M60A1 "D.C.Ariete"

Description

The M60A1 132ª Divisione corazzata "Ariete" is a premium rank Italian medium tank with a battle rating of (AB), (RB), and (SB). It was introduced in Update 1.85 "Supersonic" as a purchasable pack and was removed from sale in Update 1.87 "Locked On". It was later re-released as a premium purchasable for Golden Eagles after the 8th Anniversary sale.

General info

Survivability and armour

Armour type:

• Cast homogeneous armour (hull, turret, roof)
• Rolled homogeneous armour (hull roof - engine compartment, hull rear - engine grille)

Notes:

• Suspension wheels, tracks and torsion bars are 20 mm thick.
• Belly armour is 19 mm thick in the front, 13 in the rear.
• Mudguards and storage boxes are 5 mm thick.

Mobility

Modifications and economy

Armaments

Main armament

Ammunition

• M728 APDS (Armour-Piercing Discarding Sabot) is capable of easily penetrating the majority of the foes it meets, but these rounds do require finesse as to their placing. Because the shell lacks an explosive filler, the best bet is to try and either knock out the majority of the enemy tank's crew or to destroy the enemy by ammo or fuel detonation by hitting their respective storage capacities. This, of course, requires knowledge about the vehicles the M60A1 may face - so be sure to use the game's X-Ray view in the hangar and analyse the potential foes for their weak spots! Also, keep in mind that with increased armour thickness the amount of shrapnel shrinks.
• M393A2 HESH (High-Explosive Squash Head) works very differently from other shell types. It ignores any angle, except for ricochet and deals damage by metal-flakes which are blown off inside the armour by the exterior explosion. Basically, the fighting compartment is showered in metal rain. Currently, only true armour thickness (as opposed to the line of sight thickness) will provide sufficient means of protection, benefitting the USSR turret designs and in general German tanks. Like all high-explosive shells, the fuse is very sensitive and can be set-off by most objects e.g. fences, trees, pillars.
• M456 HEATFS (High-Explosive Anti-Tank Fin-Stabilised): The knowledge of enemy vehicle layouts gained from the stock shell (M728), will be handy to use for the M60A1's fullest potential - as the M456 is a round that can penetrate most vehicle's armour frontally. Like the APDS shot, increased armour thickness results in a reduced amount of shrapnel after penetration. Unlike APDS it has one downside: Given that it is a chemical energy round, its fuse is highly sensitive in regards to its practical application in battle. As a result, virtually anything, such as trees or even a fence, will set it off prematurely, so the HEATFS round cannot fire through obstructions with this kind.
• M416 Smoke

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the M60A1 (AOS) (identical)

Notes:

• As they are modeled by sets of 2, shells disappear from the rack only after you fire both shells in the set.
• Racks 3*, 4* and 5* are first stage ammo racks. They total 37 shells and get filled first when loading up the tank.
• These racks are also emptied early: the rack depletion order at full capacity is: 3 - 4 - 5 - 1 - 2.
• If you pack 17 (+46) shells, it will keep the front hull and the turret rear empty of ammo.
• Simply not firing when the gun is loaded will move ammo from non-essential into ready racks. Firing will interrupt the restocking of the ready racks.
• When refilling from racks 1 and 2, the refill order of ready racks is 5 - 4 - 3.

Machine guns

Usage in battles

Just like other M60s, you might not want to head-on with your opponents. Instead, flank around and attack from the side. While having better armour than other medium tanks at this BR, it is not thick enough to block incoming shells like a heavy tank. The heavier armour will sometimes save your life but do not rely on it. You might want to use appropriate camouflage and camouflage decorations to avoid enemy detection due to the unique shape and high recognisability.

The mobility of the M60 is nothing special from the tech tree family. You don't have the mobility like a Leopard due to the trade-off of much better armour. The mobility is good enough to perform flanking and transfer to a better attack position. Get to an ideal attack position and be patient. You will get your reward.

M60A1 "D.C.Ariete" has four different shells, M728 APDS shell, M393A2 HESH shell, M456 HEATFS shell and M416 Smoke shell. Compared to its American predecessor M60, the Italian version replaces the M392A2 shell with the M728 shell. Compared to M392, M728 has worse 90° penetration but has superior angled penetration. This characteristic makes the M728 shell perform better when against angled armoured targets. You should use M728 against most medium and heavy armoured targets and switch to M456 only when dealing with lightly armoured targets and heavily armoured targets that M728 is not able to penetrate. The smoke shell is like any other smoke shell, but as the tank has access to smoke grenades, it is not as useful, though can still be used when the smoke grenades are expended or to annoy enemy tanks.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Powerful gun
  • Very accurate gun at long ranges when upgraded
  • Good stock shell (APDS)
  • HEATFS and HESH shells available
• Decent turning capability
• Very good stock turret traverse speed
• Great off-road speed (but not as great as Leopards and T-10Ms)
• Sloped armour can be quite bouncy at range
• Once fully upgraded it offers very sharp handling and manoeuvrability
• Excellent acceleration when fully upgraded

