- Joe_D
Bob, Neil, Jeff, everyone,
There is an M-1 in front of range control at Fort Campbell. What's so unusual about it was it had the same air cleaner boxes as the M60 on the sides and was set up for a diesel engine. I wish I had taken a picture of it. Anyone have any idea why this particular tank was made???
Joe D
Joe,
How long has this tank been there? Two of the XM1 PVs were built/converted to mount the AVDS-1790 engine, and had air cleaners that resembled the M60A1 top-loading air cleaners. I don't recall which ones these two were - one of them (the hull at least) used to be at TACOM HQs in Warren, MI. It was in the General Dynamics boneyard near their test track, but was moved over to the TACOM side of the RR tracks when the government sold the GD Warren tank plant. Does anyone know what became of these vehicles that were at TACOM? They were just inside the Mound Road gate - this was in the mid-late 1990s. One of the XM1 PV hulls had one of the original Chrysler prototype turrets mounted to it (a rare relic).
Re: the Knox/APG XM1 debate ... I haven't seen the APG vehicle in awhile, but it's not an XM1 PV. Although (as I recall) the Knox XM1 is not marked, it seems pretty certain that it is PV1. Does anyone have a listing of all the XM1 PVs? PV4 and another used to be at TACOM, and I think PV6 was at Mainz Army Depot (but where did it go when that depot closed down?). PV11 was the one that was pretty much destroyed during ballistics testing (but where did the hulk end up? - APG? Anniston? some junk dealer???). I would think the other PVs ended up at Anniston or APG, but I haven't heard.
I have never understood the "H" designation of the APG XM1. After the PVs, the first 110 LRIP tanks were, AFAIK, L1 thru L110. I know L8 was marked "L8," for sure. I was at Fort Hood fielding some of the LRIPs in 1982, and they were all L-something ... I don't recall ever seeing one marked 0002 or anything like that. (These LRIP tanks were still technically "XM1s" BTW - the tank had not been type-classified when these first 110 production tanks were made.)
I'm not at all sure about this, and I don't want to start any unfounded rumors, but I think *maybe* this H1 or 0002 tank or whatever at APG was an early post-PV test bed. That is ... maybe ... made of non-ballistic steel, for some sort of automotive testing. I don't particularly recall anything like that in the early 80s, but we were testing and fielding true production tanks, not some one-off experimental something. Just a thought ... I really don't know the story behind this tank.
Geoff Walden
XM1/M1 NET Team, 1982-84