Is there a market for our military contractors to build a less expensive and better suited tank in the Middle East for not only the US but our allies or do we leave that to the Russians?
“This M1 Abrams was probably built for warfare in Europe not a sandy desert.”
Yes the Abrams was designed to go toe to toe with the Soviets in Europe, BUT it has handled itself quite well in the deserts of Iraq and Saudi Arabia. In fact besides Iraq and Saudi Arabia buying the Abrams, the Australians, Egyptians, and Moroccans have also bought the Abrams.
The answer appears to be no as of this writing. Many attempts have been made but only one got foreign military sales (Stingray) and that was just one sale to Thailand.
Mostly our allies other than Britain that didn’t want an Abrams buy German-made Leopard tanks and they seem perfectly happy with them... or were before Turkey unintentionally demonstrated how screwed most NATO tanks are without active protection systems against Russian ATGMs through their actions in Syria.