Latest news with #M1A2Abrams
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
US okays potential $325 million sale of sustainment support for Abrams tanks to Kuwait
(Reuters) -The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale of equipment and services related to sustainment support for M1A2 Abrams main battle tank systems to Kuwait for an estimated $325 million, the Pentagon said on Wednesday. The principal contractor for the sales is General Dynamics, the Pentagon said in a statement.
Reuters
3 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
US okays potential $325 million sale of sustainment support for Abrams tanks to Kuwait
June 4 (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale of equipment and services related to sustainment support for M1A2 Abrams main battle tank systems to Kuwait for an estimated $325 million, the Pentagon said on Wednesday. The principal contractor for the sales is General Dynamics (GD.N), opens new tab, the Pentagon said in a statement.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
How Battle Brick Customs carved out a space for military collectors
In the vast world of building block toys and military collectibles, few brands focus with as much intent and care as Battle Brick Customs. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, the company produces custom-built, LEGO-compatible military sets that blend playability with precision. While the mainstream toy industry has long favored fantasy and fictional combat, Battle Brick Customs has carved out a niche by delivering realism grounded in historical and modern military design. The company began in 2009 by assembling and customizing tank kits, drawing the attention of hobbyists and collectors. By 2011, the brand became a full-fledged business focused exclusively on military-themed figures and vehicles. Each set is hand-packaged in the United States, using genuine LEGO bricks combined with custom parts that replicate the details of real-world military equipment. What distinguishes Battle Brick from other custom LEGO creators is an emphasis on authenticity. The company produces kits based on real military vehicles, ranging from World War II tanks to modern U.S. Army Humvees and Special Forces boats. Kits feature rotating turrets, openable hatches and modular parts that reflect the complexity of the original hardware. Each model is supplemented by specialized accessories sourced from U.S. and Taiwanese manufacturers. Add-ons include custom-molded helmets, tactical gear, rifles and camouflage prints, offering builders an extra level of immersion beyond the standard LEGO library. The sets, meanwhile, are not mass-produced or cloned; Battle Brick explicitly avoids counterfeit parts and positions itself as a high-quality alternative to official LEGO products and other third-party military-themed kits. Battle Brick's product line rotates frequently, but its core offerings include main battle tanks like the M1A2 Abrams, armored vehicles like the MRAP and Stryker and aircraft like the AH-6 Little Bird. World War II sets also remain popular, featuring American and German vehicles built to resemble iconic combat equipment from the European and Pacific theaters. The company recently expanded its online presence, operating through its website and on Amazon, Etsy and eBay, where it consistently receives praise — much of it from military families and veterans — for build quality and service. Beyond the hardware, the brand centers its design philosophy on real-world military service in a space dominated by commercial franchises and fictional conflict. For many families with active-duty service members or veterans, the realism serves as a way to connect across generations, opening up conversations about equipment, history and duty. The brand's website describes its mission as one of respect for the military, craftsmanship and the history behind the equipment the company recreates. There are no flashy gimmicks or cartoon branding; the company's aesthetic is restrained, clean and intentionally mature. As the toy industry increasingly emphasizes digital interaction, Battle Brick Customs has succeeded by leaning into tangible, detailed, analog design. Kits are not just toys, but tools for storytelling, education and remembrance. Battle Brick prices many sets between $25 and $150, making them viable as gifts, display pieces or additions to larger collections.
The Guardian
23-03-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Australia news live: Labor vows to support working from home as Coalition touts public servants cuts; investigation into man's death after falling into silo
23:54 Greens announce plan to divert $4bn defence spending to domestic, 'defensive' missiles The Greens have unveiled announced a plan to divert billions of defence spending on American technology to the domestic production of 'defensive' missiles and vehicles. The party has outlined $4bn in savings to fund its plan, arguing the Australian Defence Force is designed to 'work interoperably with the US military, not to defend Australia'. Its defence spokesperson, David Shoebridge, said the party would seek to cancel Australia's $368bn Aukus submarine deal with the United States and United Kingdom – which the party has long been opposed to. It would also stop the $2.4bn acquisition of M1A2 Abrams tanks and Black Hawk helicopters from the US. They are both supplied by the US with little to no sovereign input, are expensive and outdated. Like Aukus, this equipment is much more about signalling our loyalty to the US than defending Australia. Under the Greens' plan, the billions in funds would instead go towards manufacturing 'capabilities of uncrewed naval and aerial vehicles as well as medium-range and intermediate-range missiles, for strictly defensive purposes only,' a statement said. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, insisted Aukus' future was safe in February after president Donald Trump appeared not to know what it meant. The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, also backed Aukus this week, saying the need for the agreement was greater than ever.
