M551 "Sheridan" AR/AAV | DESIGN DISASTER!
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- Опубліковано 23 гру 2018
- The M551 Sheridan is a light reconnaissance tank which was developed by the American Company General Motors in May 1960 under the designation XM551. In November 1965 approval was given for the type classification of the XM551 as Limited Production and a four-year production contract was awarded to the Allison Motor Car Division of General Motors Corporation. In May 1966 the Sheridan was classified as Standard A and by this time production was well under way with the first production vehicle being completed in June 1966. Production continued until 1970 by when 1700 M551S (or General Sheridans) had been built, of which 1570 were still in service with the US Army in 1970. The role of the M551. as originally conceived, is to function as the main reconnaissance vehicle for armour, infantry and airborne operations and arms teams not employing main battle tank. Late in 1978, it was announced that the M551 would be phased out of service and replaced by the M60A1 MBT, apart from those vehicles allocated to the 82nd Airborne Division (57) and Arkansas National Guard (12), 330 have been assigned to the National training Center at Fort Irwin, California. These are essentially basic M551s but with visual modifications to the outside to disguise them as "OPFOR force" vehicles such as BMP-1 and ZSU-23-4.
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(DISCLAIMER: This video is for entertainment purposes only. The views and opinion come from personal experience or information from public accessible sources.) - Авто та транспорт
It’s a great concept.... but not such a great design 😕
Hope you enjoyed!! Feel free to check out my Patreon page In the description box 👍
Merry Christmas.
Merry christmas, btw did you hear that the US army wants to get a new light tank again? BAe is putting the M8 forward again with modernisation, I wonder if the US army just enjoys teasing vickers/VFM and now BAe with the possibility of the M8 being adopted given how many times they have trialled it now over the last 30 odd years.
Can you do the PT-16 polish MBT plz?
i aint got no job.
Merry christmas
My dad drove these for a bit while he was in the guards after Vietnam. He said the only time they enjoyed driving these was in parades where they would pack the barrel full of confetti and use the compressor to shoot it at the crowd.
Cool
cool
Cool
Lol that’s funny
Imagine some random staples getting accidentally mixed with the confetti.
Hi, it was a good presentation. I was drafted, as an infantryman, from the replacement depot at Long Binh and sent to K Troop, 2nd platoon, 3/11th ACR stationed in Di'an, in Nov. 1970. I was assigned to the lead Sheridan, 1 of three, in this unit. Ultimately I was asked if I would like to drive. I received OJT on its operation and would up driving lead vehical in this 9 track unit, where everyone placed their tracks right where I drove, so if I didn't hit a mine, they were also likely to miss one. This vehicle was a death trap because it was aluminum, the caseless ammo would turn into an inferno if we hit a mine or were attacked with an RPG. When I was driving they had already placed a two inch steel plate under the bottom of the track and it covered up the drivers escape hatch. The missile aiming system was knocked out by the HEAT round recoil violence, we used the flashette rounds to sweep away trip wires. this vehicle could swim through mud three feet deep. And, I prayed alot and never hit a mine. After this unit stood down in about Feb of 1971 I went north to serve in the first of three air mobile infantry units. I was kept safe by my angels in those unites also.
Thank you, again, for your presentation.
michael-jay
knocked out, meaning it fell off?
@@TimmyTheTimeTraveler Hi. The infra red tracking unit was not able to remain calibrated for guidance. Thanks.
@@mjcyrano68 Thanks for serving, you needed more 12-Bravos.
Combat Engineer 00-06 12-B (Ret.)
Nam guys are cool
1/11th ACR Fulda Germany. Scouts out.
My history as a crew member who manned all 4 positions on the Sheridan from 1976 to 1979. Assigned to L troop 3/3 ACR Ft. Bliss, TX. All the problems mentioned in the video had pretty much been resolved by the time I served on the M551. Out of the more than 600 main gun rounds I fired I had only 1 misfire. And yes she kicked like a mule when you fired the main gun. I also had the privilege of firing 2 Shillelagh missiles and both were dead on target at 1200 meters. These were laser guided missiles and not the wire guided.
