How Bad Was The M60A2 Starship?

Just like the M247 Sergeant York, the M60A2 Starship has a reputation as a less than stellar tank. Developed during the 60s and fielded during the 70s, this Cold War main battle tank certainly has its quirks. Today, we'll be seeing just how bad it actually was, in addition to the history behind its development. Featuring a152mm M162 gun launcher, the Starship was to primarily fire MGM-51C Shillelagh anti-tank guided missiles. While the M60 chassis was fairly reliable, the turret and gun proved to be very troublesome, among other things.

Check the channel "About" section for the link to the creator of my profile picture.

Sources:
AD A087013 - Fielding Army Weapon Systems: Experiences and Lessons Learned
Patton - R.P. Hunnicutt
Sheridan - R.P. Hunnicutt
Tanks: 100 Years of Evolution - Richard Ogorkiewicz
M60A2 - Brett Avants, Christopher Mrosko

Songs used (in order from first to last):
Blade Runner (1997 game, Frank Klepacki) - Blade Runner Blues
Halo 3: ODST - Rain (Deference for Darkness)

Sound mods:
Epic Thunder (Pre-release)
Armored Warfare Crew Voices

Reddit: /u/spookston

#warthunder​ #tanks​ #tankhistory

[jtnachos]

My father was a driver for M60s when he was in the military. He 'barely missed vietnam' so he was in an A1, most likely. He doesn't remember what model he drove, except for the statement of 'Thank god it wasn't that new and shiny nightmare with the missile launcher'.

[MilHistoria]

I find it funny that they tried to make a lower profile turret, then slapped a massive fucking commander’s cupola on top of it to make it practically the same profile height-wise.

[direvwade]

I’ve seen the last M60A2 in Danville, Virginia. It’s really interesting to see it in person and is absolutely massive

[themodernwarfarehistorian]

US: Let's make the turret smaller so it's harder to hit
Also US: Let's add a skyscraper cupola for the commander

[fes]

Fun fact, Army still has the NSN to order one of these things. No idea why, but its in a DA manual.

Edit: It was DA PAM 750-8, it was on page 252. Funny thing was that they had the m60a1, the m48a5, m60a3, the m60, all of the Abrams variants, m60a1r, the AOS m60, and the star-ship in the next category. I don't know WHY they still have this in there. But oddly enough, the national stock numbers are there to order them. My guess is that the first generation of wreckers that was made to pull abrams out of areas was made out of parts from the m60's and m48's. Just so they can order parts from those vehicle's TM's.

[peterresetz]

I worked turret repair on the last battalion of M60A2 while at Ft.Hood, TX, 2nd Armorer Devision, (1980-82)(45Kilo). It was a giant POS. The circuit boards that controlled the laser range finder, fire control system, and missile guidance would crack from vibration from simply driving the tank on ruff ground. One I had to work on were the stabilization unit crapped out and the gun slammed up and down so hard that it cracked the guns trunnion. That one was a write off, but it didn’t matter do the slated decommissioning of the A2 a month or so latter. The joke saying was to load the tank on a HET, slowly drive up to a mountain top and park the tank there and hope nothing in the turret broke. The turret design with its vertical flat side would had allowed any tank round along with a RPG to penetrate. That last battalion tanks were replaced with M60A3.

As a side note. While I was at Ft.Hood, the Army did its first field trials of the then new M1 Abrams. 2nd Armorer was supposed to get the M1 for the field trials, but the Brass gave it 1st Cav instead. Kind of bummed me because I was trained at Aberdeen to work on them.

[elijahhayhurst]

My dad was a tanker back in the 70s, he said he was asked by his co if he wanted to transfer to a starship and get bumped up to the commander position. He politely said "Hell no sir those things are death traps lol"

[justat]

Probably one of my favorite tanks in WT. I wish it did better IRL than it does in game

[thylaggyone]

Funny thing is the M60A2 starship is actually the vanilla common tank in a game called ravenfield

[fasterthandragons]

I'ma' be real here, the M60A2 Starship looks awesome.

Love the design.

