I know a fair amount regarding armor and munitions. That having been said, I realized tonight while talking to a buddy of mine that I have no idea what happens to spent shell casings in an MBT. He believed that there must be a chute of some sort to cast them overboard. I think that the NATO experience lead to the Abrams being fairly sealed for the NBC warfare contingency, so I don’t believe this is too likely.
So does the loader just kick the casings around till the crew can unload them out of the turret hatches? Anybody ever bang his fist on a ready round? UP?
Modern tank ammo has a shell case that combusts almost completely in the chamber - the bottom few inches is solid and is kept in bin in the fighting compartment, the rest disappears. Before that, the shell casings would be kept in the fighting compartment until time could be found to either stow them or - if the tank was not NBC sealed - to toss them through the hatch provided for the purpose.
Spiny, I was under the impression that Abrams casings were aluminum. At least they were in Desert Storm. I have read about the combustible casings but I don’t think they are used on the Abrams.