Joint Systems Manufacturing Center-Lima is the only factory in America capable of building tanks. But I don't know if we can actually build Abrams tanks from scratch. All the plant does is upgrade tanks built already.
The Lima, Ohio Army tank plant:
Roughly 800 people work at the plant, which is spread across 369 acres in northwest Ohio. Its 1.6 million square feet of manufacturing space is the only place where the M1A2 Abrams is made. About 45% of the workers are focused on the tank, but the plant also churns out Stryker armored vehicles, tank support vehicles and some other equipment. ...
And while the plant is currently building 15-20 armored vehicles per month — including tanks — it can easily boost that to 33 a month and could add another shift of workers and build even more if needed.
The article confirms what has been hinted lately that the U.S. no
longer builds new Abrams tanks. The factory takes the hulls of
already-built tanks and reconstructs them with the latest stuff. I had
been oblivious to this fact. Given this fact I'll guess that the supply chain to build new Abrams tanks is long gone.
I know we need a new tank to replace this old (but updated and still very good) model, so reducing our stocks shouldn't matter. But with war in Europe, it disturbs me that every export order reduces our stockpile to replace losses in war. Apparently we only have 2,500 tanks in our stockpile.
I hope that doesn't include a lot of tanks sitting in the desert in long-term storage. My suggestion for supporting our infantry brigades potentially takes a hit if we lose too many.
So far we've had no luck designing a replacement wonder tank. You might find this old article of mine (pp. 28-33) useful on the subject.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
