Testing was supposed to take place last year, but has been delayed due to COVID-19. Last month the Army awarded the production contract to the ATK team. The Army awarded two contracts for AMP development in 2015, in a competition between Orbital ATK (now part of Northrop Grumman NOC) and General Dynamics GD. Carrying the AMP makes logistics easier since one round will work against a wide range of likely targets. The AMP updates it for the modern era, where the opposition is less likely to be heavy armor and more likely to be on foot and fighting in an urban landscape of strongpoints and concrete obstacles. The M1 Abrams was designed in the 1970s when the Soviet tank formations rolling across Germany were the big threat. The round will be the first in service to meet the HERO or Hazard of Electromagnetic Radiation to Ordnance standard and has been tested against electromagnetic pulse and well as static discharges. The AMP is also the first round to be designed to cope with a novel type of problem – electromagnetic pulse, which can damage or destroy electronics. In the Airburst mode, the round explodes at a pre-set height above the ground, spraying the area below with tungsten shrapnel – this is the antipersonnel mode. Set to Point Detonation-Delay, the round does not explode immediately on contact – this is the mode used against obstacles and bunkers, as it gives enough time to penetrate deeply into concrete of other material before exploding. With Point Detonation, the round explodes on contact with the target - this mode will make it effective against targets like light armored vehicles. The AMP has three different fusing options. This includes cutting through the steel reinforcement bars, and breaching can be carried out from several hundred meters away. Three rounds of AMP will create a thirty-by-fifty-inch hole clean through a double-thickness reinforced concrete wall, big enough for troops to advance through. Currently, making a breach an infantry assault requires engineers to get next to the wall and emplace explosives. Another important new capability is breaching walls.
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