This may be a dumb question, is the M60 still used at all today or have they all been replaced with the Abrams? and if they are not in use, when were they replaced?

I could easily be wrong but I believe the Marines were the last to use them and are using the Abrams now instead. I would like to know if the Marines or some guard units are still using it, anyone know for sure?

I think some of the OPFOR units at CMTC in Hohenfels, Germany still use M60A3 tanks. I also think that some of the New England National Guard units may still have them. I've seen them along motorpool road at Ft. Drum (where the 42nd Inf Div stores their equipment) as late as the summer of 2000 and the National Guard site here at Ft. Devens has a couple of M60A3TTS in their motorpool.

I know that some are still in service in with Reserve units in the US Army.
Ciao

I was at camp lejeune last month and didn't see anything but M1's. My future brother-in-law is a tank mechanic and hasn't mentioned anything about M60's.

Yes, but Camp Lejeune inplies US Marine Corps. The entire Corps has the equivalent of about a couple of Army brigade's worth of tanks. All of their M60A1 RISE/Passive tanks were turned in for M1A1s in the 1990s. The Army National Guard's heavy forces comprises several mechanized infantry divisions, an armored division, several armored cavalry regiments, and separate infantry and armor brigades spread throughout the lower 48 states. Some of these units may still be equipped with M60A3TTS tanks. This is not due to the tank's availability, but to the cost to operate and maintain the M1 series tanks. With the exception of the enhanced brigades, the Guard can't afford to run these things.

BTW the US Army Reserve doesn't have any heavy combat units any more. So other than the occasional tank used to train mechanics and the like, all Army tanks are either in the Regular Army or Army National Guard, not the Reserves.

Other countries still use it. In fact, General Dynamics has made an upgrade kit for it that is supposed to bring it up to M1A1 standards. The kit includes chobham armor side skirts, a new engine,new suspension, new tracks, an adapter ring for the turret, and an M1A1 turret, including 120mm smoothbore gun, M1 sighting and firing sytems, commanders weapon station, etc. The cost is about $1,000,000 (half an M1). The whole upgrade goes under the name of 120S.

The press release/brochure can be seen here

http://www.jed.simonides.org/tanks/mike-number-us/m060_series/120s/120S.pdf

Rob

Rob - thanks for that link. It really looks interesting. Do you know of any more?

Gunnie

just from google.

http://www.janes.com/defence/land_forces/news/jdw/jdw010823_1_n.shtml

http://www.gd.com/news/press_releases/2001/News%20Release%20-%20Monday,%20September%2024,%202001-2.htm

http://www.turkishdailynews.com/old_editions/08_18_01/for.htm

Rob

Can anyone say Kit-bash??? I am already excited about this one... Years ago I thought this would be a good idea, as the M60 chassis is a real workhorse. True, it is not fast, but it is reliable and easy to work on. Oboy, oboy... a new Patton variant!!! :-)

Easy to work on Lance? When's the last time you had to pull a pack on that beast?

At the risk of being picky - in response to Rob's post about National Guard armor units.
To my knowledge, there is only one National Guard armored cavalry regiment left - the 278th ACR in Tennessee.

John C.

Not that it was germain to the point either, but there really is only one "true" ACR left in the active Army, the 3rd ACR at Carson. 11th ACR is the former 177th Armor Bde reflagged as the 11ACR and the 2nd ACR was remnants of the old 9th ID (Motorized) that moved to Polk. They still in lline to become a SBCT? BTW, there is a Cav Bde in the Idaho Guard as well (or at least parts of one).

Welll.... over 20 years ago... ooopss make that 23... well, I guess everything is relative. The Rise is easier than the old one... The automotive system is pretty simple and easy to maintain... other than pulling the pack, I agree. We did an engine swap in the field once in about 2 or 3 hours I think. That was as clean as it can get. Did you ever do a final drive?? What a mess... took all Saturday, in the rain. God, I hated that.

Let me see... I have a chassis, now I need am M1A2 turret and I can always scratch the side skirts and the rear parts... nice, straight lines. The tracks look tricky, but hell, who would notice that? No rivet counters in the far north...

I was thinking the exact same thing. Thanks for posting the links btw. If anyone has some more links to pictures go ahead and post them, I would like to check out some more.