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Hi to all
This week was the small yearly tankfest from Military Museum in Vienna and I had the chance to look at M60A3OE also. Because someone asked here (Joe_D??)ages ago for details of these tanks I asked for pic of license plate. This plate shows M60A3 also the driver said this is reworked M60A1 tank. Is this correct? I can name nearly any changes in Sturmgeschuetz but I have no clue about modern tanks.






Regards from Vienna
Robert

Hi Robert:

M60A3s were either modified from M60A1s or made new. I'm guessing that this tank was an upgraded M60A1 because the turret has the re-entrant shape at the lower edge, as seen at the far right of your second photo. (Close to a > shape, in fact.) By the time M60A3s were being made the contour of the lower edge had been changed.

"M60A1" or "early" type:
data3.primeportal.net/..._of_85.jpg

"late" type:
farm3.staticflickr.com...6da5_b.jpg

Look at the lower turret edge below the smoke grenade launchers.

Hope that helps,
KL

Hi Robert,

It was me who was very interested in the Austrian M60A3's they have. The Turret difference Kurt pointed out indicates rebuild. The other is the Hull. The first photo shows the detail that identifies this tank having the Generation 2 hull, or the first M60A1 type hull as in the picture below.

Hull ID

This type of hull arraignment was used with M60A1's up to serial number 4425 between 1962 and 1966. Austria received 120 M60A1's in 1964, so the 2974 number corresponds well with that date. The best info you provided was the Data plate from the drivers station. Thank you very much for posting it. It is the same plate they used on the initial batch of M60A3 Passives the US Army received. What I find very interesting is that the new plate was stamped with the original producer (Chrysler) and also the Contractor who rebuilt her to A3 Passive standards, Noricum/SDP. Noricum used to be a subsidiary of VOEST, and SDP being Steyr-Daimler-Puch. They also stamped both the initial build date (1964) and the conversion date (1988). Something the US did not do when converting M60A1's to A3's. Did you get a chance to see the drivers escape hatch? Based on the serial number it should be the small round version like the M48, later models had a larger oval type.

Thanks for sharing. On another note, congratulations to the Bundesheer for winning the Strong Europe Tank competition this year, Being a former US Army Tanker I was for the American team but being half Austrian getting beat by them made it much more bearable.

Joe, were these converted with kits in Austria?

KL

Kurt,

Yes, Austria purchased A3 Passive conversion kits from the US. They also upgraded the hull to A3 standards to include the installation of AVDS-1790CA engines. My understanding was the bulk of the conversion parts came from Mainz Army Depot. The Tanks went through a complete tear down and rebuild to include specific Austrian upgrades like the smoke grenade launchers and Wegman Searchlight. Much like our Anniston rebuilds, they were effectively "New" tanks when done. 118 of the 120 A1's were converted. They also purchased 50 new A3 passives. These can be ID'd by the later hulls and turrets along with a single piece bustle rack and .50 cal interrupter for the wind sensor.

Neat info.

Thx,
KL