History
The T57 program began in the early 1950s. The U.S. Ordinance Department was developing the then T43 heavy tank (to become the M103). With the French developing their autoloading tanks in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the United States wanted to test the viability of an oscillating turret designed tank with an autoloader. The Rheem Manufacturing Company built two turrets that were mounted to the T43 hull for testing. The apparent goal was to see if a 120mm gun tank could reload faster than the 14–16 seconds it took with the T43 prototype.
Before the tank could be tested completely in trials, the U.S. government moved away from heavy tank designs, (the M103 was already in service). They wanted to have lighter tanks with better mobility, while retaining the firepower. This would lead to the main battle tank doctrine. Before it could even be tested, the T57 was doomed to fail. The tank weighed in at 53.44 tons, could only move at 22 mph, and had an operating range of 80 miles. The program was officially cancelled in 1957, and both turrets were unfortunately scrapped, with no models being preserved.
120mm Tank Gun, T179 (8 rounds in autoloader cylinder, 10 in hull. Total 18+1 rounds)
Rate of fire: Was projected to fire 30 rounds per minute. Realistically, it would most likely have been 8–10 rounds per minute.
Traverse: 15 seconds/360 degrees
Elevation: 4 degrees/sec + 15 / -8 degree range
Cal .30 machine gun, coaxial M37 (Browning M1919)
Cal .50 machine gun, mounted on turret M2HB Browning
Armor
Hull Front
Upper: 5 in @ 60 degrees
Lower: 4.5 in @ 45 degrees Side
Upper: 3 in @ 0 degrees
Lower: 3 in @ 0 degrees Rear
1.5 to 1 in @ 30 to 60 degrees Top
1 in Floor
0.5 to 1.5 in
Turret Front
5 in @ 60 degrees Side
5.375 to 2.75 in @ 20 to 40 degrees Rear
1.5 in @ 40 degrees Roof
1.5 in Gun Shield
10 to 4 in @ 45 degrees
Don’t get your hopes up on it getting a realistic reload rate, the T54E1 in-game has a massively butchered reload of only 12 RPM, slower than all French oscillating tanks, when it should be much superior at a similar 30+ RPM like the T57, T58 and T69 should have.
It was hardly a paper vehicle. Turrets and guns were built, and the hull was just a T43 hull. The question, more so at the moment, is whether they were ever mated, but even then, it’s not a significant issue.
My bad, i should have read the suggestion entirely before commenting. it’s an american surbaissé, france sent an oscillating turret in exchange of the 120mm.
reload would most likely be 5-6 seconds (and gaijin would most likely tweak it for balancing reasons).
Still need al the metrics measurements tho (alos it’s cast armor, so you’re gonna need to specify min and max values of each cast part) :)
i didn’t mean that it was a french turret, i mean that the concept was french and that the american made an exchange because they were interested by the auto-loader. But yeah it’s an american design, just like the t54e1.
If you can provide pictures of the test, I will vote for it. If it’s less than 30% complete, it shouldn’t be in the game! Completion rate of 30% is my bottom line.
I mean, in all likelihood, the T57 prototype(s) turrets would have no doubt been fitted to a T43 chassis (M103 hull) had the program gone on just a bit longer. The T57 as a whole is still more credible in overall existence than the E-100 or the Ho-Ri Production.
I don’t think there is any real technical flaw or engineering setback to simply putting a completed turret on an already existing widespread use hull, especially when the U.S. IRL had built many different types of tanks with oscillating turrets. (T54 already in-game, T69 and T58).
It’s also worth noting that the T58 (a very similar heavy tank to the T57 but with a 155mm gun instead of the 120mm). It was once thought to originally thought to be just a mockup/uncompleted vehicle until real leaked photos of the actual completed turret + hull vehicle showed up out of nowhere earlier this year:
