M1 Abrams

"Why do those guys get all the cool toys?"

- Haggard upon arrival of several M1A2 Abrams

"Because they look good in the pictures they do for the press."

- Sweetwater

The M1 Abrams is a Main Battle Tank produced in the United States and designed by Chrysler Defense. The M1 is named after General Creighton Abrams, former Army Chief of Staff and Commander of US military forces during the Vietnam War from 1968 to 1972. It is a well armed, heavily armored, and highly mobile tank designed for modern armored ground warfare. Notable features of the M1 Abrams include the use of a powerful gas turbine engine, the adoption of sophisticated composite armor, and separate ammunition storage in a blow-out compartment for crew safety. The M1 Abrams also has an NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) protection system that protects the crew for harsh battlefield conditions such as Nuclear fallout, poisonous gases, etc. It is one of the heaviest tanks in service, weighing in at close to 68 short tons (almost 62 metric tons).

The M1 Abrams entered US service in 1980, replacing the 105 mm gun, full tracked M60 Patton main battle tank. It did, however, serve for over a decade alongside the improved M60A3, which had entered service in 1978. Three main versions of the M1 Abrams have been deployed, the M1, M1A1, and M1A2, incorporating improved armament, protection and electronics. These improvements, as well as periodic upgrades to older tanks have allowed this long-serving vehicle to remain in front-line service. The M1A3 is currently under development. It is the principal Main Battle Tank of the United States Army and Marine Corps, and the armies of Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Australia, and in 2010 Iraq. The M1 Abrams is anticipated to be in US service until the 2050s, approximately 70 years after entering US service.

The M1A2 appears in Battlefield 2, Battlefield: Bad Company and Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

Battlefield 2
The M1A2 is the Main Battle Tank of the USMC in the game. The differences between it and the other main battle tanks in the game are purely cosmetic. The sighting system used to line up shots for the main cannon and co-axial gun is very easy to use and works well in urban areas in the game. Long distance shots can be a bit harder since the M1's sighting system does not indicate how much the shell will drop. The M1A2 has one advantage however: on the tanks in vanilla Battlefield 2, all tanks have a weak spot under the turret. The spot on the M1A2 can only be hit if the turret is pointing up. However, on the other two tanks, the weak spot is able to be hit without requiring the turret to be pointed up. See Tanks



Battlefield: Bad Company
The M1A2 is the Main Battle Tank of the US Army 222nd Army Battalion. It is identical to the one featured in Battlefield 2, apart from the addition of a TUSK. Additonally, the secondary gunner is less exposed at can only be shot from an elevated position.

Singleplayer

 * Welcome to Bad Company
 * Acta non Verba
 * Ghost Town

Multiplayer
The M1A2 appears on several multiplayer maps, with either desert or woodland camouflage.



Rush

 * Oasis
 * End Of The Line
 * Harvest Day
 * Final Ignition

Conquest

 * Operation Crossing Over
 * End Of The Line
 * Ghost Town
 * Harvest Day
 * Par for the Course

Battlefield: Bad Company 2
The M1A2 in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 can be upgraded to have any of the following: increased armour, faster reload, increased damage-per-shell, have the capability to zoom in, possess a co-axial machine gun mounted on the turret (in addition to the pintle-mounted gun of the secondary gunner), and be equipped with a number of smoke launchers. These upgrades are dependent on the Specializations the driver takes. The same goes for the T-90.

The tank's main cannon, while still very effective in an anti-vehicle role, is also remarkably useful at destroying parts of the environment, and is often capable of demolishing two side-by-side sections of building. This ability makes the M1A2 particularly effective at demolishing houses from long range, or at least weakening enemy structures and other objects the opposing team may use for cover. The M1A2 can even be used to bombard buildings containing enemy objectives in Rush, causing the building to collapse and destroy the objective. However, it is less effective against infantry than in the previous game. The M1A2's HUD is also improved, as the information is clearer and the HUD elements sharper and less cluttered. Unlike the last game, the gunner of the tank can zoom in his/her machine gun. The M1A2 in the single player level Heavy Metal possesses extremely thick armour, long range optics and a very fast loader inside the tank, as it can reload in just over 1.5 seconds.

Singleplayer

 * Operation Heavy Metal

Rush

 * Battle for Arica Harbor

Conquest

 * Battle of the Atacama Desert
 * The Siege of Panama Canal

= Trivia =
 * The M1A2 can be destroyed by 3 rockets/tank shots to the front, 2 and one grenade launcher round to the sides and 2 to the rear.
 * The M1A2 in the Battlefield series holds a crew of 2, unlike in reality where it needs a crew of 4 in order to operate effectively.
 * A M240 Machine gun is removed from the tank in all the Battlefield games it appears in, this is probably because of balancing issues. The second one being the co-axial gun which can be used in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 if the player uses that upgrade.
 * Despite being seen with explosive reactive armor the Abrams can only take up to 3 RPG hits without being repaired. Same is said for all the other main battle tanks, most likely for balancing purposes.
 * The Abrams is only seen 3 times in the entire campaign of Battlefield: Bad Company.
 * The Tank is destroyed instantly by an artillery strike, a laser designated strike, or a planted C4 (in Battlefield: Bad Company and Battlefield: Bad Company 2).
 * While a grenade can be thrown down the open hatch at the top of the tank, it does not actually kill the crew as it would in real life.
 * The Abrams as seen in all of the Battlefield games is unrealistically slow, only reaching maximum speeds of about 20mph. In reality it can reach speeds of up to 40mph.

= References =


 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1A2