General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems Inc., Saint Petersburg, Florida, was awarded a $17,551,291 firm-fixed-price contract for the provision of materials, equipment and other direct costs for 120mm tank training ammunition. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Saint Petersburg, Florida, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 28, 2025. Fiscal 2022 Foreign Military Sales (Egypt) funds in the amount of $17,551,291 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity.
1,360 M1A1 tanks assembled in Egypt for the Egyptian army in cooperation with the U.S. The program and the plan for the construction of the co-production facility were advanced by Field Marshal Abd al-Halim Abu Ghazala as a way for Egypt to save money on the procurement of M1 Abrams main battle tanks while concurrently developing its own defense industrial base. Initially, the plan would was estimated to eventually shift 40% of the tank’s production to Egypt to save money by taking advantage of the low cost of Egyptian labor. These savings would be realized over the course of a decade-long production run of 1,500 tanks.
In 1984, Egypt signed a US$150 million contract with General Dynamics for the construction of the factory, which was financed using American security assistance funds and portions of Egypt’s annual US$1.3 billion in foreign military financing. Starting production in 1988, the factory soon experienced numerous cost overruns, inflating the price of each tank to a level beyond the cost of buying complete tanks—the initial production run was estimated to cost US$2.7 billion versus US$1.9 billion for purchasing tanks directly from the United States via General Dynamics.
General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems is an industry and global leader in the manufacture of large, medium and small-caliber direct and indirect-fire munition. The 120mm M865 TPCSDS-T Kinetic Energy (KE) training round, in service with the United States Army’s main battle tank fleet, utilizes a unique cone stabilizer to limit the safety fan required for tank gunnery.The 120mm M1002 TPMP-T training round replicates the tactical M830A1 High Explosive Anti-Tank Multipurpose Tracer (HEAT-MP-T). The M1002 features a dummy air/ground switch, and is matched ballistically to the time-of-flight parameters of the M830A1, thus creating realistic training.
