The development of the M60, naturally, was evolved from the M48. By late 1950’s, in order to counter the threat of the Russian T-54/55, which was growing like weeds out of Russia and her satellite states (if you count the numbers of copy cats like the Chinese Type-59, the T54/55 was the most produced tank ever, with some sources stating as much as 150,000 produced before production ceased in 1983), something better than the T-55 was sought. The development of this eventually led to the M60.

The driving force for developing the M60 occurred during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. During the chaos, a T54A was captured by the Hungarians and they promptly drove it into the British Embassy in Budapest. The British quickly “turned” the tank around as war booty before the Soviets knew what had happened. During examination, it was quickly discovered that the British then 84mm 20 pounder gun was unable to defeat its frontal armor. This led the British to quickly developed their famed Royal Ordinance L7 105mm gun to defeat the T-54/55.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., research into improving the M48 were ongoing. As the info on the captured T-54 made its way into the U.S. (not just the Hungarian one, but then also captured examples made by the Israelis during their various wars with their Arab neighbors) the improvements were quickly made into a new tank that’s an obvious evolutionary to the M48, but vastly improved to deal with the new threats.

The initial experiments included vehicles such as the T95, with a then smoothbore 90mm, an X-shaped compression ignition engine, improved rangefinders etc. However, all these improvements eventually slowed the program to a crawl, especially since the T95 proved it was not that much of an advance over the M48A2 and was eventually cancelled in 1960. To improve the situation, programs were quickly put in place to consolidate improvements and technical advances into one vehicle.

The first to set in stone was the tank’s main weapon, test were conducted from the original 90mm on the M48, firing new and improved HEAT shells, to the British L7, modified for American use, and the 120mm on the heavy M103 tank were tested. The Army prefer the larger 120mm weapon. However, due to the weapon’s massive weight, and the fact the new tank would only have one loader, maximum rate of fire was reduced to only 4 rounds a minute, unacceptable to the Army. In the end, a compromise was made and the L7, with an American produced barrel and breech was made and adapted as the M68. The 90mm, whether the original or the smoothbore version was dropped as it was felt this diameter gun had ran its course and would have a hard time dealing with future threats, especially if the opponent tanks were up armored.

The tank would feature a new type of armor containing both appliqued armor plates trapped with silica implants. This composite armor would feature greater protection against high-explosives such as HEAT rounds. However, protection against kinetic rounds suffered. This plus maintenance issues soon cropped up. All these factors added to increase in costs to the point in 1958, the project was dropped and the new tank would use traditional Rolled Homogenous Armor, RHA instead. M60 would be the last American tanks to use RHA. It’s also the last American tank to feature a bottom escape hatch, provided to the driver since the turret nose overhang the driver’s hatch to the point it would be difficult for the driver to get out in an emergency. Armor would be increased to 155mm in the hull, compared to 110mm in the M48 and host of other improvements, such as more powerful diesel engine and better optics were also fielded. The M60 was standardized in 1959 after a series of developmental programs. It’s armed with a 105mm M68 gun, 155mm of armor, an improved engine and better optics. The first series of tanks did not have shock absorbers. These were quickly corrected since it was found the tank jostled badly over uneven grounds without these and the first two, and the last set of road wheels eventually would be modified with shock absorbers and the first really serious version of this new tank was born, the M60A1.

In fact, improvements were added throughout the tanks life, creating ever more advanced variants and others including bridge layers, combat engineer vehicles (CEV), armored recovery vehicles, and a complete failure in the M60A2 “Starship”….Supposed to be the next generation in tank development, the “Starship” featured a massive short barreled 156mm gun capable of firing the Shillelagh missile. Unfortunately, due to the electronic development of the time and the simple fact the tank was too ahead of itself, it proved to be nightmarishly unreliable and maintenance heavy and eventually, the vehicle was dropped.

