The
General Dynamics Land Systems
General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) is an American manufacturer of military vehicles, including tanks and light Armoured fighting vehicle, armored fighting vehicles. The company is based in Sterling Heights, Michigan, and is a subsidiary of Gen ...
(GDLS) M60-2000 or 120S was an upgrade of the
M60 tank
The M60 is an American second-generation main battle tank (MBT). It was officially standardized as the Tank, Combat, Full Tracked: 105-mm Gun, M60 in March 1959. Although developed from the M48 Patton, the M60 tank series was never officially ...
. The development of the M60-2000 was initiated primarily due to the large number of M60 main battle tanks in service with many Middle Eastern nations unable to afford a sufficient force of more modern main battle tanks. The upgrade was marketed at those M60 users with the industrial capability to convert the tanks themselves. The M60-2000/120S was a GDLS supplied conversion kit that married the turret of the M1A1 variant of the
M1 Abrams
The M1 Abrams () is a third-generation American main battle tank designed by Chrysler Defense (now General Dynamics Land Systems) and named for General Creighton Abrams. Conceived for modern armored ground warfare, it is one of the heavies ...
to the M60A1 hull of the M60, offering many features of the M1A1 Abrams to existing M60 users at a reduced cost.
Development
It was first referred to the M60-2000 Program and design work began in late 1999 by
General Dynamics Land Systems
General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) is an American manufacturer of military vehicles, including tanks and light Armoured fighting vehicle, armored fighting vehicles. The company is based in Sterling Heights, Michigan, and is a subsidiary of Gen ...
as a private venture for the export market and was never evaluated for US military service. Later the M60 designation was dropped because of the extensive changes and to highlight this as a new vehicle to potential customers thus changing the name to the 120S Project. The 120 represented the gun, and S according to company marketing stood for Speed and Survivability. Two of the major upgrades this would offer to the M60 series of the vehicle. It is essentially a hybrid vehicle consisting of an
M1A1 version of the Abrams tank turret mated to a
M60A1 hull. The M60-2000 was test-marketed during 2000 and a number of countries in NATO and the Middle East were briefed on the vehicle. Following customer feedback, detailed engineering work was carried out and in December GDLS decided to build a functional prototype.
In August 2001 the company rolled out the fully functional prototype of the 120S tank at their Detroit, Michigan, facility. The prototype was shown at the IDEF Exhibition held in Turkey in October 2001.
Description
During development an upgrade to the M60A3 turret was considered, but the M1A1 turret was used because of its higher level of armor protection and the fact that the 120 mm ammunition is separated in the turret bustle. For the 120S Project the M1A1 turret and M60A1 series chassis were leased from the
US Army
The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...
. The turret is mated to the existing M60 chassis using an adapter ring that allows the use of the M1A1 wire race ring with no turret modifications. It consisted of a functional M1A1 turret, M1 turret gear box, hydraulic pump and an M1A1 slip ring adapter.
Many of the subsystems were already well proven and in volume production.
The turret armor is of a composite material and lacks the protective
depleted uranium
Depleted uranium (DU), also referred to in the past as Q-metal, depletalloy, or D-38, is uranium with a lower content of the fissile isotope Uranium-235, 235U than natural uranium. The less radioactive and non-fissile Uranium-238, 238U is the m ...
(DU) meshing found in the M1A1HA (Heavy Armor) variant of the Abrams tank. The hull armor is conventional hardened steel. It was planned that armor packages for the production vehicles would be customized for each customer. Available options included additional
STANAG
In NATO, a standardization agreement (STANAG, redundantly: STANAG agreement) defines processes, procedures, terms, and conditions for common military or technical procedures or equipment between the member countries of the alliance. Each NATO st ...
Level 6 armor plating for the hull frontal arc to the third road wheel, slat/cage armor skirting for the turret, steel or composite armored side skirts, spall liners and reactive armor packages.
