By Kris Osborn, President, Warrior
The 1960s era American-German MBT-70 tank incorporated a significant XM150, a long-barreled tank cannon considered extremely cutting edge in its time, a series of firepower-oriented technologies which arguably inspired many of the innovations now woven into the M1 Abrams tank.
Described as a longer-barreled variant of the XM-81 gun launcher, the XM 150 pioneered or established the technical basis for a range of rounds now fired by modern tanks, to include High Explosive, anti-personnel, High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) rounds and armor piercing rounds.
These kinds of explosives have been a mainstay for the Abrams tank for many years, and they arguably evolved from some of the breakthrough technologies introduced by the XM150. Today’s Abrams is now rapidly developing what’s called an Advanced Multi-Purpose round which, when connected with an ammunition data link and tank gunner, can adapt a single round to a range of explosives, blast effects and “energetics.” This next-generation round, which encompasses a range of attack possibilities built into a single round, evolved from existing HEAT, SABOT and Armor-piercing rounds, weapons which have a clear lineage to the XM150.
Future AMP Round
The arrival of these kinds of rounds, and the explosives or “energetics” they employ, wound up reshaping tactics and battlefield maneuver formations into what could be called modern land warfare and Combined Arms Maneuver concepts.
Anti-personnel rounds, which have over the years been referred to as canister rounds, are designed to discharge with added fragmentation in order to disperse lethal effects across a given “area,” as opposed to a single or more narrowly configured explosion. This enabled tank rounds, which were historically used to penetrate enemy tanks, buildings and reinforced structures, to attack and destroy small groups of dismounted enemy fighters across a small “area,” creating the sought after anti-personnel impact.
Anti-Personnel Rounds
A Canister round, referred to as the M1028, could counter what weapons developers called a “human wave assault” by essentially scattering projectiles across an area. This kind of tactical effect could be interpreted as a precursor to “air burst” rounds and other kinds of penetrating rounds and delayed fuses. Armor-piercing fin-stabilized SABOT rounds appear to have also evolved from the XM150, as it could have arguably created a foundation from which modern SABOT rounds appear to have evolved. There are also delayed fuses to enable a round to “penetrate” before detonating as well as “point detonate” rounds capable of exploding on impact.
In a 2016 Army statement on AMP, a senior program manager, describes the Concept of Operation behind the AMP round this way…. “Right now our crews face the dilemma as they go into combat of deciding what rounds to load in the turret and carry in the gun. If they choose wrong, they could have a mismatch between target and ammunition, which will cost them valuable seconds while in enemy contact.”
Kris Osborn President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
