The most useful upgrade is also, in armored warfare, the one that shifts the order of who gets the first correct shot, but not the order of the silhouette. It is the actual message that the M60A3 is delivering, an externally recognizable Patton-derived hull which had turned into something different after its fire-control brain had been re-assembled. The M1 Abrams had to grow, and so did the U.S. Army, but they had to have an answer to criticize the Soviets that were developing at a very fast rate, including the T-64 and T-72. The M60A3 was a calculatedly asymmetrical modernization: retain the simple steel armor and the 105mm weapon, but invest in the sensors and computerisation that makes a difference in whether a shot hits where it is needed.
The leap was made by substituting the manual, error-prone ranging with a laser rangefinder and combining it to a ballistic computer capable of the continuous consideration of all the variables that a stressed gunner could not be able to work through reliably in seconds. In the case of the M60A3, the leap was reflected in the form of a laser based rangefinder and a solid-state ballistic computer, and made a tank that would have looked like one out of yesterday into a platform to win the “first-round hit” problem at long range. The gun remained the 105mm M68, however, its use was modified: The M60A3 was no longer as aggressive and could act like a long-range attacking ambush that survived longer by being the first to attack.
The strange longevity of the type is still characterized by that trade. The M60 was made in very large quantities – approximately 15,000 overall – and a significant number of older vehicles were upgraded to the A3 standard, 5,400 having been done by 1990. Those books formed a global system of spare parts, repair skill and upgrade desire that was not lost when the U.S. proceeded.
The weakness of the M60A3 was not difficult to uncover even at the moment of its introduction. Arguably, armor protection was still mostly traditional steel and it was never going to pay off to solve survivability against modern penetrators and shaped charges with a new rangefinder. The workaround aspect of the design was strategic: they were to fight with better sights and fire-control at standoff distances and not provide an opportunity to trade fire at close distance that armor constraints are inexorable.
The same reasoning was later applied by foreign operators, albeit using current electronics and with add-on protection. Every more and more programs to keep M60A3s relevant is concerned with thermal sights, faster turret motors, and improved situational awareness–since the ability to detect, identify, and fight fast is the upgrade that will prove to be profitable in all situations. Other packages aim at a more radical increase in lethality, changing to a 120mm smoothbore and incorporating new digital fire-control architecture, as in modular developments known as Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) efforts.
The further relevance of the M60A3 can also be linked to a simple design fact: the car was spacious enough inside and had space to accommodate multiple generations of a computer system. That is why modernizations continue to resurface, with improvements to turret-drives, sight improvements as well as larger-scale changes to include more armor packs, better engines, and more up to date crew-protection systems. Certain ideas go as far as to revert the whole turret to infuse hunter-killer optics and a digital backbone which the original car never possessed.
To engineers and planners, the M60A3 is an example of what is actually meant by “stopgap.” It is not an interim, which awaits patiently the arrival of its heir. It is an exhibition that shows how a precision sensor-and-computation update can turn a worn-out car into another purpose of war–as well as realize the sheer limit of old armor and design.
