Photo by PO Damian Pawlenko

CREWS of Army’s new beasts of steel have tested the accuracy of their 120mm cannons for the first time publicly at a CA media day.

Two M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tanks crews fired at a variety of targets at the fighting vehicle range in Puckapunyal on December 8.

Lt-Col Jason Thomas, the CO of the School of Armour said the tanks and crews shot with a high degree of accuracy.

“They fired 20 rounds of a mixture of HEAT and Armour-Piercing, Fin-Stabilised, Discarding Sabot practice rounds at moving, pop up and personnel targets out to a distance of 2500m” he said.

“The Abrams and crews performed very well on the live fire. It is far more accurate than the Leopard.

“If the vehicle is prepared properly I don’t expect it to miss a target at 2000m, moving or stationary. This demonstration proved this.”

Lt-Col Thomas said crews which trained in the US also achieved impressive and accurate target hit rates.

“A conversion crew training in the US shot with 100 per cent accuracy and no crew during training shot below 92 per cent,” he said.

Conversion training on the Abrams for the Leopard crews is expected to be completed by the end of June. Lt-Col Thomas said training so far had been successful with students using new simulators as part of the training program.

“The Abrams driver and gunnery simulators are now up and running and have proven to be reliable and highly effective,” he said.

“It takes four to six weeks to convert a Leopard crew member, which includes training on the new battle management system or BMS.

“To train someone to be a driver from scratch is the same time as it took to train a Leopard driver, including an extra week to train on the BMS.”

Lt-Col Thomas said the crews that trained on the Abrams were pleased with the vehicle’s performance.

“They are also comfortable with the command and control system and they think it is a good step forward.”

He said the best way to describe the difference between the retiring Leopard tanks and the Abrams was to compare a Chevrolet and a Mercedes Benz.

“We now have a new Chevy, which is a great car and we used to have an old Mercedes,” he said.

“The Leopard was a good vehicle and the Abrams is a good one also, but they are different vehicles and there is another 20 years of design technology that has been built into the Abrams.

“It is a very easy and simple vehicle to operate compared to the Leopard.”

The future of the Leopard tanks is uncertain, but Lt-Col Thomas said some had been delivered to the School of Armour Museum, with the remainder to be sent to Bandiana to await a decision on their disposal.

The most impressive aspect of the Abrams was how it would operate as a part of an Army combined arms team.

“The protection, accuracy, fire power and mobility it offers is a significant step up from the Leopard,” he said.

“The Abrams is a significant step forward in the evolution of the combined arms team.”