M60A2

M60A2

T95

M1128

M60A2

T95

M1128

USA

VI Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
8.3	8.3	8.3

Class:

Medium tank

Research:135 000

Purchase:380 000

Description

The 152 mm Gun Tank M60A2 is a Rank VI American medium tank with a battle rating of 8.3 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.69 "Regia Aeronautica".

General info

Survivability and armour

The M60A2 shares the hull with the other M60 variants. That means that the front hull armour is sufficient to stop 100 mm/105 mm kinetic ammunition of the same tier, while it does not protect you against hollow charge shells with a calibre of 90 mm and above. It also has the same 114 mm thick turret base, which is a weak point. The centre part of the turret is a cast 220 mm plate in front of the cannon breech, which while not thick enough to protect you against any shells of even outdated guns, often eats shots (at cost of the cannon breech). The outer parts of the turret are significantly lower than the breech and rounded like in most post war soviet tanks. If not hit head-on, these sides can bounce most of the incomming shots. On top of the turret is a massive cupolar for the commander, which is a big weakpoint and often gets your commander killed, even the whole tank if your opponent is firing shells with explosive filler. The side armour on the hull is thick enough to withstand cannon fire of up to 25 mm (excluding APDS and the part around the gearbox), while cannons with a calibre of up to 40 mm will have significant problems and the tank may withstand a large number of shells. It will however not stop shells fired out of cannons of equal tier. The back of the hull can even be penetrated by HMGs. The turret side is around the cannon is 120-140 mm thick and will resist most shots if angled. The lower part however will most likely get penetrated often due to the reduced thickness the further towards the turret back you get. The hull is completely filled with ammunition, ammo is placed to the left, right and behind the driver (which is sitting in the middle of the front hull). Taking a reduced amount of shells is therefore advisable. The crew is well spaced, a solid shot in the front turret will likely only kill a single crew member, since all crew members sit next to each other and not behind each ohter like in most other tanks, but this obviously increases the chance to get destroyed due to a side-shot. Overall the armour will not completely protect you, but you have good chances to eat a bigger amount of shells than most other tanks.

Mobility

The mobility of the vehicle is average for its tier. With a top speed of 48 km/h and 11km/h in reverse, it is not as fast as other tanks like the Leopard 1, but fast enough to get where you want quickly. The manoeuvrability is average to bad, you lose a lot of speed while turning, you can, however, turn on the spot thanks to neutral steering.

Armaments

Main armament

The M60A2 utilizes the following main cannon:

1 x 152 mm M162 cannon.

152 mm M162
Capacity			Vertical guidance	Horizontal guidance	Stabilizer
46			-10°/+20°	±180°	Two-plane
Turret rotation speed (°/s)
Mode	Stock	Upgraded	Prior + Full crew	Prior + Expert qualif.	Prior + Ace qualif.
Arcade	38.1	52.7	__.__	__.__	75.3
Realistic	23.8	28.0	__.__	__.__	40.0
Reloading rate (seconds)
Stock	Prior + Full crew	Prior + Expert qualif.	Prior + Ace qualif.
15.6/20	13.8/__	__.__	12.0/15.0

Ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration in mm @ 90°
		10m	100m	500m	1000m	1500m	2000m
M409A1	HEAT	354	354	354	354	354	354
M657A2	HE	38	38	38	38	38	38
MGM-51B Shillelagh	ATGM	431	431	431	431	431	431

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity in m/s	Projectile Mass in kg	Fuse delay in m:	Fuse sensitivity in mm:	Explosive Mass in g (TNT equivalent):	Normalization At 30° from horizontal:	Ricochet:
								0%	50%	100%
M409A1	HEAT	682	19	0.0	0.1	3,730	+0°	62°	69°	73°
M657A2	HE	682	22	0.1	0.1	4,300	+0°	79°	80°	81°
MGM-51B Shillelagh	ATGM	323	28	0.0	0.01	3,600	+0°	80°	82°	90°

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the M60A2.

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	3rd rack empty	4th rack empty	5th rack empty	6th rack empty	Visual discrepancy
46	46 (+0)	39 (+7)	33 (+13)	25 (+21)	12 (+32)	1 (+45)	no

Vertical rounds: 33 (+13)
Empty turret: 25 (+21)

Machine guns

You are equipped with a coaxial 7.62 mm LMG and a 12.7 mm HMG on top of the turret. Like on most American vehicles, this allows you to engage lightly armoured vehicles and slow aeroplanes at small to medium ranges.

Usage in the battles

The M60A2 Starship is the perfect combination of armour, firepower, and speed. Based on the chassis of the M60, it has decent mobility and armour. While the addition of the 152 mm gun/launcher allows the player to reliably pierce enemy tanks armour at its tier. The Shillelagh missile unlocks the possibility on long-range sniping, along with the powerful HEAT shell. Or if you are a more aggressive player, flank the enemy and hide your position using your smoke grenade launchers. Your low-profile commander's cupola will be a great help in close quarter combat. However, reload time is not that great so immediately go back to cover after you take a shot. Suggested roles are support, sniper, and flanker.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Very fast turret rotation
• Turret front is hard to predictably penetrate due to its odd design
• Has smoke launchers
• Same ammunition as the M551 Sheridan
• Stabilizer allows for accurate firing on the move and fast reaction time, especially for a vehicle with the ability to launch ATGMs

Cons:

• Slow - off road the Starship struggles to reach 30 km/h on a slight downhill
• Cannot fire from cover like the IT-1 or Raketenjagdpanzers
• Cupola is one huge weak point sticking out up top
• ATGM has a reload several seconds longer than normal ammunition
• Can only hold 7 ATGM ammunition total
• ATGM has a very low starting speed making it hard to hit moving targets at closer ranges

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ground vehicle in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too big, take it to a separate article, taking a link to an article about the vehicle and adding a block "/historical reference" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/Name-vehicles/historical reference) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to include links to sources at the end of the article.

Media

<!-An excellent addition to the article will be video guides, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.--> Skins and camouflages for the M60A2 from live.warthunder.com.