here is an example of a modern contemporary tank failing miserably...
....descended on a desolate bit of desert between multan and bahawalpur called the tamewali firing range....to observe the tank trials of the latest american battle tank, the M1/A1 Abrams. the US was pressing hard for Pakistan to acquire this tank, a deal that would have tied Pakistan to the US spare parts pipeline for years to come....
The tank trial was a shambles. the 55 ton M1/A1 behemoth, designed for the cleaner climes and hard surfaces of Europe and North America, did not fare too well in the desert of the tamewali. a film of the trials shows that the tank trying to fire on the move and from a stationary position, surrounded by clouds of dust. but the movement of the tanks was seriously constrained by the fact that its engines sucked up the fine dust of tamewali and clogged its filters, jamming the Chrysler turbine engines. the most pathetic sight was of the tank trying to climb up a dirt ramp built at the site, getting stuck and then sliding sideways off the ramp like a drunken sailor. clearly this was not the tank for the Pakistan Army.....
from Crossed Swords.
The M1 was designed to combat russian tanks, anywhere (but most likely NOT in the USA). As for the hard surfaces of Europe > The most likely deployment place in Europe during the cold war was Germany (
Fulda Gap), which is not hard surface at all (rather soft and muddy, like most of the rest of Northern Europe).
As for the turbine, well, the gas turbine propulsion system has proven quite reliable in practice and combat, but its high fuel consumption is a serious logistic issue (starting up the turbine alone consumes 40 liters of fuel). The high speed, high temperature jet exhaust emitted from the rear of M1 Abrams tanks makes it difficult for the infantry to proceed shadowing the tank in urban combat. The turbine is noisy, comparable to a helicopter engine, although the noise character (pitch) is significantly different from a contemporary diesel tank engine, which makes is more difficult to hear (hence Iraqi's in GW called it 'Whispering Death'). Negatives also include effective filtering of the huge volume of air used by the turbine engine without overloading the filters. The small size, simplicity, power-to-weight ratio, and easy removal/replacement of the turbine powerpack does, however, present significant advantages. And it is multifuel.
Of course, the M1 can easily also mount the trusted, more fuel efficient powerpack of the LEO 2, should a customer so desire ....
As for that ramp, I think going to the limit is what is supposed to be done during a testing ... Besdies, without knowing how other tanks fared on the same ramp, the quoted footage is rather meaningless.
Sand can be just as much of a tank-killer as missiles. The MOST IMPORTANT filter on the M1A1 Abrams battle tank is its' nanofiber air filter. With the M1 engine filter cleaning happens automatically while the tank is on the move. This is done by the
Pulse Jet Air Cleaner. The filter doesn't have to be changed for months (during Gulf War I, the soldiers had to stop to clean out the air filters on the M1 tanks every 15 miles!). The Minneapolis-based Donaldson Company began building automated air cleaners for Army tanks in 1995 and now makes a filtering machine that constantly removes dirt and dust from M1 tank engines. These turbine-powered filters can suck a substantial amount of sand from a turbine engine in a matter of hours (without requiring a tanker to do the labor).
