M1A1 HC

This page is about the American medium tank M1A1 HC. For other vehicles of the family, see M1 Abrams (Family).

M1A1 HC

M1A1 HC

Description

The Tank, Combat, Full Tracked, 120-mm Gun M1A1 HC is a rank American medium tank with a battle rating of (AB), (RB), and (SB). It was introduced in Update "Direct Hit".

General info

Survivability and armour

Describe armour protection. Note the most well protected and key weak areas. Appreciate the layout of modules as well as the number and location of crew members. Is the level of armour protection sufficient, is the placement of modules helpful for survival in combat? If necessary use a visual template to indicate the most secure and weak zones of the armour.

Armour type:

Armour	Front (Slope angle)	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	___ mm	___ mm Top ___ mm Bottom	___ mm	___ - ___ mm
Turret	___ - ___ mm Turret front ___ mm Gun mantlet	___ - ___ mm	___ - ___ mm	___ - ___ mm
Cupola	___ mm	___ mm	___ mm	___ mm

Notes:

Mobility

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade				2533			__.__
Realistic				1343			__.__

Armaments

Main armament

120 mm M256					Turret rotation speed (°/s)					Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode	Capacity	Vertical	Horizontal	Stabilizer	Stock	Upgraded	Full	Expert	Aced	Stock	Full	Expert	Aced
Arcade	40	-10°/+20°	±180°	Two-plane	38.1	52.7	64.0	70.8	75.3	7.80	6.90	6.36	6.00
Realistic					23.8	28.0	34.0	37.6	40.0

Ammunition

The M1A1 HC is armed with the same 120 mm M256 smoothbore gun as the M1A1 and has access to the same ammunition of APFSDS and HEATFS. However, the M1A1 HC also gets access to a new HEATFS shell, M830A1. The M829 APFSDS round is still an excellent anti-tank munition, boasting the third highest penetration figures out of any sabot round in the game, at 493 mm of flat penetration at point-blank and decreasing to just 458 mm at 2 km. Its angled performance is also excellent, penetrating 284 mm of armour at 60 degrees point-blank and 264 mm at 2 km. It is sufficient to reliably engage any vehicle in the game frontally. The M830 HEATFS shell penetrates a meagre 480 mm of armour. It is not recommended to use this shell after unlocking the M829. The M830A1 is a special type of HEATFS round. Instead of using a conventional impact fuse, M830A1 is a sub-calibre HEATFS round that has been saboted into a 120 mm casing and fitted with a proximity fuse. This allows it to effectively engage low flying aircraft and helicopters up to a range of 4.5 km. The sub-calibre nature of the round means it travels extremely quickly at 1,400 m/s, making it the fastest HEAT round in the game. However, its effectiveness against armoured vehicles is limited as it penetrates a mere 350 mm of armour.

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
M830	HEATFS	480	480	480	480	480	480
M830A1	HEATFS	350	350	350	350	350	350
M829	APFSDS	491	488	481	473	464	454
M829A1	APFSDS	598	596	589	580	570	560

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile Mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
M830	HEATFS	1,140	13.1	0.05	0.1	2,360	65°	72°	77°
M830A1	HEATFS	1,410	11.4	0.05	0.1	1,390	65°	72°	77°
M829	APFSDS	1,670	3.94	N/A	N/A	N/A	78°	80°	81°
M829A1	APFSDS	1,569	4.64	N/A	N/A	N/A	78°	80°	81°

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the M1A1 HC

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	3rd rack empty	Visual discrepancy
40	35 (+5)	18 (+22)	1 (+39)	No

Machine guns

12.7 mm M2HB
Mount	Capacity (Belt)	Fire rate	Vertical	Horizontal
Pintle (Commander)	1,000 (200)	577	-9°/+65°	-160°/+180°

7.62 mm M240
Mount	Capacity (Belt)	Fire rate	Vertical	Horizontal
Coaxial	10,000 (200)	941	N/A	N/A
Pintle (Loader)	1,400 (200)	941	-9°/+65°	-77°/+135°

Usage in battles

The M1A1 HC is like the M1A2 without the CITV but with a soft-kill active protection system (APS) only useful against early missiles but useless against laser-guided Missiles like Hellfires or Vikhrs, The M1A1 HC also has good acceleration which allows you to flank around but beware of the engine noise. The M1A1 HC has to be aware of Enemy tanks such as the Leopard 2A5, the Leopard 2A6, the T-80U, the T-72B3, the T-80BVM, the Leclerc, etc. The M1A1 HC also has access to the M829A1 shell which has 598 mm of penetration on flat armour up close and is one of the best penetrating APFSDS in-game making the M1A1 HC great for sniping.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Powerful ammunition selection
• Has an active protection system that can provide protection against some ATGMs, also comes stock
• Better turret protection when compared to the M1A1
• M829 is a Tier I modification, with NVDs being Tier III
• Carries 4 charges of smoke grenades (4/16 compared to the 6/12 carried by its brothers)

Cons:

• No commander's sight
• APS is visible through night vision devices

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the vehicle in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the M1A1 HC from live.warthunder.com.

Videos

The Shooting Range #270 - Metal Beasts section at 00:29 discusses the M1A1 HC.

Images

A USMC M1A1 HC in an amphibious exercise. The ability of the M1A1 to accept a deep water fording kit, a feature the USMC requested, is an indicator of a "Heavy Common" variant.

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the vehicles;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.

General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS)
MBTs	IPM1 Abrams · M1A1 · M1A1 HC · M1A2 Abrams · M1A2 SEP
Tank destroyers	M1128 Stryker MGS