Author of this article: Dabing
Once the backbone of the armored forces of the US Army —"Barton" series tanks:
M46 As an emergency work for transforming old equipment, M47 produced more than 8,500 vehicles...but as a transition model, it was quickly eliminated to the Allies; after continuous improvement, M48 reached the first-class level of the main battle tank at that time, with a total output of 11,730 vehicles.
▲ Improved the M48 tank with the 105mm rifled gun.
. At the same time, the Soviet army's T54 tank produced 35,000 vehicles between 1946 and 1958; the improved T55 was put into production since 1955, and the domestic production of the Soviet Union alone had 57,500 vehicles... Not to mention the transfer of technology to other socialist camp models, the total number is estimated to have exceeded 100,000!
▲Photo taken in hungary in 1956.
is obvious, M48 Even if the old man "Barton" is possessed by his soul, he cannot do "I want to fight ten!"
Faced with the increasing advantages of the ground armor power of the Warsaw Pact Group, the US military's research and development of the new generation of tank is nothing more than the following choices:
. Based on the existing tank technology, develop a mature tank that can be put into production in batches as soon as possible;
html l1. Invest huge investment to allow the T95 experimental tank, which combines many new technologies, to be released as soon as possible to establish quality advantages;
. Seek relatively cheap countermeasures such as missile , armed helicopter , and develop asymmetric advantages...
▲ T95 experimental tank uses smoothbore gun , ceramic composite armor, Many cutting-edge technologies such as X-type engines and liquid suspension are still far from practical.
In the end, the US military chose to make in-depth improvements based on the M48, and make the most of the use of existing production and maintenance facilities, and to make as versatile as possible parts - this is the M60 tank.
The following is a comparison of parameters of the early models of M48A5 and M60:
It can be seen that these two tanks are almost the same in size and weapon configuration. The latter is just to fix the former's successful improvement plan at each stage to standardized production. Even the name of the "Patton" of the M60 tank is not official - because the early M60 uses almost the same turret as the previous generation "Patton". The outside world and the troops receiving the new tank take it for granted that this is the improved version of the "Patton" tank. The US Army just defaults to this title...
▲The early M60 was equipped with the M48 turret.
So why doesn’t the US military continue to use the M48 development model?
In fact, in addition to emphasizing the logistics unity of army equipment, the M60 is also to deal with the possibility that the new generation of the Soviet Union's tank gun continues to increase firepower: the body of the M60 is welded and synthesized by cold forging and hot casting parts, and is not cast in an integral manner like the M48 - while improving defense, it also simplifies production.
▲The M60 chassis that the Detroit factory was offline in the 1980s.
▲Detailed welding inside the turret.
early model used the M48 turret because the newly developed composite armor turret has not yet been formed; of course, in the end, this composite armor with a quartz mezzanine at the front of this turret contains a cost-effectiveness, and the M60 did not enjoy it. However, the improved streamlined "turtle shell" turret on the M60A1 is still one step better in defense than the M48, and has a larger space, which is conducive to carrying various additional equipment: the backup volume of
05mm main gun has increased to 63 rounds, the purely mechanical and better-performance day/night red light sight was replaced by an electromechanical simulated ballistic computer, an optical rangefinder linked to the gunner's sight sight, and the later added artillery two-way stability system and passive night vision instrument, all of which make this tank more useful.
▲The new turret has a distinctly prominent "pig nose" - the armor is thicker.
▲ From this perspective, the tank looks particularly tall...
▲In fact, from a different perspective, this tank is a typical "narrow" turret.
Because of the large number of existing products used in engines, transmissions, walking parts and other consumable accessories, the M60 has good productivity after solving the initial welding process problems. There are more than 15,000 vehicles in various models, making it the tank model with the largest number of US military equipment during the Cold War.
▲The US tank troops stationed in West Germany in the late 1970s.
▲An interesting comparison: Big man and "five pairs of wheels".
Then...this is it over? The Americans accepted a comprehensive performance that was basically the same as the Soviet tank of the same era. Faced with a 3- or even 5-fold advantage, they were waiting for air support to "lie down"?
NO! This is not the solution to the US military's " science and technology equals combat effectiveness."
In fact, the reason why the US Army "reorganized" the M60 tank instead of continuing to develop the M48, which seemed similar, was mainly aimed at the new generation of "Architecture/ missile weapon system " - epoch-making equipment must have new numbers.
