Abrams still relevant in urban warfare, say top brass

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By Gina Cavallaro
Times staff writer

Fort KNOX, Ky. — The armor community is alive and well and the 70-ton Abrams tank has a bright future on the urban battlefield, even in a force moving increasingly toward lighter, more mobile fighting platforms, Army leaders said last week.

“Without tanks, we don’t have combined arms,” said Gen. B.B. Bell, commanding general of Eighth U.S. Army Korea, who spoke to a packed auditorium Thursday during this year’s Armor Warfighting Symposium about tank successes on the Iraq battlefield.

Bell emphasized the tank’s important role in a complicated fight, pointing to its decades-old lethality, ability to adapt to open terrain and urban settings, the survivability factor for crews, and the fact that a heavy-armor task force can be deployed in as little as 96 hours.

“Pick a war. We never stayed out of the city. This war is like the others. We went into the city, and we need people to know that this vehicle is deployable and survivable in any environment. I’m committed to it. I will be a strong advocate,” said Bell, the highest ranking armor officer in the Army

In Iraq today, there are about 400 tanks, more than 600 Bradleys and more than 300 Strykers, said Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Richard Cody, who addressed the conference last Wednesday.

“The tank is still a direct-fire weapon system that has great relevance, same as the Bradley, same as the Stryker,” Cody said.

Emphasizing continuing efforts to modernize and modularize the forces, Cody gave a quick review of the advances made to the force since the beginning of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he acknowledged, the Army was ill-prepared for modern combat. It was under-equipped, under-trained and generally in a poor state of maintenance, he said.

Since then, soldiers have been better equipped for personal protection and provided more modern communications capabilities as the Army accelerated long-standing transformation plans.

The future force will be a mix of current and future capabilities and the tank will be part of that, said Col. Larry Hollingsworth, Heavy Brigade Combat Team project manager.

“There’s a significant psychological event when you see that tank pull into an intersection with that main gun.”

Two years ago, the Army planned to halt production of tanks and Bradleys in 2005-2006 and shift investment to the Future Combat Systems, said Lt. Col. Michael Flanagan.

But “the current operation has validated the relevance of [the Abrams]. It’s firepower, maneuver and shock effect, that’s what the tank is all about.”