M1 Abrams.

This is coolbert:

Now, in a previous post, I have posted that it was suggested that the Abrams tank had a problem with the engine filter.

The gas turbine engine of the Abrams was said to have a filter that was extremely susceptible to clogging from fine particles of dust.

Dust as would be present in a desert environment.

So a test was conducted at the National Training Center [NTC], in the Mojave Desert.

An Abrams was put through the paces in the desert and worked just famously, the filter not clogging and the engine not have any interruption.

 "Well", said the skeptics, "do this". Take the test tank and have it follow in the wake of another tank, the first tank kicking up dust from the desert that the second test tank will have to drive through. "See if the filter works then", said the skeptics.

So then this test was conducted. The test tank driving across the desert behind a tank that kicked up prodigious amounts of desert dust into the air. And guessed what happened? Nothing! 

 Again, the filter of the tank passed the test.

"Well", said the skeptics, "do this". Take two tanks and have them drive in front of the test tank. Have the test tank drive through the dust kicked up by two tanks in front of it.

So this was done too. And the results were the same. The filter and engine worked just fine.

Well, you see where this is all going, don't you? Soon, you would have an entire battalion of tanks driving in line through the desert, the test tank following some thirty or so tanks in front of it that were kicking again prodigious amounts of desert dust into the air. And perhaps this too would not have satisfied the skeptics.

Okay, so the Abrams tanks are deployed to the Saudi desert in the period of time leading up to the first Gulf War.

And what was found? That the engine filters for the gas turbine engines were not adequate to combat the dust of the Saudi desert.

It seems that the consistency of desert dust all over the world is not the same. The Saudi dust is of a finer consistency than the dust found in the Mojave, and this dust did clog the filters of the Abrams engines. This problem was quickly rectified by putting into place a new filter designed just for this purpose.

My own personal perception of the skeptics is that they play a role, although not exactly as they had hoped.  

MY perception is that the skeptics of the Abrams just did not like this tank in the first place and did not want to see the Army field this tank as the main battle tank no matter what.

 So they were searching for anything that could be used to demonstrate to Congress and policy makers that the Abrams was not going to work.

Such as the filter of the engine clogging under desert dust.

Is all their skepticism wrong-headed? NO! Healthy skepticism can be a boon.

In the case of the filters, the filters available were shown to be adequate even rugged conditions. They did work! Would they work under all rugged conditions. NO!

But thanks to the skeptics and others, a solution had already been devised in advance and was quickly implemented.

There was another feature of the Abrams that the skeptics had pointed out.

This feature was said by the skeptics to be a serious flaw that could prove fatal to the Abrams in battle.

 It seems that in the front hull of the tank for whatever design reason, is an inverted V-shaped "channel" that would funnel a solid-shot SABOT round impacting from an enemy tank to a point where the hull and turret of the Abrams come together.

This is a supposed weak point and the impact of a SABOT round here would tear the whole turret off. To my knowledge this sort of damage to an Abrams has not occurred.

coolbert.