This is the M60A2: 's newly designed turret, equipped with a 152mm low-bridge tank gun - it can fire both ordinary shells and MGM-51 "Oak Stick" anti-tank missile! The M162 152mm dual-purpose gun,
, has an initial caliber of 140mm, and is planned to be installed on the M48A4 tank... But it has already achieved this, why not let the shells be bigger and solve all the troubles in one round? The turret of the
M60A2 tank optimizes the internal structure: the commander continued to operate his small 12.7mm machine gun command tower and sighting equipment were at the top, and the gunner and loader were hidden in the hanging baskets on both sides of the 152mm gun. Except for the hatch cover on the head and the periscope , there was almost no exposed part of the vehicle body, and the defense level was greatly improved; the ammunition base of the artillery was 46 rounds, including 13 gun-fired missiles and 33 ordinary shells, most of which were all combustible cartridges multi-purpose armor-breaking shells , with an initial velocity of about 687 meters/sec, an effective range of 1,500 meters, and has the dual functions of armor-breaking and killing. The maximum vertical armor-breaking thickness is 500 mm!
▲ You can see that the front of the turret is exposed very little.
▲This is the 152mm dual-purpose cannon, the body tube diameter is only 17.5.
The initial velocity and rotation speed of low-boring pressure shells are lower than that of ordinary shells, so the accuracy is higher than that of the tail wing stable armor piercing; and at a longer distance, it can be solved by the "Oak Stick" missile with a maximum range of 3,000 meters. It adopts visual aiming, infrared automatic tracking, and automatic command guidance, and the depth of 500 mm will not change any due to the distance of the range...
This tank is luxuriously equipped with two sets of fire control systems , which are used for the control of missiles and artillery respectively; among them, the M19 ballistic computer that combines laser range measurement , cross wind and target angular velocity calculation, substituting the bomb type and gun barrel wear parameters, is the earliest tank fire control with the ability to shoot and move targets.
▲You can see two scopes in front of the gunner .
▲The full picture of the "Like Tree Stick" missile.
This is completely the "predator" in the tank - it is his responsibility to eliminate all ground armor targets within the visible range!
There were rumors that the M60A2 is the only one named in the "Paton" series of tanks... Of course, this is a rumor. Through the previous few issues, we know that the main battle tanks of the US military have always been stubbornly named after army generals; the M60 "Paton"'s own titles are all "shun", so how could the US military name a separate name for a mere 526 A2 models. In fact, it is because the A2 turret is so sci-fi, and the tank soldiers directly called it " Star Warship " when they saw it, which is surprisingly appropriate.
originally according to the US military's vision: mixed 10 M60A2s in each tank battalion, and took the initiative outside the effective range of Soviet tanks by taking advantage of the long-range advantage of missiles; after entering the range of artillery, the M60A1 is responsible for attacking a large number of A2 key "greetings" with more precise sighting and fire control...
However, M60A2 is limited by the technology at that time, and there are many troubles in actual operation: although the "Oak Stick" missile is infrared guided, it avoids the trouble of wires; it requires the turret to illuminate the entire process during flight. In these 10 seconds, the tank can only stay still and become a fixed target!
full-burning cartridges are considered to have a large weight of the shell (22.5kg), in order to save the bullet reduction process and increase the rate of fire; but due to the immature technology, the restrictions on storage and transportation of this kind of ammunition are strictly restricted, and sometimes spontaneous combustion can cause danger.
▲The "Star Warship" is replenishing ammunition, the picture below is a multi-purpose armor-breaking bomb.
missile is expensive, the early laser rangefinder is not as accurate as optical rangefinder, the two complex fire controls put higher requirements on personnel quality, and the training and maintenance costs have increased greatly...
Above factors plagued this "starship" tank that combines the most cutting-edge technologies at the time - ultimately destined to become the "premature baby" of the times...
▲ M60A2 once invested a small amount of testing in Vietnam , which was abandoned.
Because the M60 tank is based on the mature technology overall (type A2 can only be considered a special case), it has the characteristics of low maintenance costs (relative to other equipment of the US military), even after the M1 tank was put into production in the 1980s, the US military still did not hesitate to upgrade the 5,400 M60A1 and some A2 models in service to the A3 standard; considering that the early M1 did not have depleted uranium armor and 120mm smoothbore guns, the M60A3 was still able to maintain a sufficient scale for the US military's armored force in the last few years of the Cold War in the end and stood in the last shift.
▲M60A3 field test in Australia.
▲Tank troops of the Thai Army.
▲ Gulf War , M60A3TTS affiliated to Marine Corps .
In other countries, this tank is still under magic modification to this day:
▲ Israeli modified M60, armor is attached to the turret and body.
▲Turkey modified M60 has been replaced with a 120mm smoothbore gun.
▲This is M60!
▲This is still M60...
In March 1945, General Patton led the US armored forces to break through the German " Ziegfee Line of Defense ", forced the Rhine , penetrated deep into the hinterland of Germany, and fought to the border of Austria ; one month later, Patton was promoted to 4-star general and was appointed as the US military chief executive in Bavaria .After this, everything will turn back, and Barton with a big mouth has had problems one after another...
From this perspective, the M60 can live longer and be much lucky than Patton. The "hot war" did not break out after all. It and the previous generations of "Paton" were able to continue this long period of tanks leading the US military's armored power, creating an interesting story for future generations to appreciate.
(serialized)
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