended range, thanks to hybrid-electric propulsion, modularity, and planned sensor integration, marks a stark departure from more traditional main battle tank design philosophies. Though the tank has not entered serial production and, therefore, may change significantly before the design is ultimately finalized, it is clear that whatever form the ArbramsX ultimately takes, it will be radically different than its predecessors — and, indeed, anything else on the battlefield.

About the Author: Caleb Larson 

Caleb Larson is an American multiformat journalist based in Berlin, Germany. His work covers the intersection of conflict and society, focusing on American foreign policy and European security. He has reported from Germany, Russia, and the United States. Most recently, he covered the war in Ukraine, reporting extensively on the war’s shifting battle lines from Donbas and writing on the war’s civilian and humanitarian toll. Previously, he worked as a Defense Reporter for POLITICO Europe. You can follow his latest work on X.