Grabbed this shot sitting at a red light recently.
M60A1 Patton
Yip,
Actually, it is an M60A3. The M60A1 had a smooth barrel without the thermal shroud on it.
M60A1.
The M60A3 added M239 smoke dischargers, a thermal shroud for the 105mm main gun and a new rangefinder and ballistic computer with meteorological sensor on the turret roof.
The key ID items are the shrouded barrel and the right side (from the TC’s Hatch) rangefinder blisted has a hinged cover on it for the laser rangefinder.
Ditto, Alpha-3 TTS… Noticed the Digital camo on the top photo, Gino… Where’d that one come from?
Yep…A3…but that top photo from Marc is disturbing…it looks like it is painted with Pepto-Bismol…god I hate porly kept displays
Rounds Complete!!
Hi Hans. No idea where the actual tank is, I’m guessing Germany. I lifted the pic off the net under a Google search for M60A3. The Dual-Tex camo scheme from 2 ACR in Germany during the late-'70s is pretty cool though.
Smoke grenade launchers or just the mounts are not a good indentifying item when trying to determine an M60A1 vs. an M60A3TTS.
As you can see in the Dual-Tex photo, it is clearly an A1 yet has the launcher mounts on the side on the turret.
The four main identifiers are:
- the Laser Range Finder modification to the right blister (the small hinged flap with padlock)
- the thermal shrouded main gun tube
- the crosswind sensor mast (looks like a thick, stubby antenna behind the loader’s hatch, less often seen with the actual sensor mounted that looks like a kitchen wisk mounted on the top)
- the larger gunner’s primary sight housing (“doghouse”), an A1 had a smaller, rounded one and the A3TTS had the larger squared off one.
I loved my A3, but the tank had many issues. The crosswind sensor rarely worked and was usually “zeroed out” so it would not interfere with actually hitting the target. The A3 also had a stabilization system that worked as well as the crosswind sensor and was turned off too. And the TC’s .50 cal passive sight was fairly useless. After the first burst, the flash from the M85 whited out your night sight. It was akin to having an eye doctor shine that light in your eye. You couldn’t see anything for a bit until you got your night vision back. I used it to lay the gun and then switched to the TTS and walk the .50 rounds in using the thermals.
Rob…thank god you showed up…three artillery guys discussing M60 armor [:O] …Marc, now there is the straight skinny…almost down to the serial # [;)]…this was a good example of a combined arms effort!![:D]
Rounds Complete!!
Thanks lads. I got the ph number of the Amer. Legion post to while I was waiting for the light. Gonna see if they will let me crawl over with a camera.
Roger THAT… Stop disappearin’, Rob… I pulled the “TTS” outta my azz… I mean, I knew what it was, but not for the same reasons (read, pertinent) as you did… All I REALLY know about tanks is where it’s best to drop a 155mm on 'em…
Oops… my bad but hey, at least this old 11Bush got it almost right. I knew that the major differences between the two was (at least) the sleeved barrel but did not spot that in the photos.
For my punishment, I’ll be joining this guy…
!(http://www.hoganwatch.com/images/kp duty.jpg)
Us Marine 0300 types could only point and grunt …
G
Yeah, “meteorological sensor”? What’s it gonna do, tell me it’s raining? Got my head hanging out the cupola to figure that one out. It was worse than worthless during gunnery because it made your reticle vibrate as you tried to lay on the target. All it did was determine crosswind, and rather poorly at that.
Now the TTS or Tank Thermal Sight was a work of art. You had a scope about 5" in diameter showing you a thermal image of what’s going on downrange. Easy to use and much clearer/better than the earlier M1 and M1A1 TIS.
The M60A3TTS had 4 different sighting systems (gunner’s daylight sight, TTS, LRF and the 105D) and we had to “sync” (synchronize) the sights at the sync ramp before each gunnery, ensuring all sights were aligned at max elevation, minimum elevation and zero elevation. That was a royal pita.
Don’t worry Kevin, kids today have no clue what KP is. My son graduated basic in 08 and he didn’t know what it was when he was done. My son-in-law is down at Benning now becoming an 11B, and I doubt he’s pulling KP either.
Seems with all the M-60’s parked at the local American Legion a division could be thrown together.LOL Watched a local const. company drag ours off of the trailer,yes she was a trailer queen. Also being an 11B all I needed to know was friend or foe.
Heh… Speakin’ of that… I recall a converstion I had while I was an instructor at the Chem School, about a hunert years ago, with an Egyptian Armor Major… He didn’t like the “Friendly or Threat” technique the US Army trained with on Armored Vehicle Recognition, since his battalion was equipped with T-62s…
Hummm…all I can think of is…
It happens!!! and Life is tough so wear a cup!!
Rounds Complete!!
Yeah, my only suggestion to fix his problem was that he tell his TCs to turn their turrets around and lay the main guns on the rear deck if they ever approached a US unit in a hostile-fire area…[whstl]
I bet that calmed him down…[H]
Heh, it wasn’t the first, nor would it be last time I had run-ins with Arab O’s… This guy didn’t like the fact that about ALL the class instructors are NCOs rather than officers in the US Army… I suppose it was due to the fact that theirs is conscript army modeled along the Soviet Doctrine, which kinda precludes a Professional NCO Corps in about all aspects …
Soviet doctrine has lieutenants and captains doing jobs that sergeants and staff sergeants do in the US Army… He, and most other Arab officers of that era, was pretty annoyed that we as NCOs had more authority and autonomy than Arab NCOs and that we “didn’t know our places”…