The Gulf War provided military tacticians with an opportunity to evaluate developments in tank design that had not been available since World War II.

These tanks were widely regarded as clearly inferior to the Abrams, but were expected to be highly reliable mechanically. In addition, Iraq had a number of earlier Soviet models: perhaps as many as 1,600 T-62 and about 700 T-54, both of which were developed in the 1960's. Despite it's advanced design, the T-72 proved to be inferior to the M1A1's deployed during the Gulf War, and compared more closely with the older M60A3 tanks used there by the US Marine Corps. These modern Soviet tanks were armed with an excellent 125mm smoothbore weapon and had many of the same advanced features found on the Abrams. The Iraqi Army had a considerable array of tanks, mostly purchased from the former Soviet Union. Although slow in coming, the arrival of the Abrams was much welcomed by Allied forces, as it is capable of defeating any tank in the Iraqi inventory. This meant that nearly all of the Abrams tanks deployed in the Gulf War were shipped by cargo ship. Immediately following President Bush's decision to commit US forces to the Gulf region in defense of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, American armored units began the difficult process of relocating to the threatened area.ĭue to the shear size and weight of the Abrams, the C-5 Galaxy, the largest cargo aircraft in the US Air Force inventory, was only able to handle one tank at a time. There were also doubts about the combat survivability of the extensive turret electronics. When Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, there were concerns that the Abrams would fall victim to the sand and long months of continuous operation without the luxury of peacetime maintenance facilities.

Although fielded in 1980, the Abrams remained untested for over 10 years.

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