About 2,000 M1 tanks were deployed to Persian Gulf in 1991 assigned to Army and Marines units (Army lend some M1s to the Marines since the latter still operated vintage M60 tanks). Four M1s were knocked out in combat, while another 14 mechanically broke down, a good record for its debuted.

Rollover : Tank named after US General Creighton Abrams (former 37th Armored Battalion commander and Army Chief of Staff) and carries a four-man crew of commander, driver, gunner, loader. Troops in the field nicknamed the Abrams with fancy names like The Beast, Dracula, and Whispering Death. Creighton Williams Abrams, Jr. - www.arlingtoncemetery.net/abrams.htm

M1's main armament is the Rheinmetall's 120mm gun (same type mounted on German Leopard 2 tanks) firing variety of shells including shaped charge, kinetic energy, practice rounds, combustible case. Rheinmetall 120 mm Gun - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheinmetall_120_mm_Gun

Rheinmetall is a very prestigious German arms manufacturer, tracing its history to late-1860s producing artillery shells for Prussian military campaigns. Its original name was Rheinische Metallwaaren und Maschinesefakirk (literally Rheinish Metalworks and Machine Fabrication), a good high-tech 19th-century corporate name. Rhein is the German word for the river Rhine. Rheinmetall AG - www.rheinmetall.de

By World War 1, Rheinmetall product line included field artillery. War's end in 1918, Allies outlawed German military production. Rheinmetall executed defense conversion to domestic products like farm tractors, locomotives, typewriters, etc. To preserve their military expertise, they formed joint ventures with Scandinavian countries and secret contracts with the Soviet Union. Rise of the German National Socialists in 1930s restored German military production.

In World War 2, Rheinmetall produced the superb MG42 machine gun, along with the method of machine stamping parts for mass production. German engineering culture resisted stamping method due to perception of inferior quality and preferred labor-intensive manual tooling of parts. But dire need for military hardware forced the Germans to adopt American-style mass production and product streamlining by 1944. M42 - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MG42

• MG-42 Maschinengewehr 42 - youtube.com/watch?v=kp-rCZuIbyk

With German defeat in 1945, another defense conversion took place as production was shifted towards domestic products. By mid-1950s, the Bundeswehr (West German army) reinstated Rheinmetall to restart military production, first item off the line was the MG1 machine gun (current updated version is MG3), which was modified version of its WW2 famed MG42 machine gun. In 1960s, manufacturing base was expanded by acquiring Mittelstand (German niche industries) from electronics and industrial synthetics to cross-border investments into Swiss, French, US companies. Rheinmetall MG3 - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheinmetall_MG3