Renk America to upgrade Taiwan army old M60A3 tanks with 1000hp engines.

As published by Army Recognition on November 9, 2021, echoing information published by the Liberty Times on November 5, 2021, Taiwan will start a program to upgrade its fleet of M60A3 Patton Main Battle Tanks (MBTs). The M60 is an American-made MBT that was manufactured by General Dynamics. Hence, according to Kelvin Chen in Taiwan News, the Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense announced on Tuesday (March 7) that it has signed a NT$7.245 billion (US$236 billion) deal with Renk America to replace the original engine of the M60A3 Patton tanks with a new one.
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M60A3 MBT of the Taiwanese Army (ROC Army) (Picture source: Wikimedia)

The M60A3 Patton tank was a key component of Taiwan's armored forces for several decades. It was acquired through the US Foreign Military Sales program, which allowed Taiwan to purchase military equipment and weapons from the US. According to the Military Balance 2020, the Taiwanese army has got a total of 565 MBTs including 200 M60A3, 100 M48A5, and 265 M48H Brave Tiger. Taiwan purchased 460 second-hand M60A3 tanks from the U.S. in 1994 and 1996. The tanks are currently the main mobile artillery force on Kinmen, Penghu, Taitung, and Hualien.

Taiwanese M60A3 tanks saw action during the 1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis, which was a period of heightened tension between Taiwan and China. During this crisis, China conducted missile tests near Taiwan, and Taiwan responded by mobilizing its military and deploying its armored forces, including M60A3 tanks, to its coastal areas. In addition to its use in combat situations, the M60A3 Patton tank was also used for training exercises and joint military exercises with other countries, including the US.

Over time, Taiwan began to modernize its military and replace older equipment with newer, more advanced systems. As a result, the M60A3 tanks were gradually phased out of service in the early 2000s and replaced by newer main battle tanks, such as the M1A2 Abrams and the CM-11 Brave Tiger. However, some M60A3 tanks are still used for training and ceremonial purposes.

The M60A3 tanks are currently equipped with a Continental AVDS-1790-2C 12-cylinder air-cooled diesel engine developing 750-hp (560 kW) at 2,400 rpm coupled to a GM cross-drive, single-stage transmission with 2 forward and 1 reverse gears. However, due to the aging vehicles and the long hours of use, the engine’s overall performance has declined. The new engine is said to have 1,000 horsepower. Renk America will provide the engine assembly lines to Taiwan’s Army Command, which will set them up at its ordnance development center in Nantou. The process is expected to be completed by 2028, Kelvin Chen reports. Additionally, the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology will upgrade the tanks’ firing, gun control, and sighting system for NT$15.56 million.

M60A3 Patton MBT

In 1976, work began on the M60A3 variant which featured a number of technological enhancements. The M60A3 version of the M60-series had the same mobility, performance, and weapons systems as the M60A1 RISE and RISE Passive tanks and incorporated all of their engineering upgrades, improvements and capabilities.

The electronics and fire control systems were greatly improved. The turret's hydraulic fluid was replaced with a non-flammable one. This updated turret configuration was mated to the M60A1 RISE hull using the AVDS-1790-2D RISE engine and CD-850-6A transmission along with a Halon fire suppression system. It was designated as the Tank, Combat, Full Tracked: 105-mm Gun, M60A3.

The M60A3 tank was built in two configurations. The earlier version, sometimes referred to as the M60A3 Passive, uses the same passive gunner's sight as the A1 RISE Passive and the latest version has a Tank Thermal Sight (TTS). The M60A1, RISE, and RISE Passive tanks used a coincidence rangefinder and the mechanical M19 ballistic computer. The M60A3 uses a laser based rangefinder and the solid state M21 ballistic computer.

The M21 FCS for the M60A3 was made up of a Raytheon AN/WG-2 flash-lamp pumped ruby-laser based range finder, accurate up to 5000 meters for both the commander and gunner, a solid-state M21E1 gun data computer incorporating a muzzle reference sensor and crosswind sensor, ammunition selection, range correction and superelevation correction were inputted by the gunner, an improved turret stabilization system along with an upgraded turret electrical system and solid-state analog data card bus. The M10A2E3 ballistic drive is an electro-mechanical unit.

The commander had an M36E1 passive periscope and the gunner an M32E1 passive sight.[52] The TTS configuration replaced the gunner's sight with the Raytheon AN/VSG2 Tank Thermal Sight (TTS), a Mercury-Cadmium-Telluride (HgCdTe) IR detector. This sight allows the gunner to see through fog, smoke and under starlight conditions without the aid of an IR searchlight. This system provided improved night fighting capabilities.

Detailed view and output image of the AN/VSG-2 thermal sight used on TTS vehicles.
The first M60A3s were assembled at the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant in February 1978, where the first of a low-rate of initial production quantity of 296 M60A3s were produced through October with fielding to Army units in Europe starting in May 1979. The M60A3 was seen by the US Army as a stop-gap measure as the development of the XM1 Abrams MBT was already well advanced with fielding to Europe planned to start in 1981 and notified Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers of its near-term plans to discontinue M60-series tank production.

In March 1982 General Dynamics Land Systems purchased Chrysler Defense. The procurement of M60A3 and M60A3 TTS tanks for the U.S. Army concluded and hull production ceased in May 1983, with a total of 1,052 M60A3 and TTS tanks built as new vehicles. However the conversion of earlier models to M60A3/E60B tanks continued for FMS, with the last tanks delivered to Israel in May 1986[90] and a conversion total of 3,268 E60Bs. These late-production examples were upgraded from existing surplus inventories of M60A1 RISE tanks.

The Army also increased its M60A3 TTS fleet through the M60A1 Product Improvement Program (PIP) and the M60A3 tank field retrofit program conducted by the Anniston Army Depot and the Mainz Army Depot (MZAD). Depot field teams retrofitted all of the Army's 748 M60A3 tanks to the TTS configuration by the end of 1984. In addition, both depots converted a total of 1,391 M60A1 RISE tanks to the M60A3 TTS. These M60A1 RISE PIP conversion programs concluded in 1990.

Italy, Austria, Greece, Morocco, Taiwan and other countries upgraded their existing fleets with various E60B component upgrades under several FMS defense contracts with Raytheon and General Dynamics during the mid to late 1980s. In 1990, M60A3/E60Bs from Army surpluses were sold to Oman, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia.

The M60A3 replaced the M60A1 in the US Army and any remaining M48A5s in ARNG service on a one-for-one basis. The Marine Corps continued to use the M60A1 RISE Passive until they were withdrawn from combat use in 1991. They were phased from ARNG service between 1994 and 1997, being replaced with the M1 Abrams MBT. The Detroit Tank Plant was closed in 1996 with production of the M1A1 Abrams continuing at the Lima Tank Plant in Ohio.

Defense News March 2023