M1 Abrams

[95th Rifleman]

Assuming a 1980's timeline, the M1 at the outbreak of war in december 1986 would of been the M1 variant with the British 105mm rifled gun.

The 120mm variant was in production and as the war escalates and the need for upgunned Abrams becomes more and more apparent I need help in figuring out roughly how many would be refitted and how quickly.

[Panther Al]

The M1 was designed with the conversion to the 120mm Gun in mind, so while there is more than just a gun swap, its not something that would be too hard to arrange.

The three big items:
Swapping out the gun assembly.
Ammo Storage Arrangements.
Fire Control.

So it wouldn't be that difficult.

[95th Rifleman]

Originally Posted by Panther Al

The M1 was designed with the conversion to the 120mm Gun in mind, so while there is more than just a gun swap, its not something that would be too hard to arrange.

The three big items:
Swapping out the gun assembly.
Ammo Storage Arrangements.
Fire Control.

So it wouldn't be that difficult.

So what would a rough estimate be for the Abrams active in Europe?

[Panther Al]

Outbreak in 86? Well, production of the M1A1 (armed with the 120) started in 85, and those was tapped to go to European units first. I would actually feel comfortable saying any major unit in 3 Corp would have the A1 (Assuming as things heat up in the months prior to the ball dropping a intense effort to top of the established units) with all the replacements being a mix of mainly M1's, a handful of new production M1A1's, and slightly more M1A1 conversions. Call it 3-1-1 in ratio.

In short, by the time 90 rolls around, with attrition and such, 1 in 3 would be armed with the M256 as I think the Soviets would learn real fast to target the M1's with the bigger barrels - and as M1's went in for services, they would upgrade them to A1 status with guns either off the production lines (as long as they last) and taken from knocked out A1's and LeoII's.

[95th Rifleman]

Originally Posted by Panther Al

Outbreak in 86? Well, production of the M1A1 (armed with the 120) started in 85, and those was tapped to go to European units first. I would actually feel comfortable saying any major unit in 3 Corp would have the A1 (Assuming as things heat up in the months prior to the ball dropping a intense effort to top of the established units) with all the replacements being a mix of mainly M1's, a handful of new production M1A1's, and slightly more M1A1 conversions. Call it 3-1-1 in ratio.

In short, by the time 90 rolls around, with attrition and such, 1 in 3 would be armed with the M256 as I think the Soviets would learn real fast to target the M1's with the bigger barrels - and as M1's went in for services, they would upgrade them to A1 status with guns either off the production lines (as long as they last) and taken from knocked out A1's and LeoII's.

excelent, thanks! I don't know all that much about the US side of things, my group are British with predominantly British characters so the game is based around Brit and Russian kit. The group currently have a pair of land rovers and a T64.

What about the rifled 120mm from the Challenger 1? Would it be feasible to upgrade the M1A1 with that weapon?

[Panther Al]

Originally Posted by 95th Rifleman

excelent, thanks! I don't know all that much about the US side of things, my group are British with predominantly British characters so the game is based around Brit and Russian kit. The group currently have a pair of land rovers and a T64.

What about the rifled 120mm from the Challenger 1? Would it be feasible to upgrade the M1A1 with that weapon?

Hrmmm...


Good question that.

I do know that they have fitted recently a pair of Chally 2's with the M256E1 (Thats the L55 version) and it wasn't that big of a deal to mount it.

I think with the Chally, the biggest issue isn't mounting the gun. Its going to be Ammo Storage. The M256 fires a fixed round. The L11 and L30 fires a two part round... and that probably is reflected in its ammo storage systems.