That never happened, but suddenly in 1991, the Abrams was deployed in Operation Desert Storm to defend Kuwait against invading Iraqi forces. The Abrams was designed to fight the heavy tank divisions of the Soviet Union on the rolling plains of Central Europe. Kern, military deputy assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology. More than 5,000 are still in the Army’s inventory, according to Lt. Altogether, nearly 9,000 of them have been produced in several configurations, from the original M1 to the most recent M1A2. The Abrams, manufactured by General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS), of Sterling Heights, Mich., has been the Army’s main battle tank since it was first fielded in 1978. Located on 340 square miles of the rolling, semiarid hill country north of Austin, Fort Hood is the only post in the United States large enough to station and train two armored divisions. Row after row of them-painted desert camouflage-line the dusty tarmac at Fort Hood. In recent years, the corps’ ability to deploy quickly has been called into question, primarily because of the size and weight of the Abrams, which is the key weapon in its arsenal. Its units have deployed to such hot spots as Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Somalia and the Balkans. Known as “the Phantom Corps” for its World War II tactic of hitting the enemy when and where least expected, the III Corps prides itself on being ready to deploy anywhere, anytime. The focus of the modernization effort is half a continent away, at Fort Hood, Texas, home of the III Armored Corps-nucleus of the Army’s heavy combat force. Army, at Fort Lewis, Wash., is busy creating new, more easily deployable brigades that will be equipped with light-armored vehicles (LAVs), it also is modernizing the much-maligned, two decade-old, 70-ton Abrams tank.
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