"How would the US army stop an Abrams?" Topic

Tongue in cheek question but we've all read the stories about how near-indestructible the Abrams is, leading to cases where even attempts to destroy an abandoned vehicle were a significant challenge.

So, through whatever insane plans, "the enemy" has acquired a company of state-of-the-art Abrams tanks and the US army now has to stop them in combat.

No air strikes, no "crash a bridge so they can't drive over". You have to go out and shoot it until its combat ineffective.

What now? Can an Abrams knock out another Abrams?

Can a TOW? Javelin?

The weakest point on any tank is the guy driving the fuel truck, especially an M1 fuel hog. The second weakest point is the grill doors. The first M1 killed in combat was from a 50+ year old SPG hitting it in the rear.

My gut goes with the Javelin top-down. While looking for data to back this up I ironically found a post (2008) from you asking basically the same thing :)

TMP link

Personally I think Pictors wins that thread with his answer of "Volcanoes" :)

Didn't we (the U.S.) have to hit it in the engine thru the exhaust with another Abrams to scuttle one that had been mobility killed on our drive to Baghdad?

We've had several taken out by IED's, Haven't we? Flipped and tracks blown off, etc…

You don't have to turn it into a burning pile of twisted metal to take it out of the battle. But cruise missiles and large precision guided munitions will almost certainly do the trick if needed.

Do what the army always does when something absolutely positively has to be destroyed…
let the Air Force handle it :-)

Let the politicians deal with it.
That'll kill anything.

Cloudcaptain – Yikes, how time flies. I had completely forgotten about that :-)

Shooting the treads and bogies off of it will work too.

If rumours are to be believed, they took one out with a vintage 88mm in Yugoslavia several years ago. Of course this was all allegedly hushed up by a seriously red-faced Pentagon.

That's what I was thinking. You don't have to destroy the tank, you just have to immobilize it.

First, you go to the desert southwest and find a coyote with an uncanny artistic ability.

Second, you have the coyote paint a tunnel on the side of a cliff face.

When the Abrams goes to enter the tunnel, the emerging train hits it and pulverizes the Abrams.

Or a wabbit…….

Pops up out of his hole…..

Shoves a carrot down the barrel….

Gunner fires….

Barrel peels back in all directions….

Que T/C climbing out, blackened with soot muttering ' I hates dat wabbit'

That's all folks!!!

Nuke it from orbit, just to be sure. Or a A10 with a female pilot whose ex-boyfriend is in the tank.

A-10

Knock on the hatch say "candy gram" then when they open it throw a wasps nest in it.

"…they took one out with a vintage 88mm in Yugoslavia several years ago."

I've never heard this before. Did an M-1 get destroyed as part of US deployments to Bosnia/Kosovo? Any details on this?

V/R,
Jack

I read the first post How are mimes a danger to the tank is it their great rope pulling skills the glass box what?

I think the 88 is just BS

Hulk smash!

Extra Crispy Wins!!!

Cut off its funding.

Have a bulldozer did a wide and very deep ditch around it?

Or a Challenger could probably do the job.

Give it to the Iraqi army.

Guarantee you one thing;

No matter how they accomplished it… even if US service personnel lost their lives in the commission..,,

… within a week it'd be all over the Internet how it was a fake and/or false flag operation.

Machine code back doors.

Hulk smash!

1:26 – 2:30

youtu.be/I4zaOLjXhGs

CG is dated by today's standards, though it was from Ang Lee's crappy 2003 version.

Wasn't one immobolised by a motorway crash barrier? I seem to recall one of those police persuit shows that had a a tanks stolen by a disgruntled soldier who went for a joyride. Police were at a bit of a loss as to what to do, but then it tried to cross to the other side of a motorway and got stuck, so they just knocked on the door…

I cant recall the type of tank, but this link might have the video…in work so cant tll if its the one i'm thinking of.
YouTube link

The tank that went for the joyride was an M60, not sure what version.

ahhh…oh well.

The first M1 killed in combat was from a 50+ year old SPG hitting it in the rear

If it's the one I am thinking of, they had a fuel bladder on the back of the turret (because of the rate the thing drinks fuel) which was ignited by the RPG. The fuel flooded the engine deck and put the turbine out, then of course being hot, ignited. I think the crew stayed in and waited for the fire to go out.

The way you stop any vehicle, by applying the brakes?

Using their own Abrams. However large IED's have proven reasonably effective at disabling and seriously damaging M-1's.
link
Cheers.
Rod Robertson.

As Rod says, any modern AT weapon firing decent ammunition (DU cored APFDS or whatever) or a very big bang will destroy one.

I wonder what size direct fire HE round would be needed? In WW2 a 6" HE round (ie cruiser main armament) was pretty much guaranteed to demolish anything it hit with direct fire from the sheer energy contained in the round, never mind the bang.

The Abrams is like any tank, shoot it in the tail! Head-on is a waste of time as the thing has feet of armor and flank shots aren't much better. But a big enough gun shooting at the rear has a decent chance. The back of the Abrams isn't that thick and a good hit will take out the power pack. Maybe a top down shot from a Javelin???

If rumours are to be believed, they took one out with a vintage 88mm in Yugoslavia several years ago. Of course this was all allegedly hushed up by a seriously red-faced Pentagon.

Don't know if one was actually KO'd in Yugoslavia by an 88, but all the tankers going there were briefed that 88s, Russian 85s, etc were a threat from the rear flanks.

I'd let the USAF apply a Laser JDAM to the ass of the Abrams. Even a 250lb bomb will do nasty things to a tank, and I think the smallest JDAM is 500lbs.

Yugos had 88's at a number of facilities still from what I know. They were used as coastal defence guns in some of the major towns still.

I don't know about the 88 taking out an Abrams, but if it did, agree with Lion that it would only be through either a rear shot into the engine for a mobility kill, or possibly a belly shot if, for whatever reason, the 88 had somehow had such a shot.

I'm glad to see somebody celebrating Wiley E Coyote for his artistic talent, and not the darker side of his personality.

I suppose the only other sensible option is to let Wiley use one to try and capture the Road Runner. He will also need the latest Acme catalogue.