Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has his ‘Arsenal of Freedom Tour’ in full swing, visiting the nuclear submarine production floor at Newport News, Virginia and Blue Origin’s space launch at Cape Canaveral Florida. His goal: restore American industrial prowess and secure freedom for generations to come.
You’ll never guess which program is moving fastest of all: it’s the Army’s new M1E3 Abrams tank.
Get this: the M1E3 Abrams is five years ahead of schedule. Yes, five years. And it’s a hybrid.
While Golden Dome missile defense, the battleship design and other programs are on the drawing board, the Army has accelerated the M1E3 Abrams to wartime pace.
Credit Army Chief of Staff General Randy George and Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll. It’s part of their push to accelerate top programs like the MV-75 air assault tilt-rotor plane. In the case of the tank, the Army had been studying upgrades and watching the Ukraine war. George and his science adviser Dr. Alex Miller were told they would not see the tank until 2032. ‘We said no,’ Miller recalled.
The result: the M1E3 prototype rolled out at the Detroit Auto Show in January. The first platoon of the M1E3 will be ready for testing by soldiers in 2028.
As seen in Detroit, the new M1E3 is a sleek change from earlier Abrams models. Gone is the top turret position. Now the three-man crew side by side in the hull where armor is strongest. External cameras, sensors, heat-detecting thermal sights, and laser-range finders feed into gaming-inspired cockpit displays. Their remote? It’s not for changing channels. An M1E3 tank crew can remotely fire Javelin anti-tank missile with a 2.5-mile range and a range of other weapons, including loitering munitions.