[cannoneermm]

My company supported the M60A2 when it went to Grafenwohr. It was a nightmare. We had one in our Maintenance Float section to issue to the unit when we could not fix the Tank in a timely manner.

[iyourDog]

when spookston uploads, it automatically makes my day better

[Lotuseless]

3:50 It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no fortunate one

[kentuckycrittercamera]

I was an M60A1, M60A3, M1, M1A1 and M1A2 tanker. From talking to the old M60A2 tankers the problem was the technology to make the concept of the vehicle work was just not there yet. There were numerous problems that were never worked out effectively, such as the turret and cupola traversing wildly on their own when the turret power was on. Much of the lessons learned from the A2 program went into the M1 Abrams. Also the name Starship was something that came out way after the vehicle left service.

[wacojones]

I have a friend who was a M60A2 Platoon leader.
One the crews called them Stumpies.
Two Slow reload speed due to both ammo weight, Fire Prevention measures, Missile Length and electric breach system.
Three Shillelagh had a minimum range in the 900 meters area all shorter ranges were dealt with HEAT-MP.
Four They were great for forest fighting when proper platoon fire distribution and Overwatch planning was done to account for the loading times.
Five Scary fast turret rotation.
Six Fire Prevention measures included Breech scavenger system, 9 ply barrier bags over the combustible cartridges until on the loading tray plus the peel off Rubber water proof layer directly on the cartridge. Plus after every 33 rounds fired a snap ring which sealed the breech had to be replaced with a fresh one.
Another friend almost caught a breech flash in the face from a worn out ring.
They were out of date when issued most were rebuilt into M60A1 when withdrawn from Reserve stockpiles as newer Anti Tank systems came online. M901 Improved Tow Vehicles which in turn were replaced by all Bradly's having TOW launchers and many other systems with TOW Mounts.

[truck-kun]

İt's just like the Maus. When you think about it it's awesome but in reality it's really useless.

[Wingwuff]

Its funny this video came out. I actually got to see one (apparently one of the very few) M60A2s. Its left on fort Knot's MOUT town. I got some pics of it and crawled over it some, the poor thing has been left to rot, but its still a sight to behold

[samstarkweather]

It's kind of like the M14 in that, had it been introduced a decade or so earlier, it would've been incredibly effective, but it was effectively obsolete upon It's actual introduction.

[Kellermont]

I commanded an M60a2 from 1975-1978. It was fun to play with, but I would never have wanted to take it where someone was actually shooting at me. As reported, the missile system was "questionable" at best. It had a max range which was classified but I can say it would hit a target at 3000 meters. It had a minimum range 0f 800 meters but that was covered by a 152mm HEAT round. We didn't have the problem of moisture on the HEAT cartridges but then, we were in Germany, not Viet Nam like the Sheridans were. The TC cupola has already been mentioned. You could lay the TC sight reticle on a target, push a button, and the main turret would slew around and line the gunner's sight up perfectly with the TC's sight. Or, you could push a different button and the TC cupola would align with the Gunner's sight. From that position, the TC could fire the gun/launcher or coax machinegun. And those systems worked flawlessly. But look at the cupola. It's located center of mass right above/behind the main gun. There is no ballistic slope and the armor is only a few inches thick.

Following American doctrine of that time, the tank would wait behind the top of a ridge or hilltop with only the TC cupola exposed. When Soviet tanks appeared, the tank would move forward until the gun/launcher was exposed and engage the target. Now, the only thing the Soviet gunners could see to shoot back at would be the TC cupola. I imagine after the first battle, there would be a bunch of M60a2's running around with no cupolas...

Another thing to consider about that missile: It takes time for the missile to fly from your tank to the target. And all the time that missile is flying, the a2 is sitting there, guiding the missile. Plenty of time for a Soviet tank platoon to fire back.

Oh, and one more thing: NO tanker back then ever called it "Starship". I don't know where that came from, but it wasn't us...

[vicpecka]

I had a platoon sergeant who was a gunner on an M60A2 earlier in his army career. He told me that the FCS was extremely accurate but fragile. If it worked, it worked great, but if anything went wrong, forget about it.