In October 1950, the design Bureau of the Detroit Arsenal (Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant) began designing a new tank, designed to replace the M47 medium tank. Will not be superfluous to note that the latter at the moment has not yet been adopted. It is obvious that the leadership of the U.S. army was aware that the M47 is not promising fighting machine, as largely based on constructive solutions tank M26, created at the end of the Second world war.
The draft of the new machines put the design of a skilled heavy tank Т43. He was inherited by the new one-piece streamlined housing is u-shaped, which is close to oval in cross section. American experts believed that this form of housing equal to the thickness of the armor will provide better ballistic and mine protection in comparison with traditional designs. In addition, the new medium tank, the diameter of the tower overhead in the light maintained the same as on a heavy – 2159 mm. And this despite the fact that he would be armed with 90 mm gun, not 120mm, as Т43. This solution allowed to make the walls of the tower, a significant slope and to abandon a developed stern niches. In General, the tower had the shape close to a hemisphere, which significantly increased its sharedetails.
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