M1A2

The  is a main battle tank in Squad. Adopted by the United States Army (U.S. Army) in 1980, the M1 became the standard main battle tank for the US Army and Marine Corps. It first saw action in the Persian Gulf War of 1991, and has been continually upgraded in order to continue to serve to the present day. The M1 has three variants, the M1, the M1A1, and the M1A2. Only the M1A2 is featured in squad.

General information
The M1 entered U.S. service in 1980 as the standard main battle tank, ultimately replacing the M60 tank. The M1A2 has been in service since 1992 and is also frequently exported to allied nations of the United States including Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Australia, and Iraq.

As one of the heaviest main battle tanks in the world, the M1A2 weighs over 70 short tons. The M1A2 is 32.04 ft (9.77 m; including main gun length) long, 12 ft (3.66 m) wide, and 8 ft (2.44 m) tall. 4 crew members operate the M1A2 : the commander/machine gunner, gunner, loader, and the driver. Designed to defeat hostile armor, the M1A2 is highly mobile, well-armed, and heavily armored. Notable features include a powerful AGT-1500 multifuel gas turbine engine, sophisticated composite armor, and separate ammunition storage in a blow-out compartment for crew safety. The M1A2 can reach up to a speed of 45 mph (72 km/h) (governed) on a road and 30 mph (48 km/h) off-road.

Gameplay
The M1 in-game is the base M1A2 variant. It is only used by the US Army.
 * The M1A2 is equipped with a 120mm M256 smoothbore cannon that can fire (21) M829A4 armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) rounds and (21) M830A1 high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) rounds, making it one of the most formidable vehicles on the battlefield when it comes to raw firepower. In addition to the APFSDS and HEAT rounds, the M1A2 gunner can fire a coaxial M240C machine gun (2000 rounds) and 40mm smoke grenade launchers with 2 charges for concealment. The gun has an average reload speed of 6 seconds, equating to 10 rounds per minute. This is currently the fastest in-game.
 * The M1A2 has a vehicle commander and loader's seat, both with their own usable machine guns. The vehicle commander has an M2A1.50 cal heavy machine gun mounted on a remote weapons system with 400 rounds, allowing for full 360-degree traversal and zoom levels of 5x and 12x. The tank also features a hunter-killer system, allowing the vehicle commander to move the turret towards an indicated direction. The loader's seat (while not required to actually load the cannon) is an extra seat on the turret with its own M240B machine gun with 200 rounds per ammo box (7 boxes, 1400 rounds total). The loader's machine gun however, is not remotely operated meaning the user is exposed while using the weapon. Due to this, it can also be hard to hear any nearby local voice chat from nearby friendlies including your fellow crew due to the sound of the engine and the sound of battle. To make full use of the shield, it is recommended to aim upward entirely to lower the profile of the user and conceal the user entirely behind the shield.
 * The driver's set comes equipped with an engine smoke generator. To activate the smoke generator, hold down the left mouse button.
 * The gunnery that is currently modeled for the M1A2 does not include modern fire control systems yet, so the gunner's auxiliary sights to allow for manual adjustments at the range are currently the only way to operate the main gun.
 * The M1A2 has its engine located at the back and its ammunition storage on the bottom left of the hull. The image shown in the section shows the M2A3 (left) and the M1A2 (right) with the locations of its components.
 * Hitting the ammunition storage, depending on the damage, may potentially destroy the tank entirely through ammo cook-off.
 * Hitting the engine can hinder the M1A2's mobility. Damaging the engine reduces the vehicle's acceleration and top speed, and destroying it will render the vehicle immobile.
 * The M1A2 presents a formidable armor profile from the front. While the turret is well-armored and highly resistant to incoming fire, like other tanks in the game, the gun mantlet is a glaring weakness. At longer ranges, tankers should prioritize targeting the mantlet to increase the chances of penetration. At shorter ranges, however, tankers should consider firing at the right section (when facing an M1A2 from the front) of the lower glacis as a penetrating hit in that area could result in an ammunition cook-off.

Trivia

 * Originally, it was stated that both the M1A1 and M1A2 would be added, this was however changed at a later stage and it instead ended up becoming the M1A2.