When intelligence reports reached the US Army in the late 1950s about the Soviet T-55, they worried Army planners. The T-55's armor was too thick for the 90mm gun carried by the Army's M48 Patton, whereas the T-55's 100mm gun could destroy a M48. Work began immediately on an upgrade to the M48, using the same basic design.
The M60 Patton was roughly the same size and design as the M48, but equipped a 105mm gun, capable of knocking out the T-55. The armor was improved, namely through the use of sloped armor rather than rounded armor used in the M48. The engine was upgraded to increase range and reliability. The M60 began to replace the M48 in 1960, though M48s were retained in service for another decade, mainly for service in Vietnam, which freed up the M60 to defend Central Europe from a potential Soviet invasion.
As it turned out, the US Army would never use the M60 in combat. The Israeli Army would, however, with their M60s entering combat for the first time in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Though it proved to be vulnerable to infantry antitank missiles, the Patton's 105mm was deadly to Egyptian and Syrian armor, mostly T-55s. In the Battle of Chinese Farm, the largest tank engagement since World War II, Israeli Pattons were able to defeat a large number of Egyptian T-55s, despite being outnumbered, and reverse the course of the war. The first and only American use of the M60 in combat would be US Marine M60A3s during the liberation of Kuwait in 1991, in which Pattons were able to defeat an Iraqi armored force outside Kuwait City--not only were the M60s able to knock out T-55s, but also more advanced T-72s as well.
The M60 proved be very adaptable to upgrades, and several hundred remain in service, though the US armed forces retired theirs in the mid-1990s in favor of the M1 Abrams. Most used by foreign operators have been extensively upgraded with improved electronics, laser rangefinders, and reactive armor to defeat antitank missiles.
This M60A1, "Teufel Hunden," is a former Marine example, upgraded to RISE (Reliability Improvement Selected Equipment) standard: this upgraded the engine, electrical system, night vision systems, main gun, and coaxial machine gun. It also provided lugs to attach reactive armor, which "Teufel" has here. The name translates from German to "Devil Dogs," the nickname given to Marines during World War I by their German opponents. This tank probably served with the 1st Marine Division during the First Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm), and was retired soon thereafter as the USMC replaced its Pattons with M1 Abrams.
"Teufel Hunden" is currently sitting in the parking lot of the Pima Air and Space Museum, awaiting the completion of the Tucson Military Museum next door; when we visited Pima in June 2023, the other museum was still being built.
