M60 is a Cold War symbol, one of the most prominent Cold War armored vehicles. It was a bridge vehicle between the World War II-era Pattons and the modern M1 Abrams. Over 15,000 were produced, and it was deployed for over four decades, so the history of the M60 has been one of hard-as-they-get durability, incremental advancement, and application everywhere in the world.
Their development started with the Patton M48, which was a tank that had seen experience during the Korean War and the early years of the beginning of the Cold War. In 1960, the M60 came as a reaction to the rising perceived Russian threat of tanks. It was a monolithic improvement over America and its allies, with more firepower, better armor, and a more powerful vehicle for the crewmen on board.
Around which was wrapped the 105mm M68 rifled gun, the American equivalent of the British L7, and shortly to acquire a reputation for being good and on target in the estimation of NATO troops. While the M60 borrowed most of its appearance from the M48 hull and engine, it was thicker-plated and angularer in turret elsewhere and otherwise differentiated and more survivability-looking. In the intervening years, the tank also underwent a succession of overhauls in an effort to keep it in a state of war-readiness.
The M60A1 traded the longer turret, and the M60A2 gun-launcher tested 152mm, but was very troublesome in combat. The real breakthrough came later with the M60A3 in the 1970s. Instead of replacing armor or gun, this variant improved fire control and night-fighting equipment on the basis of modernization, and it put the tank on a whole new level of battlefield performance.
The M60A3 carried a laser rangefinder, ballistic computer, and thermal sighting system, and gunners were able to peer and sight in through darkness or foul weather—a feature that made it war-winning.
Apart from the smoke grenade launchers, NBC defense system, and automatic computer-controlled fire-suppression system, unused in Vietnam, the M60 was exposed to a series of future wars.
The M60 was utilized by Israeli forces in the 1973 Yom Kippur War against Soviet T-62 tanks to demonstrate its reliability and firepower. It was employed with reactive armor during the 1983 Lebanon War to defend against anti-tank missiles.
The 1991 Gulf War was the final large testing ground for the M60. US Marines employed upgraded M60A1s with reactive armor and improved night combat, and they pushed through Iraqi defenses and into Kuwait City. Although still in use alongside the more advanced M1 Abrams, the M60 was shown to continue being effective in contemporary warfare.
Globally, the M60 became a US standard adopted by friends. Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and Israel manufactured versions, occasionally to fulfill special needs. Dozens of M60A1s were purchased by Iran in the 1960s and have since benefited from massive modernization programs that have included such technologies as improved fire control, stabilizing equipment, night vision, laser warning systems, and reactive armor—keeping these tanks operational decades after first construction.
The M60 did have further implications beyond its fighting life. Those lessons and experiences were translated to the M1 Abrams design, equipment-wise and electronics-wise. The Abrams learned from the lessons applied in successive composite armor and thermal sight, thereby establishing a new postmodern armored warfare precedent.
Even now, each country continues or modifies its M60s as a gesture of respect to its timeless shape and versatility. The M60 is a characteristically proportioned tank—big, big-bellied, and hard—a legacy cobbled together on warfields of the world.
