October 27, 2018
The M1 Abrams Tank Was Almost Armed with a 'Super' Bullet. So What Happened?
What happened to the STAFF round?
by Charlie Gao
In the 1990s, the U.S. Army was developing a new series of tank ammunition for the Abrams main battle tanks. The new round, designated XM943 Smart Target Activated Fire and Forget (STAFF), was to have lethality far beyond what was possible with conventional ammunition: it would fly over enemy tanks and detonate above them, projecting an explosively formed projectile through the top armor to destroy them. Some reports suggest that the round could have an astounding 11.5:1 kill ratio against an enemy armor force.
But the program fell victim to post Cold War budget cuts and was canceled in the early 2000s. It begs the question: why was such a theoretically amazing round canceled? Could it be as effective as it was predicted to be on the modern battlefield against newer tanks?
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/m1-abrams-tank-was-almost-armed-super-bullet-so-what-happened-34492
