Odierno told the Associated Press that “if we had our choice, we would use that money in a different way.” Congress decided to include $136 million in the FY 2013 defense budget for 33 further M1A2 upgrades.In April, 173 democratic and republican representatives sent a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta criticizing the administration for ignoring the M1 industrial base and urging him to continue supporting their decision to upgrade more tanks.Odierno told the House Appropriations Committee that $3 billion would be wasted on refurbishing “280 tanks that we simply do not need.” Of the 2,400 M1A2s, roughly two-thirds were already upgraded to the M1A2SEPv2 variant.ġ37 congressmen from both parties responded to this proposal by sending a letter to Army Secretary John McHugh claiming that the proposal would dangerously harm the country’s “industrial base.”Ĭongress subsequently decided to include an extra $255 million in the FY 2012 defense budget to upgrade 49 M1A2s.The Army estimated that shutting down the plant and then reopening it would cost $800,000, whereas keeping plant production running would cost $2.1 billion.In May, the Army argued that $1.3 billion could be saved in the FY2012 defense budget if refurbishment work at the Lima plant in Ohio was frozen until the M1A3 variant became operational in 2017.The SEPv2 (System Enhancement Package – Version 2) includes an array of enhancements to the base M1A2 variant. The Army began refurbishing its M1A2 fleet to the newest M1A2 SEPv2 standard in 2007.
3,000 M1s are currently stationed in an Army depot near the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California in reserve. The Army has a fleet of around 2,300 M1 tanks the majority of which are M1A2s. The newest base variant, the M1A3, is currently being designed with first shipments expected in 2018 or 2019. Since its introduction, over 9,000 M1s have been delivered in three base variants the original M1 design and its upgraded variants, the M1A1 and the M1A2. The first combat deployment of the M1 was in the first gulf war in 1991. Replacing the Army’s aging M60 tank in 1980, the M1 was originally conceived for use in tank warfare with the Soviet Union. The M1 “Abrams” tank is a third generation main battle tank developed by General Dynamics and currently used by the US Army.
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