Thursday, August 27, 2015

Saudi M1A2 Abrams tanks destroyed by Houthi rebels

(Yemen) Saudi Arabia is currently involved in a proxy war, of sorts, against Iran next door in Yemen. Shia Iran supports the Shia Houthi rebels and Sunni Saudi Arabia supports the Sunni Government.

Anyway, after the Houthi took control of the west of the country and forced the president to do a runner, the Saudis decided enough was enough and went in. First by air and later by ground. With the latter, the SA need to control the ground, and for that they use armour, more specifically tanks, of which they have over 400 M1A2SEP (the latest iteration). However, whilst this is the same tank as used by the US, there is one major difference. The US version uses depleted uranium panels as additional armour which explains why video footage has emerged of the Iranian backed Houthi taking out a couple of SA M1 tanks with basic Iranian made anti-tank missiles. The missiles used are Iranian clones of the Russian AT-5 Spandrel, a missile that first saw the light of day in 1974, but as old as it is (OK, the Iranian version has been upgraded), they have no problem lighting up the M1A2 Abrams tanks. Now, if only the Saudis didn't hate Israel so much, they could have fitted their armour with the Israeli Trophy APS system.