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Yahoo
The US Army's tank gunners need to improve their aim
The US Army's tank proficiency has fallen after two decades of counterinsurgency warfare. "Many crews struggle with the basics of tank gunnery," an armor expert wrote. The Army is refocusing on training its crews to get the most out of their advanced tanks. The US Army may have the best tanks in the world. But it has a problem: its tank gunners are rusty. "A gap exists today between the capabilities of tank weapon systems and the ability of crews to employ them to maximum effectiveness," warned Robert Cameron, the historian for the US Army's armor branch, in an article for Armor Magazine, the professional journal of the Army tank force. "Tanks possess the ability to engage varied targets with precision at ever longer ranges whether stationary or moving," Cameron wrote. "Yet many crews struggle with the basics of tank gunnery." Two decades of focusing on counterinsurgency in Afghanistan and Iraq has taken its toll on the Army's proficiency in mechanized warfare. Iraq, for example, began with an armored charge into Baghdad but turned into a counterinsurgency fight where highly trained tank crews were used as infantry for foot patrols. Now the US military must prepare for the sort of combat that characterized World War II and the Cold War: operations by large mechanized units — brigades, divisions and corps — against well-armed opponents such as Russia and China. "We have a new or reinvigorated focus on large-scale combat operations, which involves longer ranges and engagement distances, and maximizing training to use the fullest ability of our fire control systems, ammunition and optics," Steve Krivitsky, weapons and gunnery branch chief at the US Army Armor School at Fort Benning, Georgia, told Business Insider. But this requires brushing on basic skills like gunnery. Cameron pointed to a 2019 study, as well as the results of the 2022 Sullivan Cup, a biennial Army competition at Fort Benning for the best M1A2 Abrams main battle tank crews. "Crews struggled with boresight, target detection and identification, machine gun engagements, and target sensing," he wrote. For a tank to hit its target with the main gun — a 120-mm cannon for the Abrams — several steps are required. The target (or multiple targets) must be detected and identified, and the correct ammunition must be loaded. Crews need to know how to handle problems such as estimating range and hitting a moving target. This isn't the first time the US Army has had tank gunnery problems. The huge expansion of America's armored force in World War II required training hordes of conscripts quickly. In the 1960s, Army tank gunnery suffered from sloppy training and the demands of the Vietnam War, in which tank crews were used as replacement boots on the ground. By the 1970s, the Army had to confront the possibility of a massive Soviet surprise attack against outnumbered NATO armor. "For tank units in Central Europe this prospect was frightening indeed, since popular forecasts of the life expectancy of a tanker in the event of war were measured in hours and days," Cameron wrote. Army marksmanship vastly improved in the 1980s with the introduction of tougher gunnery tests, more cohesive tank crews, improved simulators, laser rangefinders, and better training facilities such as the National Training Center in California. These efforts bore ample fruit in the Gulf War in 1990, when US tanks demolished Iraqi armor in the US's last major armor-on-armor fight. But yet again, gunnery skills bowed to the demands of counterinsurgency in the 2000s. "Armor brigade combat teams, faced with compressed training timelines and recurring deployments found little time for traditional gunnery and combined arms maneuver," wrote Cameron. "The frequency of gunnery fell from semi-annually to perhaps once or twice over a three-year period." For the past 25 years, US Army active-duty crews have been allowed to fire up to 102 rounds from the tank's main gun per year. Each tank company has 18 live-fire training days per company, plus additional opportunities at their home station and abroad, as well as four hours of simulator time per month (which "equates roughly to 2000 main gun trigger squeezes within their simulator," according to Krivitsky, who joined the Army as a tank crewman in 1986 and became a master gunner). The result is that the US Army is caught in a contradiction. Its tanks are better than ever. The current M1A2 SEP (System Enhancement Package)v3 and the upcoming M1E3 — a tank being designed by the Army and General Dynamics Land Systems, the maker of the M1 Abrams — boast firepower and protection that make a 1940s Sherman or a 1960s Patton tank look like vehicles from the Flintstones. Nor are tank crews incompetent. "I think that our crews right now are performing to standard quite frequently," Krivitsky said. Cameron cautioned against reading too much into the results of competitions such as the Sullivan Cup. "It's not necessarily an indication that the entire tank force cannot function," he told Business Insider. "It simply means that a particular crew at that particular time is struggling with a skill." The real question is whether they are able to get the maximum out of their equipment. It is clear that the battlefield is becoming ever less tank-friendly: Russia is estimated to have lost over 14,000 armored vehicles including tanks in three years of combat in Ukraine. Yet well-trained tank crews can accomplish a lot despite formidable odds, as Israel proved on the Golan Heights in 1973. The US Army wants tankers who can accurately shoot at long range — 1,800 to 2,400 meters (2,000 to 2,600 yards) — and quickly engage and destroy multiple targets. "In general, the average time to defeat a threat of any type for our crews is approximately 31 seconds," said Krivitsky. The Army's Armor Standardization and Training Strategy 2030 plan aims to improve skills and training. A new gunnery manual — the last one came out in 2015 — is slated for release within the next four months. The modern Army tank force does have an advantage that its World War II predecessor didn't have: a comprehensive tank gunnery program. "You didn't have a standardized tank gunnery program going into World War II," Cameron said. "Too often, essentially, you had units doing their own thing." The chance to fire the tank's cannon is incentive alone. "I loved being a tanker," Krivitsky said. "Gunnery made me want to stay in the Army longer. That was the best job I ever had." Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds an MA in political science from Rutgers Univ. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn. Read the original article on Business Insider
