Between Gulf War 91’, OIF, and since, I cant recall a hearing about a single Abrams tank ever having been lost in battle. Anyone know otherwise?
The only one I know of right off is an M1A1 (IIRC) that rolled past an Iraqi tank which was sitting still (perhaps camouflaged and idled). It drifted in front of the Iraqi (T-72?) which fired into the rear door killing the M1A1 crew.
At least that’s what I recall reading waaaaaaay back.
Yes.
Check out the wiki page for combat losses in the gulf wars and by the Iraqi army:
Between 2010 and 2012 the U.S. supplied 140 refurbished M1A1 Abrams tanks to Iraq. In mid-2014, they saw action when the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant launched the June 2014 Northern Iraq offensive. During three months, about one-third of the Iraqi Army's M1 tanks had been damaged or destroyed by ISIL and some were captured by opposing forces. By December 2014, the Iraqi Army only had about 40 operational Abrams left. That month, the U.S. Department of State approved the sale of another 175 Abrams to Iraq.
Some by IEDs in Iraq, one that I recall from a hit by a Koronet ATGM between the bogies. None by enemy armor as far as I know.
They lost some in Iraq. But not many. And not in a conventional environment.
2 were lost in action.
I thought we did lose a couple in Iraq as the jihadis came up with some new form of IED / anti-tank explosive.
ISIS
https://www.businessinsider.com/isis-destroying-us-tank-active-protection-2016-11
Yemen
https://defence-blog.com/saudi-m1a1-abrams-tank-destroyed-by-yemens-fighters/
Syria
German Leopards mauled in Syria
Prediction: these tanks No Wunderwaffen vs Russian army
One in OIF during the mid 2000s was disabled by an RPG-7. That was a big deal because it was thought that wasn’t possible. Combat research people inspected that tank for a year trying to figure it out.
Some were also disabled by large IEDs.
Now, these weren’t destroyed, but the crew was either incapacitated or the tank was unable to continue its mission.