Tanks have been very influential in warfare ever since the first Great.

             They started out as a way to cross the muck filled trenches of the first.

             World War to one of the most powerful ways to attack the enemy. The.

             United States Armed Forces tanks have been some of the greatest of the.

             wide variety of tanks. The most interesting and powerful of these giants in.

             the United States arsenal are: the Abrams, the M60, the Sheridan, the.

             Patton, the Sherman, and the Chaffee models. Some of these tanks are.

             small and some of them are large but all of these tanks have managed to.

             strike fear into any country who have dared to oppose the United States at.

             any given time.

             The Abrams was created in the 1970's to counter the newest generation.

             of Russian tanks (Lloyd 14). The early models of the Abrams tank were.

             used primarily for the Cold War against the Soviet Union however few if any.

             shots were actually fired from there guns. Then in the early 1990's the.

             Abrams M1A1 was used against Saddam Hussein and his Iraqi troops in the.

             Gulf war. The main advantage the Abrams had over the enemy tanks here.

             was that because of it's thermal viewer the American troops could see.

             through the darkest cloud which was the case here due to the burning oil.

             fields in Kuwaiti (Russell 132). .

             The three main models of the Abrams tank are the original M1A1 model, .

             The M1A1(HA) which was nearly identical to the M1A1 with the exception of.

             the much heavier armor however this tank was primarily used in Europe, .

             Finally in mid 1992 the follow-up to the M1A1 the M1A2 went into field.

             testing. This model alot of improvements over the M1A1 to numerous to.

             mention (Russell 130).

             The weapons and armor on most tanks are not unique to their model, .

             most guns and armor used on a wide variety of tanks. On the Abrams model.

             for example it has the following weapons: A 105 millimeter tank gun or a.

             Rheinmetall 120 millimeter smoothbore tank gun, It also has dual 7.