The M60A1 chassis was modified with the enhanced torsion bar system of the M1 series tank to take account of the additional weight of the M1A1 turret as well as the additional armor that would have been fitted to production vehicles. An optional offering was to replace the torsion bar suspension with
hydropneumatic units for improved cross-country ride. The prototype of the 120S retains the standard M60 series power pack consisting of a
Continental
Continental may refer to:
Places
* Continental, Arizona, a small community in Pima County, Arizona, US
* Continental, Ohio, a small town in Putnam County, US
Arts and entertainment
* ''Continental'' (album), an album by Saint Etienne
* Continen ...
V-12
air-cooled
Air-cooled engines rely on the circulation of air directly over heat dissipation fins or hot areas of the engine to cool them in order to keep the engine within operating temperatures. Air-cooled designs are far simpler than their liquid-cooled ...
,
AVDS-1790-2 diesel engine with a CD-850-6
cross drive transmission, with a range of . It was envisioned that production vehicles would have the more powerful General Dynamics Land Systems AVDS-1790-9 diesel developing and Allison X-1100-5 series automatic transmission extending operational range to over but other
power pack
Power Pack is a superhero team consisting of four young siblings appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Louise Simonson and artist June Brigman, they first appeared in their own series in 1984, which las ...
combinations were also offered as well as road wheels and drive sprocket being replaced by M1A1 components and the Abrams T158 lightweight track if desired. The upper part of the suspension of the prototype is fitted with mock ballistic side skirts and new sponsions. It has a crew of 4, the commander, loader and gunner are positioned in the turret and the driver in the front of the hull.
Weapons systems
The main weapon is a fully stabilized
M256 120 mm smoothbore gun with a thermal sleeve as used on the M1A1 version of the Abrams tank and carries 36 rounds in the turret bustle. The ammunition is stored in the turret bustle with blow-out panels for better survivability. Production versions planned to have additional round storage in safe boxes on the hull floor. Secondary armament consists of two
M240C 7.62 mm machine guns. One of them is mounted coaxially on the right of the main gun, another is mounted over the loader's hatch. There is also a roof-mounted
M2HB 12.7 mm machine gun, mounted over commander's hatch. The turret is fitted with two six-barreled, electronically fired
M250 smoke grenade launchers, one on each side of the main gun. The smoke grenades contain a phosphor compound that masks thermal signature of the vehicle to the enemy. A Vehicle Engine Exhaust Smoke System (VEESS) can also be laid from the engine operated system to visually obscure the area around the vehicle.
The electronics package used components designed by Hughes consisting of a 240X4 Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) day/FLIR stabilized sight with an eye-safe laser range-finder, a Thermal Imaging System (TIS), an onboard digital fire control computer and data bus providing a similar capability as the
M1 Abrams
The M1 Abrams () is a third-generation American main battle tank designed by Chrysler Defense (now General Dynamics Land Systems) and named for General Creighton Abrams. Conceived for modern armored ground warfare, it is one of the heavies ...
Mark 1 Advanced Fire Control System. Production vehicles would also have a BITE (Built In Test Equipment) package.
Results
The 120S was initially aimed at the Turkish Land Forces Command (TLFC) M60 upgrade requirement but this competition was subsequently won by
Israel Military Industries
IMI Systems, previously Israel Military Industries, also referred to as Ta'as (), was an Israeli weapons manufacturer. The company manufactured weapons, munitions and military technology mainly for the Israeli security forces (especially Israel' ...
with their
Sabra II upgrade. The
Egyptian Army
The Egyptian Army (), officially the Egyptian Ground Forces (), is the land warfare branch (and largest service branch) of the Egyptian Armed Forces. Until the declaration of the Republic and the abolishment of the monarchy on 18 June 1953, it w ...
was considering this offer until it was finally rejected in favor of a licensed contract to build M1s in Egypt.
Only one prototype was made. As of early 2009 there were no sales of the 120S tank and was no longer mentioned in General Dynamics marketing literature. The prototype was disassembled and the hull and turret returned to the US Army in 2003.
See also
*
*
*
References
Sources
*
External links
M60A3 Upgrades
{{Post-Cold War tanks
Main battle tanks of the United States
M60-2000
General Dynamics land vehicles