U.S. approves $750M tank engine sale to Saudi Arabia

The U.S. State Department has approved a possible $750 million sale of 60 AGT-1500 tank engines to Saudi Arabia, notifying Congress of the deal on September 4. The engines, along with spare parts and years of contractor support, would go toward sustaining Saudi Arabia’s existing fleet of M1 Abrams tanks rather than funding new tank purchases.

The AGT-1500 is the only engine that has ever powered an M1 Abrams. It’s a gas turbine, the same basic technology used in helicopters and small jets, adapted in the 1970s to drive an armored vehicle instead of a rotor. When the Army tested it head-to-head against a conventional diesel engine at Aberdeen Proving Ground in 1976, the turbine won because it could start instantly in extreme cold, run on almost any liquid fuel without adjustment, and produce enough torque to take a 72-ton tank from a standstill to 20 mph in about six seconds. It also runs quieter than a diesel, part of why crews nicknamed the Abrams the “Whispering Death” during the Gulf War, since armored units could close on a position with far less warning than tank crews had grown used to.

That combination of power and stealth came at a cost the Army has managed for nearly five decades: gas turbines are notoriously fuel-hungry, and keeping the fleet running has meant a continuous cycle of engine swaps and depot rebuilds rather than routine field maintenance. Honeywell, which absorbed the engine’s original manufacturer, Avco Lycoming, has kept it current through a program called TIGER, for Total Integrated Engine Revitalization. Production itself moved in 1995 from a shuttered plant in Stratford, Connecticut, to the Anniston Army Depot in Alabama, where it remains today and where this new batch of engines would be built.

Saudi Arabia has operated the Abrams since 1989, when it bought 315 M1A2 tanks in a deal worth roughly $3.1 billion. Rather than buying new tanks since then, Riyadh has spent the years since steadily converting and rebuilding that original fleet into a Saudi-specific configuration called the M1A2S, including a 2016 deal worth $1.15 billion that added dozens more conversions and battle-loss replacements. Every one of those tanks, regardless of how many times its turret or electronics get updated, still needs an AGT-1500 underneath it, and turbine engines wear out and get pulled for depot overhaul on a schedule diesel engines simply don’t require. This new order functions less like a tank purchase and more like the maintenance bill for keeping that fleet operational for another decade.

Honeywell would be the sole contractor on the deal if it goes through, and the State Department said it isn’t aware of any offset arrangement, the kind of side deal where a contractor agrees to invest in the buyer’s domestic industry, attached to this sale yet. Any such arrangement would be worked out separately between Honeywell and the Saudi government.

Congressional notification doesn’t mean the sale is final. Lawmakers have a review period during which they can object before the U.S. government, Honeywell and Saudi Arabia sign an actual contract, and past Foreign Military Sales notifications have occasionally been scaled back or delayed at this stage. The State Department said the deal would not require sending any additional U.S. personnel to Saudi Arabia, since the Kingdom already operates and maintains its own Abrams fleet with existing contractor support in place.