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Key Points: The M60 tank, a successor to the M48 Patton, was a cornerstone of U.S. Cold War military strategy and saw action through the Gulf War before retiring in 1997.

-Produced until 1983, with 15,000 units built, the M60 was praised for its 105mm gun and adaptability, with upgraded M60A3 variants demonstrating exceptional performance in conflicts like the Yom Kippur War and the Gulf War.

-While surpassed by the M1 Abrams, the M60’s design influenced the Abrams’ development and modernization. The tank remains in service with allied nations like Taiwan, showcasing its enduring legacy as a versatile and impactful platform.

M60 Tank: Cold War Icon and Gulf War Performer

As a famous descendent of the 1950s-era M48 Patton main battle tank, the second-generation M60 tank served as a key foundation of the US Army’s Cold War deterrence posture and fought through the Gulf War in the 1990s before retiring in 1997. 

M60 Cold War Powerhouse

Given this distinguished history, the M60 and its upgraded M60A3 variant operated as America’s “primary” main battle tank for decades, and a formidable force of 15,000 M60s were ultimately built MBTs before production ended in 1983. Despite the end of production, thousands of M60s were converted to upgraded M60A3 tanks and used in the Desert Storm in the early 90s.

The size of the US Army’s M60 fleet of tanks seems to have sustained the service’s need to project land war “mass” in offensive armored maneuver formations. 

It comes as little surprise that M60 production ended around the same time the famous M1 Abrams tank began to emerge, yet the tank was revered for its 105mm gun and fully-tracked armored propulsion system. 

A 1984 text by Richard Hunnicutt called “Patton. A History of the Main Battle Tank.” traces the technological evolution of the Patton tank and M60 by discussing its design and describing its role in both the Korean War and Vietnam War. Hunnicutt says the M48 and M60 were developed to replace the M47 Patton and the M4 Sherman. 

In its time, many sources credited the M60 for exceptional combat performance in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, where it outperformed Soviet T-62 main battle tanks. The performance of the M60 was a substantial and extremely important combat success given the sheer ground force “size” advantage the Soviet Red Army sustained over the US for decades during the Cold War. The Israelis also used the M60 in the 1983 Lebanon War, where it was equipped with explosive reactive armor. 

M60 Patton Tank. Image: Creative Commons.

M60 vs T-72

Perhaps of most tremendous significance, the M60s also performed well against Soviet-Era T-72 tanks during the Gulf War, and the platform supported many militaries worldwide well into the 1990s, including Egypt, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. With a spacious chassis, the M60 was extensively upgradable, accommodating technological advances in targeting, firepower, computing, and electronics. 

It seems fair and quite reasonable to posit that the US Army’s experience with the M60 heavily influenced the engineering, configuration, and weapons systems initially built into the Abrams tank in the 1980s. 

The modernization elements of the M60 may have offered a roadmap for the decades of modernization and upgrades the US Army performed on its 1980s Abrams tank. Today’s Abrams, such as the modern and now deployed M1A2 SEPv3 is almost an entirely different platform than the first Abrams that emerged decades earlier.

M60 Tank. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

M60 Tank. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

For example, today’s Abrams operates with a 3rd Generation FLIR or Forward-Looking Infrared thermal sensor able to detect the heat signature of enemy tanks and destroy them from stand-off distances where it is beyond visual range. The Abrams tanks’ ability to target from a stand-off range was demonstrated with great success during the Gulf War in famous tank battles against Iraqi T-72s. 

Upgraded variants of the M60 are now serving with Taiwanese ground forces. Hence, a tank built to fight Russia during the Cold War could end up battling China. 

About the Author: Kris Osborn 

Kris Osborn is the Military Technology Editor of 19FortyFive and President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.