By Kris Osborn, Warrior

Operating air and ground drones in the line of enemy fire, sending large robotic vehicles to clear tank ditches and breach obstacles and using long-range, high-fidelity sensors to maneuver and target enemies in more dispersed formations .. are all newer tactical mission possibilities now envisioned for the heavily armored Abrams main battle tank.

While an armored ability to bring massive fire power, unparalleled survivability and mechanized assault missions still very much characterizes the operational scope of Army tanks, there are some interesting ways in which technology, networking and unmanned systems are expanding its potential combat applications and therefore multiplying or enhancing its warfare impact.

Enter the Future Tank 

These are likely some of many reasons why the Army is now fully immersed in its M-1E3 Abrams Tank Modernization Program featuring a next-generation AbramsX tank variant.  After acquiring large numbers of the massively upgraded M1A2 SEP v3, the Army appears to be “skipping” over its M1A2 SEP v4 variant in favor of the emerging AbramsX. The AbramsX is lighter weight, more mobile and expeditionary than the v4 and it is optimized for a new generation of computing, networking and unmanned technology. The AbramsX leverages new generations of AI-enabled computing, on-board electrical power, advanced C4ISR, a hybrid-electric diesel engine, unmanned turret and advanced drone integration. 

Should there be a major force-on-force engagement with a technically advanced rival force, the Abrams appears to be the only major platform capable of the kind of massive, fire-power driven engagement any kind of combined-arms assault or counterattack might require. This has been shown to be the case in Ukraine, as the arrival of heavy armored vehicles has enabled Ukrainian forces to “re-take” and “hold” territory in many instances. 

Today and tomorrow's Abrams, as evidenced by the  M1A2 SEPv3 variant and AbramsX in development, are much more capable and different tanks than the platform has been in recent years. Newer tanks have improved armor protections, a new generation of computing and command and control, modernized thermal, upgraded infrared targeting sensors enabling longer range, more widely scoped target identification and vastly expanded on-board electrical power through integrated mobile auxiliary power units.The v3 also operates with new dimensions of GPS connectivity, moving map displays, threat-based intelligence data, force tracking systems and an upgraded engine and transmission. 

What Happened to the Abrams v4?

The on-board computing and electronics of the v3 and v4 variants likely added the technical infrastructure for yet a new series of upgrades for the platform with the now emerging and underway AbramsX. There are many v4 attributes which likely inform the AbramsX such as the integration of 3rd-Gen Forward Looking Infrared sensors, a new generation of ammunition data links and an entirely new varied, adjustable and much more capable Multi-Purpose Round ammunition. The Multi-Purpose Round lowers the logistical footprint by consolidating different types of ammunition into a single round, as it is able to fire high-explosive anti-tank rounds, multi-purpose rounds and canister rounds intended to expand dispersed fragmentation for anti-personnel lethality. 

What much of this amounts to is that an Abrams tank is increasingly enabled to take on a much wider mission scope, in part to accommodate the kinds of changing threat environments it would likely face in an anticipated future engagement. What this means, among many things, is that the Abrams v3 and v4 – and now Abrams X – are engineered to perform both traditional tank combat operations as well as an entirely new sphere of needed warfare tactics. These tactical dynamics explain why the Army continues to refine new concepts of traditional Combined Arms Maneuver tailored to a new generation of threats.

Tanks & Drones

Among many things, some of the new dimensions pertain to the ongoing massive, strategic and tactical expansion of unmanned systems, multi-domain air-ground connectivity and much better networked, and therefore dispersed, warfare maneuver formations. It is precisely with these tactics in mind that Abrams weapons developers and future war planners continue to architect and integrate a new generation of technical capabilities. AbramsX tanks will be able to operate, and even dispatch, air and ground drones to carry ammunition, test enemy defenses, counter enemy obstacles and countermeasures and surveil forward, high-risk areas under enemy fire.

This increased secure networking technology, coupled with the advent of a new fleet of increasingly autonomous and semi-autonomous drones  provides much of the inspiration for why the Army is engineering a new class of lighter-weight vehicles as well. However, the intensity with which the Army is advancing its AbramsX would seem to suggest that there is still consensus that the kind of heavily-armored ability to attack, fire upon and close with a major enemy is something for which, at least for the moment, there is not an equivalent to the now much more capable Abrams tank.

Basically, heavy armor is most likely here to stay, at least for many years if not decades, because when it comes to any future warfare engagement it seems war planners would have to account for the expected reality that armored vehicles will face various kinds of much more serious enemy fire …. and there does not at the moment appear to be anything comparable to the Abrams tank able to withstand, fight through and potentially counter much of this. Longer-range, more explosive anti-tank missiles, RPGs, enemy tank rounds and a new generation of aerial threats such as drone-fired missiles or even drone swarms, present new, much greater risk to land war formations, combat dynamics increasing the likelihood that armored vehicles will take new dimensions of incoming enemy fire.

Kris Osborn is the President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in 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