Cons:

• Very high profile, made worse by the M19 commander's cupola
  • Commander's cupola armour is very large and very thin, can be penetrated easily by APCBC and HEAT rounds
  • Enemy shells can bounce off the turret roof (due to the angle) and could enter the cupola
  • Commander's .50 cal HMG is slower in manoeuvrability and not as effective compared to earlier vehicles due to the cupola
  • .50 cal coverage is limited due to the commander's cupola
• Sides are at most 70 mm thick, they can be penetrated easily
• Turret ring can be penetrated by even autocannons
• Front is vulnerable to HEAT and the more powerful APHE (T-10M, Maus) at close range
• No armour-piercing shells with explosive filler

History

Italian M60A1 from the front

The M60 is a second-generation main battle tank made by the USA. It is the fourth and last generation of the Patton family and replaced the M48. It officially entered service in 1962, the first user being none other than the US Army. The story of the Italian M60 begins during the late stages of the Cold War. During the early sixties, the Italian army's tank arsenal did not appear up to standard, mainly due to having to entirely rely on America and other allies for military equipment, due to some laws surrounding the production of military arms. In fact, hundreds of tanks dating back to the Second World War were still being actively used in nearly all frontline units. Some of these units would include vehicles such as the M4 Sherman, M24 Chaffee, M36 Jackson, M10 Wolverine and the M26 Pershing. These tanks were now completely obsolete in the modern warfare setting; the leading vehicles of the Warsaw Pact, such as the T-54 and T-55, had already surpassed them in nearly every way. Thus the Italian Army Staff (SME) therefore deemed it necessary to improve the operational capability of the national tank component by following two lines of action. The first one was to continue the introduction of M47s from other NATO armies, which had usually been obtained at very favourable prices, even despite having to entirely rely on foreign countries. The other line of action was to keep on introducing newer vehicles at a modest rate, with modern performance and the ability to compete with the best and latest main battle tanks coming out of the Warsaw Pact. In general, there was a need for a more powerful MBT, that even the M47, one of the most powerful tanks they had at the time, couldn't be on par with. The M47, in fact, although being appreciated by its users for its sturdiness, ease of use, decent mobility and enough firepower to deal with most modern tanks at the time, it sadly did not fully satisfy the requirements of the "Ariete" and "Centauro" divisions. This meant that something had to be done, and had to be done fast.

Italian M60A1 from the side

During that period of time, Italy did not actually end up having much choice to pick from. Choices would be restricted to the US M60, the British 37t Chieftain and Vickers, and the so-called "standard" tanks at the time would still be under heavy development in France and West Germany, which would come out with AMX-30 and the Leopard 1 MBTs. The British solution was absolutely not favoured, as the Italian high command deemed the tanks to be too slow and heavy for the Italian operational environment and generally didn't go hand in hand with the Italian doctrine at the time. In addition, they also evaluated the lifespan and potential upgrades that could be done at a later date to keep the tanks in service for as long as possible, and the only one to really yield positive results would end up being the American M60.

Italian M60A1 from the rear

After a long evaluation test period, and training with the machine to familiarize the future users of the vehicle, the Italian army would possess 200 M60A1s by the 1970s, license-produced by OTO Melara in Italy, and an additional 100 from excess USA-EUR stocks. The M60 in Italian service was used by several armoured divisions, including the Armored Division Ariete, 32nd Armored Brigade Mameli, 60th Armored Battalion Pinerolo, 20th Tank Battalion Pentimalli, 8th Tank Battalion Secchiaroli, and 10th Tank Battalion Bruno. They would widely be used in a lot of theatres of war in which Italy was involved, such as Lebanon in Operation LIBANO 1 and LIBANO 2, and more famously they also partook in the Somalia intervention where M60 tanks would be used on the frontlines of the conflict. Eventually, even the M60 would be gradually phased out with the end of the Cold War, not only because multiple countries had started to work on more advanced vehicles, but also because a lot of militaries at the time had started to quickly downsize their stockpile of tanks as the threat of a Soviet invasion no longer loomed. It would be completely replaced by C1 Arietes by the 2000s, however, in 2017, Leonardo, an Italian defence company, had presented an upgrade to the M60 tank known as the Leonardo M60A3 upgrade, which heavily modernized the M60 tank, to make it suitable for the modern setting. This was primarily done to allow countries who still used the M60 tank to receive an upgrade which would extend the life of the M60 even longer, by upgrading key aspects of the tank that made it unsuitable for the current setting. Such changes included a new engine, a new 120 mm cannon, thermal imaging devices and improved armour.

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the M60A1 "D.C.Ariete" from live.warthunder.com.

Videos

See also

Vehicles equipped with the same chassis

• M60 (Family)

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.