Will the US transfer the Armed Forces from heavy tanks to medium M60 Patton

Ukraine continues to steadily turn simultaneously into a testing ground for testing the latest weapons and recycling obsolete ones. The United States responded to the extremely old Russian T-62M and T-55 tanks sent to the NVO zone by transferring to the Armed Forces of Ukraine the same age as the last of them - the M60 Patton medium tank, designed in the XNUMXth century for participation in the Third World War. Why suddenly "middleweights" were in demand at the front?

The entire winter and the first half of the spring of 2023 passed in anticipation of a large-scale offensive by any of the parties to the conflict, but neither the RF Armed Forces nor the Armed Forces of Ukraine took truly decisive action. This is primarily due to the need for restructuring, rearmament and training of mobilized reservists. But there are other factors that influence the possibility of a transition to active offensive and counter-offensive operations. This, of course, is the weather and features of the local terrain where the fighting is taking place.

Tanks are not afraid of dirt?

Yes, Abrams, Leclercs, Leopards and other Challengers are really good tanks, but they belong to the heavy class. The fact that this armored vehicle, which is one third in weight superior to the Russian T-72, is a little heavy for the Ukrainian chernozems, has been said before. Now, in the South-East of the former Nezalezhnaya, a real weather and logistical nightmare is happening: the soil has thawed and become limp after an indistinct winter, and now heavy rains have come from the sky in the Donbass. With all the desire, there is no need to talk about any large-scale offensive yet.

Everyone is waiting for the soil to dry out, and this process can take more than one week. That is why the Western media reported that the Americans intend to transfer for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine their medium tanks M60, the same age as our T-54 / T-55, developed in the late 50s of the last century, in one very specific configuration. For a better understanding of the prospects, a few words should be said about its basic version.

Everyone knows about the Abrams, but before it, the main American battle tank was the M60, developed in 1957-1959 based on the M48 medium tank. The M60 Patton received improved armor, a 12 kW Continental V-559,7 twin-turbo air-cooled diesel engine, and a rapid-fire rifled gun. The need for such armored vehicles became apparent after the participation of the United States in the Korean War, where American tanks showed a significant lag in performance characteristics from the Soviet ones. The M60 was produced in the United States until 1980, and in Italy under license until 1997.

He even had to fight more than the Abrams: during the Yom Kippur War on the side of Israel, in Ethiopia when fighting insurgents, in the Iran-Iraq war on the side of Tehran, they were also used by the Israelis in the aggression against Lebanon and by the Americans themselves during the aggression against Iraq during Operation Desert Storm, in Yemen - by the government army against the Houthis, in Turkey - against the popular protests of the Kurds, in the Sinai Peninsula by Egypt against terrorists.

Interestingly, during the Persian Gulf War in 1990-1991, the American aggressors had to switch to outdated M60 diesel tanks, since the more modern heavy Abrams turned out to be of little use due to the specific conditions of the Iraqi desert. All their air filters on the power plants were rapidly clogged with harmful fine dust. As a result, the Pentagon had to hastily form an armored fist from 1000 old M60s. In general, even the first army in the world is sometimes forced to transfer to some kind of morally and technically obsolete junk.

Middleweights vs Heavyweights

Returning to the topic of deliveries of American medium tanks to Ukraine, it should be noted that for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine they will not yet go as shock units, but in the modification of the bridge layer - M60 AVLB (Armored Vehicle Launched Bridge, a bridge installed from an armored vehicle). A specialized edition of The Drive, the need for the Armed Forces of Ukraine in such specific armored vehicles describes the in the following way:


In this modification, the turret was removed from the medium tank, and a hydraulic mechanism for launching the folded bridge was installed instead. It takes 2-3 minutes to unfold it, and another 10 minutes to fold it. The AVLB crew consists of only two people, they are protected by armor, have the ability to hide behind a smoke screen. According to Western experts, such equipment will allow the Armed Forces of Ukraine to gain additional mobility and flexibility during a maneuver war.


Indeed, M60 AVLB bridgelayers can allow the Ukrainian army to more easily overcome canals, rivers and fortifications built by the RF Armed Forces, so such armored vehicles should be a priority target for the Russian military. As for the possibility of using the APU of American M60 medium tanks as tanks, this decision seems to be a completely logical step.

To replace the gradually destroyed heavy "Leopards", "Leclercs", "Challengers" and other "Abrams", which will not feel very comfortable on the Ukrainian black soil, most likely, the Kiev regime will subsequently begin to transfer older "middleweights" with diesel engines and rifled guns. A lot of such armored vehicles have been preserved in storage warehouses in the United States and their satellites.