Sebastien Roblin
Just how far can you soup up a tank from the 1960s?
The M60 Patton was the mainstay of the U.S tank fleet in the 1960s and 1970s, before being replaced by the M1 Abrams tank currently in service. However, more than five thousand Pattons remain in service in the armies of nineteen countries. Earlier this year, Raytheon unveiled its Service-Life Extension Package (SLEP) upgrade featuring a new engine, fire control system and 120-millimeter gun.
This M60 SLEP is in competition with a pre-existing three-tier upgrade offered by Israel Military Industries for their M60 Sabra. Sabras in Turkish service, designated the M60T, are active on the battlefield of Northern Syria today, while older-model Pattons are fighting on both sides of the war in Yemen.
The new Pattons are faster and deadlier—but are they tough enough for the modern battlefield?
America’s Cold War Battle Tank
The M60 traces its ancestry all the way back to the M26 Pershing heavy tank, a few dozen of which saw action at the end of the World War II. The Pershing was evolved into a series of Patton tanks armed with 90mm guns, including the M46, M47 and M48. The M60, introduced in 1960, was the last: a tall-profiled brawler designed to outmatch the ubiquitous Soviet T-54 tank by virtue of its heavier armor and long M68 105 millimeter gun.
The 50-ton M60s were deployed to Europe in case World War III broke out, and didn’t see action in the Vietnam War, except for some bridge-laying and engineering variants. Instead, M48 tanks took on North Vietnamese PT-76s and T-54s in a small number of engagements, and even battled Swedish-made tanks in the Dominican Republic.
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/americas-m60-patton-tank-can-it-still-fight-the-worlds-best-18228
