General Dynamics To Upgrade Abrams M1A2 Tank Vetronics

General Dynamics has won an eight year contract worth $395 million for research development and testing of the Abrams main battle tank engineering change Proposal 1 (ECP 1) production by the U.S army. The contract work will include upgradation of the M1A2 SEP V2 tank's power, communications, embedded computing, electronic warfare, and targeting vetronic. The initial contract amount is $80 million for one year and production of the tanks with the ECP upgrades is expected in 2017. Donald Kotchman, vice president for Heavy Brigade Combat Teams at General Dynamics Land Systems, said, “This award shows the Army’s long-term commitment to improving the Abrams tank’s capabilities for the War fighter, while ensuring that platforms are able to integrate planned and future upgrades. This effort will maintain Abrams’ position as the leading main battle tank in the world”. ECP1 will improve Abrams’ survivability and boosts its capacity and reengineer internal systems to reduce size, weight and power requirements, and creating capacity for additional upgrades in the future. Increases the capacity of electronics and Line Replaceable Module (LRM) for higher electrical capacity through improved power generation, distribution and management. The company will prepare the Abrams tank to accept additional Army-directed requirements in the future without impacting current vehicle performance.