Hi Everybody!
As you probably know by now, the M60-120S was announced in the most recent War Thunder teaser trailer (Alpha Strike Update
But what is it? why is it so important and why am i making a post about it? Well,i’m here to talk about the history of this funky vehicle and what we need to expect of its performance in game
(this post will be really long, so here’s the tl;dr: funny americans build M60 with Merkava engine and M1A1 turret for Turkey and Middle East, project fails incredibly)
DISCLAIMER:THIS POST IS UPDATED AS OF THE 29TH OF FEBRUARY 2024, THE DEV SERVER NOR THE UPDATE HAS BEEN RELEASED YET,SO ANY CHANGE OF THIS VEHICLE WILL BE PUT INTO THIS TOPIC AS AN UPDATE
1.HISTORY OF THE VEHICLE
The M60-120S was a prototype vehicle developed by GDLS (General Dynamics Land Systems) between 2000 and 2001 as a suggestion to modernise the fleet of outdated M60s MBT present in many Middle-Eastern countries at the time.
Development fully started in December 2000, and in August 2001 GDLS rolled its first prototype.
The tank’s first public appearance was during the IDEF Exhibition in Turkey in October of that same year. This is interesting since Turkey is known for having a lot of M60s, so GDLS thought of securing a deal with Turkey by being there.
Turkey was sort of interested with this project, but not enough to seriously consider it as an option. In fact, it chose the Israeli Sabra III Program to upgrade its existing fleet of M60s.
Still, GDLS hoped that other Middle-Eastern countries chose their project, but lack of proper interest and the complex geo-political climate of that time sealed the fate of this tank.
2.CHARATERISTICS
MOBILITY
The mobility will really depend on the version Gaijin will decide to add.
If they’ll go with the prototype version (750hp engine, GM transmission), the mobility will be worse than any M60 present in-game, for the simple reason that the mass of the vehicle is increased from 46.2 tons to 56.3 tons.
However, if they’ll go for the final production version (1200hp engine, Allison transmission), the mobility can be considered a middle ground: way better than the M60A3 TTS, slightly worse or equal than the M1 Abrams.
UPDATE:As of the first dev server,the M60-120S has the prototype powerplant,so 750hp…
Picture this: even tho the tank has 300hp less than the M1 Abrams, it weighs only 800 kg more than the M1 Abrams and 3.1 tons less than the M1A1 Abrams.
With this information, the speed of the vehicle can range between 60-70kph forward and -39kph in reverse, which is a great boost for a M60 chassis.
FIREPOWER
Not much to speak here: you basically have the M1A1’s turret.
This means very good horizontal and vertical traverse speed, god-tier reload speed, very good optics (coupled with the 1st gen thermals which is fine for spotting targets) and amazing firepower.
However, this last point can be object of a debate: since it’s a M1A1 turret, it should fire the ammunition available to that tank (M830 HEAT-FS, M829 and M829A1 APFSDS). But, as stated above, the tank was developed to be an export-only tank.
This means that the availability of DU ammo such as the M829 and M829A1 can’t be considered due to the refusal of any US government to sell DU ammo or armor to foreign countries. Therefore, the only dart option available is the KE-W (which is already present in the M1A1 AIM and the M60 AMBT and they are, in fact, export tanks). You also can’t use the STANAG 4385 point because you don’t see Leopards in game firing US or JPN ammo for a good reason (balance)
UPDATE:As of the first dev server,the tank has the standard US ammo for the M1A1
PROTECTION
Here also there’s not much to talk: you have a M1A1 turret, so the armor profile is literally the same, even the big weakspot of the turret ring.
The hull, however, is another thing: we know it’s a M60 hull, so we know the armor profile, but we also know that it had an add-on armor package. Sadly, we don’t know the composition, so it’s all in the hands of Gaijin’s number guessing.
Still, don’t think that the hull armor will block anything: at max, it will block any HEAT shell under or equal to 105 mm, so I suggest you to not trust the hull in any engagement.
An interesting thing is the fact that there is no mention of any ammo storage located in the hull: if you’re familiar with the M60, you’ll know that the driver sits between two ammo-racks. The lack of any info regarding this means that there is no ammo located inside the hull, so the question is: what resides there?
Even here it’s all in Gaijin’s hands: there could be empty space (meaning a free driveway from any dart through the engine) or there could be 2 armoured fuel tanks just like the Abrams (in which case you’ll have a good chance of eating some spalling)
CONCLUSION
Yeah, i wrote an article yesterday of over 2000 words reegarding this tank and my considerations of its supposed in-game performance, and i stretched it a little bit here to avoid getting a ban from having wrote too much. Honestly i really can’t wait for this tank to come into the game, it’s just a gremlin weird tank that is basically the incarnation of the US philosophy pre-Afghanistan.
Here are some pictures of the tank took by the trailer (and a meme made by the genius @Motherhen357 ), let me know if you want to know more of this tank, my DMs are open!
