M 48 Patton - The M48 Patton is an American first-generation main battle tank (MBT) introduced in February 1952, designated as the 90mm Gun Tank: M48. Designed as a replacement for the M26 Pershing, M4 Sherman, M46 and M47 Patton tanks, it was the main battle tank of the US Army and US Marine Corps in the Vietnam War.
Nearly 12,000 M48s were built, primarily by Chrysler and American Locomotive Company, from 1952 to 1961. The M48 Patton was the first American medium gun tank
M 48 Patton
With a four man crew, which replaced the traditional 5 crew tanks, a cterline driver compartmt, and no bow machine gun.
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As with almost all new armored vehicles, it featured a wide variety of suspension systems, turret styles, power packs, fenders, and other details among individual tanks.
The early designs, up to the M48A2C, were gasoline powered. The M48A3 and A5 versions used a diesel engine, but gasoline engine versions were still in use by many West German Army units in the US Army National Guard by 1968 and by 1975. Numerous examples of the M48 fought in various Arab-Israeli conflicts and the Vietnam War. Beginning in 1959, most US M48A1s and A2s were upgraded to the M48A3 model.
The M48 Patton series saw widespread service with the United States and NATO, until it was replaced and widely exported by the M60 tank. The hull of the tank also developed a wide variety of prototypical, utility and support vehicles such as armored recovery vehicles and bridge layers. Some M48A5 models served with US Army National Guard units in the mid-1980s, and M48A3s were used as targets for weapons and radar testing in the mid-1990s.
Many M48s remain in service in other countries, although most of these have been heavily modified and their firepower, mobility and protection upgraded to increase their combat effectiveness on the modern battlefield. As of 2015, Turkey is the largest operator with over 750 units in service, Taiwan is second with around 500 upgraded variants, and Greece is third with 390 in service.
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After World War II, the United States' Ordnance Tank-Automotive Command (OTAC) drastically slowed or canceled many tank development and design programs. On November 7, 1950, the Ordnance Technical Committee mandated a change in the nomenclature for tanks in the US Army.
It was decided that weight designations (Light, Medium, Heavy) no longer apply due to changes in the way tanks were developed and deployed on the battlefield, and the different calibers of main guns now available. So the rifle's caliber replaced its weight designation. For example, the M103 Heavy Tank was renamed as the 120mm Gun Tank M103 and the Light Tank M41 Walker Bulldog as the 76mm Gun Tank M41 Walker Bulldog.
The M47 Patton ended production in 1951 and was used by the US Army and Marine Corps, but ongoing technical and production problems kept it out of service during the Korean War. This forced the US to field older tank models, such as the M26 Pershing and M46 Patton. In response, the military launched several design projects for a replacement for the M46 and M26. The United States killed a period of frozen operations in the crisis atmosphere of the Korean War, during which America seemed to lag behind the Soviet Union in terms of tank quality and quantity.
Test and development cycles coincided with production to ensure rapid delivery of new tanks. Such rapid production caused problems, but the importance given to quickly supplying combat units with new tanks precluded detailed testing and evaluation prior to their mass production.
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Notable among these were the T42, T69 and T48 projects, as well as ongoing improvements to the M47.
Compromise was inevitable, but not always welcome, as General Bruce C. Clarke noted wryly: "We know exactly what we want. We want a fast, highly mobile, fully armored, lightweight vehicle. It must be able to swim , over any terrain. , and climb hills of 30 degrees. It must be air transportable. It must have a simple but powerful gin, requiring little or no maintenance. The operating distance must be several hundreds of kilometers. We also like to be invisible be".
The T48 project was to focus on improving the turret of the M47 Patton and improving performance with a more powerful but efficient gasoline engine. 1/4 and 1/8 scale design mockups of the turret were built in May 1950 using the T119 90mm main gun of the M47 Patton. The design study was accepted by the army in December and a contract for the advanced production design and engineering (APE) of a 90 mm armored tank was awarded to the Chrysler Defse.
The hull redesign included moving the driver's station to the forward rear and removing the bow-mounted machine gun and its associated crew station, which was converted into secure container storage for additional main gun ammunition.
Tamiya 1:35 M48a3 Patton Tank 35120
The front glacier was beveled to provide much better ballistic protection than earlier welded and earlier flat designs.
An aircraft-style steering wheel (a yoke) replaced lever steering. The power pack consisted of the Continental AV-1790-5B gasoline engine producing 704 brake horsepower mated to an Allison CD-850-4A cross drive transmission with 2 forward and 1 reverse ranges. The hull armor was increased to 4 inches (100 mm) on the front glacier of rolled homogeneous steel. It had six pairs of road wheels per side and five rear rollers, a torsion bar suspension system, and used T97E2 steel tracks. A new hemispherical turret eliminated the M47's bullet traps and lowered the height of the vehicle.
T48 pilot #1 was built by Chrysler engineering for a start to test at the OTAC Detroit Arsal Test Cter in December 1951. A total of six prototypes were built.
On February 27, 1951, shortly after the outbreak of the Korean War, Ordnance Technical Committee Minutes (OTCM) #33791 began simultaneous production and design refinement of the new tank, designating the production tanks the 90mm Gun Tank M48.
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The Army planned to produce approximately 9,000 M48s within three years of development. Chrysler Corporation became the main manufacturer of the tank. Anticipated production and child problems led to the establishment of integrative committees to coordinate the development of tank and components. These Army Combat Vehicle (ARCOVE) committees included military and industrial representatives who provided early warning of defects and recommended remedies.
Test trials of the T48 tanks began in February 1952 and continued until the d of 1955. However, the perceived immediate threat of Soviet aggression in Western Europe and the ongoing Korean War prompted Army leadership to push the T48 tank into series production before the inevitable errors could be worked out of the new tank design. Instead, it was decided that any necessary design changes discovered through the ongoing testing and evaluation of the T48 tanks at the OTAC Detroit Arsal Test Center would be incorporated into the production vehicles of the M48 series as soon as possible.
T48 Pilot #1 was designed and built by Chrysler engineering to begin APE design development at the OTAC Detroit Arsal Test Center in December 1951. This tank was initially armed with the M36 / T119 gun with a Y-shaped deflector and a muzzle brake.
This gun was not used for the production of M48 tanks. It used the Mod A hull and turret designs with smaller diameter crew hatches. The driver's hatch included a mechanism that dropped its three periscope heads to provide clearance for the hatch door when it swung to the right, and the driver had to manually reposition the periscope once the hatch was closed again. It had 5 rear rollers, 6 pairs of road wheels per side with the drive sprocket at the rear and a torsion bar suspension system.
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Pilot #2 was built in February 1952 and also used the early Mod A design with small hatches. It was equipped with the T139 / M41 90mm gun which replaced the muzzle brake with a cylindrical blast deflector.
A T-shaped deflector was used for production M48 tanks. This vehicle installed two machine guns, a .30cal M1919E4 mounted coaxially to the left of the main gun and a .50cal M2HB mounted on the commander's cupola.
Pilot #3 was built in November 1952 and used the Mod B hull and turret designs with a simplified, larger diameter hatch that was easier for the driver to use. The front vision block was also removable and allowed for the future use of IR vision blocks by the driver. It also had 5 rear rollers, 6 pairs of road wheels per side with the drive sprocket at the rear and a torsion bar suspension system. The Mod B turret also had larger hatches for the commander and loader. An additional three hulls were built (T48 pilots 4 through 6) in 1953. These tanks were used in 1955 for the component development of the M48A2 production tanks, including fire control systems, turrets, suspension configurations, and power packs.
In conjunction with the development of the T48 project, there was some discussion about armor. The weight of conventional armor steel required to provide protection against the emerging large-caliber high-velocity main guns and improved APDS kinetic ergy petrators made continued use impractical.
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