Our biggest problem was the coaxial machine gun. The solenoids didn't work very well so we usually disconnected the cable to the solenoid and had the loader fire the gun manually. As I aimed thru the sight I would tell the loader over the intercom when to push the manual lever and when to release it. This usually worked pretty well.
Mechanically they were pretty reliable. What we put them through while training they were bound to break down sooner or later. The main thing was to do all your PM's. They were pretty easy to work on. We could change the power pack (engine/transmission) in less than 2 hours.
Would have I wanted to go to war in it? NO, it was too lightly armored. A heavy machine gun firing AP rounds could take out a Sheridan. You just don't get a warm fuzzy feeling when the name ALCOA is stamped on your turret.
Jon thanks so much for your info!! Amazing to have someone who actually used it have a good time with it. As I did say, they did fix a lot of the problems :)
@@_Matsimus_, No problem my friend. I love to share my stories of my time in the US Cavalry. Some of the toughest and happiest moments in my life. Scouts Out, Sir.
@@phred.phlintstone They were 6 cylinder diesels with a turbo charger. When it got cold in winter we would spray starter fluid into the turbo fan and the engines would fire right up. You didn't want to get caught doing this, you would get in a lot of trouble.
@@phred.phlintstone Even though we were in the desert it still got cold in Jan. and Feb. But sand was are biggest enemy. It got everywhere. It would get in our fuel tanks and then clog our fuel filters. You could always tell when your fuel filters were dirty, you would slowly lose power from the engine and the Sheridan would start to lose speed until eventually you were creeping along at about 15 mph. The filters were easy to get at but we rarely had replacements and had to clean the old ones.
I still laugh at the way we cleaned our air filter. The inside diameter of the filter canister was the same size as the outside diameter of our main gun so we would slip the air filter over the main gun and manually release the air pressure from the bore evacuation compressor and the air coming out the end of the barrel would blow the sand out of the filter. Once again you didn't want to get caught doing this because if you weren't careful you could blow the filter off the end of the barrel and damage it. We used to call that Spec 4 ingenuity.
Reactive armor would have helped if it was in a war long enough .1600 built that s alot .i wonder how good fuel consumption was
Anti
Tank
Guided
Mishap
Oof
This post was made by MBT Gang
Made me laugh.
M551 is pain of the ass, the gun/Missile system sucks! lot of them use on NTC by off Force!
I want one. A light tank with a 152mm gun that can shoot missiles. Because why not.
I crewed one of these in Europe 75-77. We were going through a practice run at Grafenwohr with a full load of 152mm target and HE, 7.62 coax and .50 cal. Earlier our hydraulic pressure plug had blown so the normally white turret interior had been transformed to a pleasing shade of pink by the flammable "cherry juice". A green, non-flammable "vegetable juice" would come along later and would cause it's own problem if mixed with any remaining "cherry juice" I understand but we were still using flammable "cherry juice".
There was a wire mesh cable guard in the turret that was meant to keep electrical cables out of the teeth of the turret ring as the turret was traversed. Our cable guard was missing but nobody though a thing of it until - you guessed it, the electrical cables got caught and severed in the teeth of the turret ring.
The resulting electrical arc from these severed cables ignited the coating of "cherry juice" which was announced by the gunner who yelled, "We've got a fire and it's all around the turret!" as he pushed his way out of the turret pushing the commander out ahead of him. The loader had already made his way out of the turret and both the gunner and loader were already headed back off of the range as the commander and driver, neither of whom had seen the fire in the turret, attempted to activate the exterior fire extinguisher.