As the time wore on, the tank found itself having to soldier on when replacements failed to the wayside. This was especially true of the MBT-70 project, a collaboration between the U.S. and Germany to develop a next generation main battle tank for both countries that failed miserably! The Germans would then go on to develop the very successful Leopard II MBT, the Americans of course, the M1 Abrams series. To allow time, the M60 RISE Passive, or Reliability Improved Selected Equipment and inclusion of new Passive sighting units were offered to the tank to upgrade them to modern standard. This, in conjunction with improvements made before, such as the AOS, or Add-On Stabilization systems, which allow the new tank to fire very accurately while on the move, gave the new tank a new lease on life. The production would not stop until 1983, after which some 15,000 vehicles were produced.

Despite the fact by 1980’s, the M1 series was introduced, the M60 remained a viable contender on the battlefields, especially with the Marines, who refuse to give up older equipment, so long as they work and worked well. To this end, a whole host of other improvements were added to create the M60A3. Also, Marines M60A1 were outfitted with Explosive Reactive Armor plates. These tanks and their M1 replacements were quickly thrown into the fray in the Middle East in 1990 during Operation Desert Shield, and as the Shield turned into Storm in 1991, the M60 found itself in combat against the Iraqi best. Overall, the Marine M60 performed very well against their Iraqi opposition, destroying over 200 various vehicles, including 50 T-72’s. After the war, the U.S. quickly pulled their M60 from active service, the Marines themselves eventually were able to replace all of their M60’s on an one to one basis with surplus Army M1A1’s, by 1997, the U.S. government declared the M60 as redundant and began to dispose of the surplus stocks. However, M60 is still in operation with foreign countries, these includes Egypt, Israeli (as the radically improved Magachs), Turkey, Taiwan etc. Of these, Egypt is the largest operator with over 1700 examples.

There have been numerous M60 kits throughout the years. The first company to offer a relative modern M60 kits in 1/35th scale is Tamiya. However, as expected when it was released in the ‘70’s, the kit suffers from accuracy faults and its bottom was open due to “motoritize” disease. In 1993, the company would update the kit into the Marines M60A1 RISE Passive with ERA kit. The turret was brand new but the hull was still the 1970’s example. Academy would introduce their own version a few years later, including one with a “tank-dozer” blade. However, this kit still have problem with the very inaccurate ERA mounts and for several decades now, the best M60 in town just because unlike the Tamiya version, it at least have a bottom hull that’s not filled with holes. Now, enter Takom with their own M60A1 RISE with ERA plates.

This new version replaces the Academy one as the best M60 with ERA, with the AFV Club M60A1 as the best M60 kit without the ERA.

This kits beat the pants off the ancient Tamiya one and better than the Academy since it finally offers the accurate ERA mounts…Although as I found out, mounting them can be a nuisance sometimes.

The reason this kit is so accurate is that Takom sure did their research! In fact, read the story with one Mike Mummey over at AMPS website. He actually served on an M60 with Task Force Ripper and his tank, “Bummer” is actually one of the markings in the kit. Almost make you wonder if Mike actually did help with this kit! And he had nothing but good things to say! In fact, Takom may have gone overboard with some details, such as the case with the grab handles on the side ERA’s. In order to facilitate the crew getting on and off the now slab sided tanks with ERA’s, usually, two grab handles were given with each side ERA modules. However, there is at least one photo that show at least one enterprising crew “liberated” several grab handles and place them on the ERA modules as “clothes hangers” to hang personal gears. Takom of course, included this option in the kit…even though it’s probably only THAT one specific version!

However, some details Takom still have not improved. My biggest disappointment in the whole entire thing is the commander’s cupola. The vision ports are still solid! In this day and age, that just does not cut it! However, this is still a very minor quibble. The rest of the kit offers things that the previous two kits just won’t be able too. Including various options for open or closed periscope hatches, including the driver central rotating periscope, correct mountings for the aforementioned ERA, and some accessories such as spare wheels and jerry cans etc. Overall, if you want to get a M60A1 RISE Passive w/ERA, this is the kit to get.

Four markings are offered, these markings are all tanks of Task Force Ripper, Operation Desert Storm