"Whispering Death: The Story of the M1 Abrams Tank" Topic

"The 1980s was a decade of both exhilaration and trepidation. Americans were shaking off the effects of Vietnam and Watergate and rediscovering patriotism. Personal promised a new information era. And, last but by no means least, disco and the leisure suit were both finally dead.
At the same time, America's primary enemy, the Soviet Union, was alive and well. Whereas today people worry about isolated terrorist gangs and spree shootings, in those days the big concern was that the Russians would invade West Germany. The result, of course, would be nuclear obliteration. Such was daily life in the days before Gorbachev.
To counter this ever-present threat, the US military began upgrading its weapon systems in the late 70s and early 80s. As part of this program, the Army introduced a new main battle tank, the M1 Abrams, in 1980…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Out of all the possible adjectives which might be applied to the M1 Abrams, "whispering" is one I never would have thought of.

My first encounter with an M1 was at Ft. Knox in '82. We were marching to class and the first indication a tank was close was sprocket noise, from @ 50 meters. An M-60 we would have heard blocks away.

We all commented on "a tank that sneak up on you"

I recall three stories that were harped on in the media back at the time of the Abrams introduction: overall speed, whispering death moniker and the 3 gallons of fuel per mile.

Yeah, the high-pitched whine from the turbine dissipates much, much faster than the low-pitched clatter from a big diesel. True for all environments, not just air.

Sadly, the fuel economy of the engine (swiped from a Huey!) is terrible.

The US finally dropped a small APU into the place of one of the battery packs, it's basically a modified RX7 engine (half the displacement, but it uses a full-sized RX7 rotor to act as a supercharger and get the compression high enough to run on diesel/JP8).

I'm still intrigued by the LeClerc's engine setup, using a jet APU as the turbocharger. This works because a jet engine doesn't burn all the oxygen out of the air that flows through it. In fact, a jet only burns about 1/4 the oxygen in the air, all the rest of the air volume is for cooling.

But I'm honestly expecting the next major generation of tanks to be diesel-electric series hybrids. Diesel engine spins generator, generator powers electric motor that turns the tracks.

Gives you options for running on pure electric power with the engine(s) off if you have a big battery pack (which you should), and also means that you can set the engine(s) spinning the generator up to turn at their best fuel-economy RPM, which further improves mileage.

I'm not sure I'd want to be in a combat vehicle with a large modern battery pack. Even petrol doesn't burn as easily as modern batteries do when penetrated.

I suppose they could always strap the batteries on the outside and use them as ERA.

In which case small arms fire would render the vehicle disabled or if armored at least a RPG.

Diesel locomotives run like what Lion in the Stars listed: a large diesel engine runs a generator, which powers large AC or DC motors, which turn the wheels; AC motors are newer designs. They achieve incredible torque. It has possibilities. I've seen articles on electric drag racing motorcycles: amazingly quick take-off's (watched a video of a guy demonstrating what it could do for a reporter interviewing him -- he crashed it, got seriously injured, never should have touched it…). Interesting concept, but I'm not an engineer, so I can't say it's practical. Time will tell. Cheers!

I'm not sure I'd want to be in a combat vehicle with a large modern battery pack. Even petrol doesn't burn as easily as modern batteries do when penetrated.

It's about as bad as an ammo fire, which can be mitigated with careful design.

And the Abrams apparently was designed with 1000lbs of batteries in two banks. The under-armor APU replaced one of the banks with a small diesel Wankel generator that was ~220lbs instead of 500lbs.