For reasons that later became clear, the fire extinguishers failed to function. By that time a wisp of black smoke was visible as it rose from the commander's station and a jeep from the rear arrived to evacuate the commander and driver. Range control was notified and all the ranges on Grafenwohr were closed as the fire aboard the M551 took it's course. Credit must be given the asbestos bags that covered the caseless ammunition for delaying it's detonation for about 26 minutes.
Upon returning to the vehicle when the proper authority deemed it safe a few days later, shiny globules of once molten aluminum that had been the M551 were recovered as souvenirs.
Investigation into the loss of the M551 found that the fire extinguishers had been secured with steel wire rather than the required copper wire thus explaining why the commander and gunner could not activate them. It was speculated the mechanics who serviced the vehicle had done this so fire extinguisher bottles would not discharge while being installed in the hull of the vehicle causing injury to the people installing them. Subsequent inspection of the fire extinguishers installed in various vehicles in USAREUR established that this was not an isolated practice.
As mentioned earlier, non-flammable green "vegetable juice" was later introduced to replace the flammable red "cherry juice" but I understand failure to completely remove ALL the "cherry juice" before introducing the "vegetable juice" could result in a jelly formed by the combination of the two fluids which could gum up whatever system it was used in.
I spent time at OP Alpha and OP India back in 76,77,78, I was with 8th Inf.Div. CSC .5/68,Recon. We had one with us.
Glad you're still with us... what position were you?
That was a truly excellent story! Nothing quite so good as military tales where one thing after another happen. Sometimes I just had to laugh!
I was in budigen Germany from 76-79 3/12 cav I fully remember graf/wilflecken that's the tank we had
So what did we learn today? Asbestos saves lives.
Thanks BTW for the good read. I'm a software developer, but I'm also interested in other engineering fields and I love stories that tell what happens after a product leaves the design table and is used in the field. It keeps me alert to always get feedback from the people actually using the product and sometimes pass by layers of management and paper shufflers.
You should look at the m60 Starship
MISTER M60A2 Starshit
That tank was designed too be the Sheridan's replacement. Sane gun. It was a POS and ultimately abandoned.
Hey, it got a nice name. But it was not named Patton for a reason......
Lol so true
We built this city
I served on a Sheridan in the early 1970s in Germany in every crew position.While we never had any of the issues you mentioned (never had a main gun failure or issue with chamber gasses). We viewed our tracks as essentially an anti-tank missile launcher. I do remember the main gun recoil very well. You had better be hanging on. We loved the cross country speed too. Rate of fire was abysmal, however, and was one of the weakest points.
My friend who was a tanker in the Us army and on the iron current during the late 1970s was on a base in the US and a Sheridan blew up because the loader was wearing w 6 volt watch and the ammo only need half a volt to go off
Was the loader court marshalled?
@@ElvisRocking1 he was killed in the explosion
Woosh
Discharged.
normal looking cat RIP
The russians saw this thing and demanded that the US build more. ; P
At least till the M551A1 TTS variant showed up, it could actually live up to the original concept, sorta.
Blackhorse, our job was just to take as many as we could.
I was in Black Horse in Viet Nam. Allons.
mj
I think the real problem is that it was a good idea but technology was not advanced enough at the time. If the Sheridan was designed now it would be much more effective.
@@mjcyrano68 I don’t know how close the unit was, or how well you guys may have known M48 tankers, but do you know a fellow blackhorse tanker named RJ Holland?
If a tank was released by EA and had to be fixed later updates. Fume extractor coming soon for dlc!
