title: Now THAT’S what I call hardware link: https://onemoretech.wordpress.com/2008/01/09/now-thats-what-i-call-hardware/ author: lembobro description: post_id: 582 created: 2008/01/09 22:01:09 created_gmt: 2008/01/09 22:01:09 comment_status: open post_name: now-thats-what-i-call-hardware status: publish post_type: post

Now THAT’S what I call hardware

Meet the M60A2, a/k/a “The Starship”. 152 mm gun/launcher for HEAT-MP, HE and the beloved Shillelagh wire-guided antitank missile. Designed primarily as a tank killer, it served as a test bed for technologies that we hoped would help offset the huge advantage in numbers the Soviets had all along the Iron Curtain.

Important safety tip. If you’re the driver of one of these you want to button up before the main gun starts firing. That short barrelled big bore cannon makes an ear-shattering “boom” right over your head when it lets loose.

This was still “state of the art” by the mid to late 70’s, long after production ceased due to reliability issues (mostly in the electronic systems, although there were mechanical breakdowns as well). Only a little more than 500 were made. These were loaded with incredibly complex technology like fire-on-the-move that eventually went into the ubiquitous (and highly effective) M60A3, and later, the M-1 Abrams.

Still, back at the height of the Cold War during REFORGER exercises (when no one complained about moving 5,000 or 8,000 troops from stateside to an overseas post in less than a week), we operated a few of these out in the field.

Copyright 2004-2019 Phil Lembo