M60A2

   The M60A2 is a variant of the M60 main battle tank and was developed as a force multiplier for units, operating the M60A1 MBTs. It's development began in the late 1960s. This vehicle entered service with the US Army in 1972. A total of 526 M60A2 main battle tanks were built. This vehicle was nicknamed Starship due to it's sophisticated technology. Apparently the M60A2 was withdrawn from the US Army.

   The M60A2 was completed with a new turret, housing the M48 152-mm gun/launcher. This gun could fire both ordinary munitions and MGM-51 Shillelagh anti-tank guided missiles. It had a range of effective fire in 1.5 km firing ordinary munitions and up 3 km firing anti-tank guided missiles. Apparently operational experience of this MBT revealed that the 152-mm gun is inferior in terms of range and accuracy to 105-mm or 120-mm tank guns, firing ordinary munitions. The MGM-51 Shillelagh anti-tank missiles also could not penetrate well armored MBTs. Furthermore it was expensive and troublesome to maintain. There were a number of problems with the new gun, but eventually most of them were solved. The same gun was used on the M551 Sheridan light tank.

   Secondary armament consists of 7.62-mm coaxial machine gun and 12.7-mm anti-aircraft machine gun.

   Vehicle is powered by the Continental AVDS-1790-2 diesel engine, developing 750 horsepower. This engine is similar to that, used on the M60A1 main battle tanks.

   The M60A2 main battle tanks were withdrawn from active service, but were still operated by reserve units for some time. Later most of them were rebuilt to the M60A3. Some hulls were converted to bridgelayers and engineering vehicles.