The XM1147 120-mm AMP round is a line-of-sight tank round fired from the Abrams tank. Commanders employ units equipped with the XM1147 120-mm AMP round to close with and destroy the enemy by direct fire across the full range of military operations.
The Army desires to add new capabilities for engaging dismounted ATGM teams at extended ranges and breaching double reinforced concrete walls (DRCW) in support of dismounted infantry. The AMP round has three defeat modes including Point Detonate (PD), Point Detonate Delay (PDD), and airburst used to defeat a combination of targets including ATGM teams, dismounted infantry, DRCW, light armor, bunkers, obstacles, and armor. The Army intends the AMP round to provide the ability to conduct the breach of a DRCW with greater standoff and fewer rounds. The AMP round will use the same Ammunition Data Link hardware interface integrated on the Abrams platform for the 120-mm M829E4 Kinetic Energy munition. The Army developed a training round for the AMP round.
The Army intends the AMP round to replace the M830 High Explosive Anti-Tank Multi-Purpose with Tracer (HEAT-MP-T), the M830A1 HEAT-MP-T, the M1028 Canister (CAN) round, and the M908 Obstacle Reducing with Tracer (OR-T) round. The AMP round consolidates the capabilities of these four rounds into a single munition. Currently, the U.S. Army utilizes five 120mm service rounds, each with a unique purpose and intended target. The M830 HEAT and M830A1 MPAT rounds are primarily designed for light armor targets and, in the case of the MPAT, aerial targets. The M1028 CAN round is intended to engage troop targets over the max effective range of the mounted machine guns, and the OR is designed for obstacle reduction. The AMP encompasses all four of these rounds, with additional capabilities such as breaching reinforced walls. For tank crews, this versatility serves a vital purpose in addressing the ‘Battle-Carry Dilemma’ and giving two invaluable resources: time and space.
The AMP round had spent over fifteen years in development before testing began. DOT&E approved the operational test plan for the XM1147 Advanced Multi-Purpose (AMP) Cartridge, 120-mm, High Explosive Multi-Purpose with Tracer Round, Limited User Test (LUT) in March 2020. The Army planned to conduct the LUT at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, April 21 – 23, 2020, but canceled the test due to coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic restrictions. The Army plans to conduct an IOT&E of the AMP round in October 2021.
The Army planned to conduct an operational assessment (OA) in 3QFY21 after the Milestone C decision. During the OA, soldiers would engage Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) teams and double reinforced concrete walls (DRCW) in order to assess the two new capabilities prior to the IOT&E.
The Army began AMP live fire, lethality testing in August 2020, which included: (1) ammunition sensitivity testing to determine any crew vulnerability to an onboard AMP energetic reaction, (2) hard target (bunkers and walls) testing to gather data to evaluate performance against these targets, and (3) armor characterization testing to collect data to support future modeling and simulation (M&S) of AMP performance against anti-armor targets.
The Army planned to conduct the LUT at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, April 21 – 23, 2020. The Army canceled the test due to COVID-19 restrictions. The Army did not plan to reschedule the LUT. The Army plans to conduct an OA in 3QFY21 after the Milestone C decision. The OA will focus on soldiers engaging ATGM teams and DRCWs to assess the two new capabilities prior to the IOT&E. The Army intends to evaluate a tank crew’s ability to perform mission-essential tasks; inform tactics, techniques, and procedures/soldier training packet development; and reduce IOT&E risk. The Army planned to conduct an IOT&E in September 2021.
The Army developed a training round for the AMP round. The training round does not replicate the new airburst capability to engage dismounted ATGM teams at extended ranges. Because it is an inert warhead, the training round does not train a gunner’s ability to develop subsequent aim points when breaching a DRCW. Under the current training strategy, the only opportunity to train those engagements will be through simulation. The Army designed the AMP LUT to focus on the new capabilities for engaging dismounted ATGM teams at extended ranges, and breaching DRCW in support of dismounted infantry by having soldiers fire against those targets as part of the test. The planned OA is expected to focus on these new capabilities. AMP lethality testing demonstrated the difficulty for the gunner to determine the aimpoint for subsequent shot placement when breaching a DRCW at the higher requirement angles of obliquity.
Two crews from Crazy Horse Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division made armor history in September 2021 at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona. Led by 2nd Lt. Jake Hall and Staff Sgt. Nicholas Smearman, the crews were the first to fire the XM-1147 Advanced Multi-Purpose (AMP) round, an experimental round that had been in development for over a decade.
During testing, the crews fired 86 service rounds, testing the AMP’s capabilities under multiple scenarios and against various intended targets. "Being able to see the effects that this round was able to have downrange, engaging a multitude of targets, bunkers, walls, troop targets, armored vehicles, it's a very functional round; instead of having five different rounds, it brings it down to two," Hall said.
The crews were well aware of the historical impact the tests would have for the Army and the Armor branch as a whole. “It was incredible.” Smearman said, “To be out there doing what we’re doing, to be able to set forward the future of (M1) Abrams development, and the fact we were the first ones out there, probably be the only ones who have hands-on this round for a long time, to be able to set that historically, we felt honored to be out there.”
“What this round has done is it’s going to make tactical planning in an operational environment a lot easier. The term that we use is ‘Battle-Carry,’ what round we have in the breach when we enter combat, usually that’s going to be decided by what we expect the enemy to be throwing at us if we’re expecting tanks, we’re going to battle carry SABOT, our tank defeating round,” Smearman explained. “[The AMP] allows us to battle-carry that round without fear of running into a different enemy.” “One of the questions they asked us during the focus group was ‘would we feel confident taking this round into an operational environment?” And it was a resounding ‘yes’ from all of us,” Smearman said. “I’d take it to hell and back.
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