555 co-produced with Egypt. 315 M1A2 for Saudi Arabia and 218 for Kuwait.

I just read this interesting fact.  Are these tanks equiped the same as the one that our boys use or are they toned down?  Same armor?

Its scary that we would have to fight our own stuff one day.  

Whats your source?  I have a hard time believing we'd give our best tank to countries that don't like us and are in close proximity to China.  

http://www.army-technology.com/projects/abrams/

It was the only way to keep the production lines open.  

I wonder what this caption means:

"2 Abrams M1A2s of the 315 exported to Saudi Arabia. These tanks have the export armour package."

What do you think the "export armour package." consist of?

These tanks someday need parts and maintenance to run.  The U.S is the only manufacturer who can provide them.

It's like those HP printer, they gave them out free when you buy a PC and when you ran out of ink....it's $500.00 a cartridge.

He! He! He! That's what I call business.

I was wondering that too.  I think it means that these tanks donot have the Chobhlam (sp) amror that ours and the Brit tanks do.  Well that makes these tanks mortal and not much  harder to kill than the T-72s and T-80s that the Iraqis had.

Something that an APFSDS round from an American Abrams will penetrate. [;)]

I also think they are only equipped with the 105mm gun and don't use the depleted uranium armour.

I also wonder if we also limit what ammo they have.

We have a history of doing just that. Remember Iran?

I've always thought that we should never give our best hardware to any country that isn't a friendly, stable democracy and long term ally of the US. Johnny-come-latelys and dictatorships need not apply. These things can backfire.

Same Chobham armor.  They might only have the 105mm but many of ours still do too.  Would you rather have thousand's of Americans fired as these countries bought Leopard A5's, or LeClerc's, or T-90's?  And what the hell does being close to China have to do w/ anything?  First of all, I don't know what freaking map you're looking at, but Egypt, Saudi, & Kuwait are nowhere near China.  Also, do you expect some kind of land war where we are fighting China in Uzbekistan or something, & all of a sudden the Kuwaitis, Saudis, & Egyptians march 500 Abrams across a number of other foreign sovereign countries to hit us in the arse?  Please...  Also, if it's that you're worried about them selling our mil. tech. to the Chinese - don't - the Israelis already do that enough for ALL of our "allies."  Please think before you make statements like that, really, please do.  C'mon now, these sales saved thousands of American jobs, helped our economy, and as far as maybe having to fight them one day - all I'll say is it's a lot easier to defeat a weapon you know & built, than one you didn't...

So, were we to fight one of these countries, how do we avoid fratricide?  Is there an IFF system for ground vehicles similar to that on aircraft?

-kill-9

I remember talking to one of the QC inspectors from the Lima tank plant when they were making these.  The welds holding those tanks together weren't nearly as good as the ones made for the U.S.  They were trying to get them out the door as fast as possible for use in Desert Storm IIRC.

also i belive i heard from a tanker that the targeting and drive-by-wire systems on those tanks that make them so accurate when shooting on the move is banned for export and that there is a lower tech, less precise system on the export versions.

It's the maintenance issue. In a war situation, without us supplying parts, it wouldn't take long for their M1A's to become stationary artillery, especially in the desert.
The same will be true of their F16's, etc. Without a continuous supply of repair parts, they will become statues waiting to be destroyed.
Also, few foreign nations get our latest/coolest electronics. Israel does, but they are the middle eastern exception. Even Saudi is only sold the previous generation of avionics. Or at least that was true ten years ago. Who knows what Klinton let them buy.

Hardware is only half the issue.  Having first rate equipment won't save the day if your doctrines and training isn't up to snuff.

The Isrealis or us would make short work of their latest and greatest, even if externally identical to ours.  

Anymore it seems like a tank vs. tank fight means one of our flyboys missed a target.    

paper armours package.

The "export armor package" consists on 3 inches of styrofoam sandwiched between cardboard, with concentric red circles painted on the cardboard.

I remember reading that the F-15s we sold Saudi had reduced capabilities.