Hi Tread Heads,
I rely on those of you who have served in these beasts to tell me if this article is worth the hype. It is interesting to me, all the same.
America's M60 Patton Tank: Can It Still Fight the World's Best (At Over 50 Years Old)?
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There were after action studies that indicated that a center of mass hit on a T-72 by a 120mm SABOT would knock off the turret more than 60% of the time. For a 105mm it dropped to 30%. M60s it was below 20% for the equivalent 125mm round.
However, a killing hit that set off the stowed ammunition could and would blow off the turret. Hence the blow off panels on the M1 turrets. There were even instances of it actually working precisely as designed. Ammo goes off, panels go up and turret crew survives.
The experts were talking about the M60 being past it's sell by date twenty years ago. Similar articles were printed back in the 1990s and were one reason the Army was so quick to retire the M60 fleet once the force draw down released enough M1s to equip all the remaining armored units.
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