I to saw a show on cable showing how they rebuild the M1Abrams. Of interest was the gas turbines that suffer greatly from dust and have to constantly be rebuilt. Not a problem when you have billions of dollars in you defence budget and can set up a special factory to rebuild the engines and have plenty of spares on the shelf, but for Australia I think it will be a problem. If the engines start to wear out fast, as they will, our army will only be able to drive them on the road or on a rainy day when there is no dust around. The M1 is a very good tank but expensive to run and in my way of thinking Australia would probably have been better off staying with the Leopard with its diesel engine. Regards Peter C