[Axenolith]

The perfect person to ask a question then. The M1 appears to have a large shot trap under the turret, is the armor thick enough in the area there that this is considered inconsequential?

Since you were on them during the turnover, I suppose you remember all the negative press BS they got in the late 70's early 80's? Man, that used to drive my Dad bugscrew. He was in Liason at the time, taking congress critters out to demo and explain weapons systems.

He'd come home from work, take a gawk at a Pravda West (Wash Post) article on them, and exclaim "I sure hope the Russians buy all this Horse s***. If they do they are gonna be in for a BIG surprise when\if they ever go up against it". :)

Has an M1 ever been destroyed by enemy fire? I am under the impression that one has not been taken out in a hard kill by another main battle tank, can you clarify?

[Aric2000]

If you mean in the front, under the turret, then yes, more then enough, unless it gets hit while it's pointing front, then the poor drivers ears are gonna be ringing for a while.

Otherwise, it's pretty impenatrable.

The back of turret is another matter all together, the armour is pretty weak back there, for reasons of crew safety, if the ammo cooks off somehow, they want it to go out through it, and pop the blow hatches, which you can see on the back of the turret if you look closely, instead of having that ammo bouncing around in the crew area.

The only tanks we have lost so far are from those Korset missiles, and I think one drove off the side of a bridge, but in tank to tank combat, we have never lost an M-1.

The T-72's are outclassed and don't have a chance, the T55's, like shooting fish in a barrel.