10/12/2023 0 Comments American light tanks modern![]() Weighing in at fifteen tons and capable of rolling along at forty-three miles per hour, the Sheridan housed a crew of four in a thinly armored steel turret and aluminum hull. In the end, the Army spent $1.3 billion on the M551 Sheridan “Armored Reconaissance/Airborne Assault Vehicle”-which was definitely a tank, regardless of the nomenclature-and produced more than 1,562 of them between 19. ![]() Army felt compelled to match that capability. Furthermore, the Soviet Union began fielding the amphibious PT-76 light tank, and the U.S. ![]() Army had earlier developed the glider-borne M22 Locust tank, which were dropped in action with British paratroopers in the crossing of the Rhine. Experience in World War II had shown airborne troops were vulnerable to armored counterattacks after a parachute drop, and could benefit from mobile antitank weapons to counter them. Army was abandoning the concept of light tanks in favor of the main battle tank: why bother with a tank that traded armor and armament for speed when you could design one that balanced all three qualities?īut the Patton tanks of the era were still relatively slow, with a maximum speed of around thirty miles per hour, and the airborne divisions lacked a tank light enough to be airlifted to a drop zone. The Sheridan, named after the Union cavalry general of the Civil War, was introduced in a time when the U.S. That’s because the Sheridan was easily transported by air and could even be dropped by parachute. However, several hundred Sheridans provided useful service in three wars and left behind a small but noticeable gap in the force structure since being withdrawn in the 1990s that the Army has struggled to fill. The M551 Sheridan light tank was not perfect, not by a long shot: The M551 Sheridan light tank is largely remembered as a curiosity, an innovative weapon system that proved an overcomplicated failure in action.
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