Tanked up
Volume 11, No. 53, October 05, 2006
By Cpl Mike McSweeney
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Aussie first: Sgt Brett Jenkin, the first Australian soldier to drive an Abrams on to Australian soil, with the tank, named in honour of Gen Harry Chauvel. Inset: A line of Abrams makes an impressive sight on the docks in Melbourne.
Photos by AB Kade Rogers. |
THE Hardened and Networked Army initiative received extra steel when the first Abrams tanks and Hercules Armoured Recovery Vehicles arrived in Australia on September 21.
The 18 M1A1 Integrated Management (AIM) Situational Awareness (SA) Abrams, the first of 59, and five of the seven M88A2 Hercules ARVs clattered along the same Melbourne docks where Leopard tanks arrived 30 years before.
School of Armour Gunnery Instructor Sgt Brett Jenkin was the first person to drive an Aussie Abram, named Chauvel, on Australian soil.
“It was good to get the first M1A1 off the ship and get it on to the docks,” Sgt Jenkin said.
“We’ve been training on the simulator at the School of Armour. Getting into the real thing so we can start training on it will be really good.”
CA Lt-Gen Peter Leahy said it was a great day for Army.
“The arrival of these Abrams tanks puts into place a key element of the Hardened and Networked Army,” Lt-Gen Leahy said.
“They will reinforce and revitalise our ability to conduct combined arms operations on the modern, complex and lethal battlefield.
“Working in conjunction with the other corps, the firepower, protection, mobility and communications on these tanks means that Army will be harder to hit, and when we hit, we’ll hit harder, with greater precision and increased discrimination.”
He said the Abrams, which are replacing the Leopard tanks, had been proven in combat. “We’ve seen in the contacts and the engagements that these tanks have been in that it’s a very survivable tank,” he said.
“They protect their crew and enable them to continue operating,” Lt-Gen Leahy said.
US Army Maj Patrick Keane also reinforced the ability of Abrams to withstand attack.
“It’s an extremely survivable platform,” Maj Keane said.
“We’ve been utilising it in Desert Storm and Iraq now. The vehicle itself is just incredibly protected. Even when the tank is destroyed, crews are coming out with just minor injuries. So it’s a fantastic platform for the safety of Australian soldiers.”
Of the 6256 components in the Abrams, 5386 of them have been replaced.
Lt-Gen Peter Leahy said the tanks, for all intents and purposes, were new and one the best tanks available.
“In terms of the Hardened Networked Army this is the centre piece,” Lt-Gen Leahy said. “We’ll be able to produce combined arms teams that will be among some of the best in the world.
He said the better armour, firepower and manoeuvrability were not the only benefits of the M1A1 Abrams.
“A very important part of this tank is its battle management system, its communications and digital systems, which will enable us to proceed with networking the Army and that way our soldiers on the ground will be supported as well as we can make them,” he said.
Lt-Gen Leahy said another 41 tanks would arrive in Darwin in April 2007 and 1 Armd Regt was expected to have operational capability by July 2007.
