GC4D289 M1 Abrams (Traditional Cache) in Minnesota, United States created by The United States of America

This cache has been archived.

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GC4D289 ▼

A cache by The United States of America Message this owner

Hidden : 5/27/2013

Difficulty:

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Size: Size: micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

This is a bison tube. BYOP.
This is the twelfth of the Tank Series and here comes the biggest SOB of the battlefield, the M1 Abrams.

Developed surprisingly in 1979, but later modded, the M1 Abrams is the biggest SOB on the battlefield. Versus the Iraqi T-72 tanks from the 70s over 300 T-72s were destroyed and one M1 damaged during the Invasion of Iraq. There is even a story of a Bradley LIGHT tank destroying 5 T-72s. The Abrams remained untested in combat until the Persian Gulf War in 1991, during Operation Desert Storm. A total of 1,848 M1A1s were deployed to Saudi Arabia to participate in the liberation of Kuwait. The M1A1 was superior to Iraq's Soviet-era T-55 and T-62 tanks, as well as T-72s imported from the Soviet Union and Poland. A total of 23 M1A1s were damaged or destroyed during the war. Of the nine Abrams destroyed, seven were destroyed by friendly fire, and two were purposely destroyed to prevent capture after being damaged. No fatalities were reported though. Unlike earlier U.S. military vehicles used from World War II through the Vietnam War, which used a scheme of dark brownish green known as "olive drab" with large white stars, prototypes and early production M1 (105 mm gun) & M1-IP models used the flat medium green paint; and the large white insignia stars have transitioned to much smaller black markings. Some units painted their M1s with the older MERDC 4-color paint scheme but the turn-in requirements for these tanks required repainting them to solid green. Therefore, even though a large number of the base model M1s were camouflaged in the field, few or none exist today.

M1A1s came from the factory with the NATO three color camouflage Black/Med-Green/Dark-Brown CARC paint jobs. Today M1A1s are given the NATO three color paint job during rebuilds. M1s and M1A1s deployed to Desert Storm were hastily painted desert tan. Some, but not all, of these tanks were re-painted to their "authorized" paint scheme. M1A2s built for Middle Eastern countries were painted in desert tan. Some M1 series tanks are being painted desert tan for service in Iraq and some are not. Replacement parts (roadwheels, armor skirt panels, drive sprockets, etc.) are painted overall green, which can sometimes lead to vehicles with a patchwork of green and desert tan parts.

The Abrams is protected by armor based on the British-designed Chobham armor, a further development of the British 'Burlington' armor. Chobham is a composite armor formed by spacing multiple layers of various alloys of steel, ceramics, plastic composites, and kevlar, giving an estimated maximum (frontal turret) 1,320–1,620 millimetres (52–64 in) of RHAe versus HEAT (and other chemical energy rounds) and 940–960 mm (37–38 in) versus kinetic energy penetrators.

The Abrams is also fitted with depleted uranium plates and depleted uranium shells. Also these babies have a 1500 HP jet turbine engine. Lots of stuff unsaid. M1A3 Abrams is maybe going to roam the battlefield soon with an upgraded 120mm gun.

Today, these babies run around in 15 other countries and currently in Afghanistan.