M60A3 Patton tank gets 21st Century upgrades

[mojaveman]

Raytheon is pitching a new upgrade for the venerable M60A3 Patton main battle tank that would turn the elderly design into a competitive force on the modern battlefield - all at a fraction of the cost of a new tank.

Any former tankers here? Thought the idea of all of the new technological upgrades in such an old design was kind of interesting.

http://blog.themotorpool.net/raytheo...ar-weary-m60a3

[45K40]

Mojaveman,

Nice idea, but we already gave some foreign nations all the M60A1/A3s they could handle thru Foreign Military Sales (FMS). The rest went to VFWs and ocean reefs. Raytheon is trying to milk some money from the ole gal, but the armor is still super-vulnerable to any of the anti-armor wpns out there. M60 series have solid homogenous cast steel armor. For example, a Russian AP sabot round will easily go through the front of the gunshield and exit out the bustle rack. I didn't see any add-on turret armor or reactive armor tiles (like USMC M60A4 did) on Raytheons product, just RPG slats. Most foreign nations that have money (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Emirates, Egypt, Turkey, and Austrailia, to name a few), opted for modern M1A1/A2 tanks. Egypt, Morrocco, and Jordan still have a lot of M48/60 series battleboxes. I doubt they would replace these with the Raytheon version though.

45K40

[Streck-Fu]

Where's the Freakin' Laser, Man?!