I served in 4/68 as both a tank plt ldr/tank commander and later as the company XO (aka maintenance officer). This was from 1973 thru 1976. The missile control system could be finicky, sometimes difficult to get it to a "green" light status so you could shoot. Never had any specific issues with the actual missiles. They were accurate out to ranges well in excess of 4KM. Hardest part was getting the gunners to keep the crosshairs on the target and not try to "fly" the missile. The guidance was by an infrared light beam like a TV remote on steroids. I later served as XO again in Germany in an M60A2 "Starship" tank battalion (1/32nd Armor). Less trouble with the missile control systems as the vibrations/shock from firing the main gun with conventional ammo was almost nothing. They had beefed up the recoil system and with the tank weight at 54 tons instead of 17 tons, the gun only recoiled about 5 inches. On the Sheridan the recoil came back to full mechanical stop and then rocked the tank back till the front two road wheels lifted up and you could see daylight under them. I had the radio shelf in my Sheridan break off one day and everything fell onto the turret floor. After about 15-20 main gun conventional rounds, we would tighten up the battery cables as they would vibrate loose. The closed breach scavenging system worked great - it operated at about 5000 PSI.
Alpha Company, 1st Platoon, TC '73-'74. Remember the first LAPES test that had a malfunction of the release clamps and it did NOT get pulled out of the C-130 50 feet above the DZ but several hundred feet above when the hot shot pilot did a hard pull up and THEN it ended up in pieces...
That one went into the trees and we had to cut down a tree to get one of the chutes back. About a year later we lost another one and it buried itself in the ground nose first. When we pulled it out, it had a tree stump through the front lower armor. It was the tree we had cut down before. I was 3rd plt Charlie Company 73-74 then XO in Charlie in 75. Do you remember SFC Tuemler? He was my platoon sergeant. @@kentonvelomancer3466
When I saw the Sheridan the first time, I’m already amazed by how cool it looks, it’s even cooler when I learned that if fires ATGM’s out of that stubby barrel.
Had a long chat with an army mechanic who worked on these things. He said the engine bay was always insanely dirty and they always caught on fire.
And the issue with the regular rounds shaking the electronics apart was much much worse than stated in the video.
Everyone loved the concept but despised the vehicle.
I really do not know why the electronics were so vulnerable. I have worked in defence as a design engineer (electronics) and know you can make electronics insanely rugged. EG "Copperhead" rounds which take something like 30,000g of longitudinal and 5000g of rotational acceleration on launch (from a howitzer). They were available in the 70's. We can make electronics considerably tougher now. Yes interconnects are a weak point but for crying out loud there are plenty of types that can take way more punishment than would instantly kill the crew all day every day and just shrug it off.
@@phred.phlintstone The M551 Sheridan was a diesel designfrom the beginning
I do not know about the design, but in my opinion - this is one of the most beautiful tanks ever built
>1,662
>There's a lot
Russia: Need to up those numbers, those are rookie numbers
T-55 rolls in with 100K+
how about over 10,000, that's the Abrams, 3 times the Leopard 2 production by the way.
@@hawssie1 Have you ever heard the tragedy... of darth T-55 the many?
@@soundbust1164 what's wrong with
T-55. It's not a bad tank at all for it's time period.
It can't have been that... Bad...
*M60A2 FLASHBACKS INTENSIFIES*
In use over 30 yrs
At very least it looks cool. You cant disagree with that.
@CAVKING19DELTA TEXAS Why? Except for a overbloated price I mean.
Can't help but think that if they gave it a 40mm autocannon it would have had enough firepower to shred any soviet apc/ifv without the recoil issues of the 152mm gun/launcher, and combining that with some proper ironing out of the problems it could have been a very good recce vehicle. The at capability was probably never going to be put to good use because against any tank it would have been dead anyway, and if you really wanted it you could put 2 of the shillelag missiles on the sides like a tow.
Edit.
Losing the weight of the 152-mm (and it's fcs) and replacing it with a 40-mm would allow you to uparmour it to take 12.7 mm all round and 14.5 mm up front (maybe allow a bolt on kit to offer 23-mm protection on the front).
Also the reason i said to use a 40-mm is because the us had a lot of bofors L-60 guns in inventory at the time (from the navy's old ships) and bofors was already building and selling the L-70 (used on the swedish strv-90).
Sorta like the bmp-3 basically
@@h0st_le960 more like a mix of a BMP-2 and a BRDM really.
Hey Matsimus, Stoni 54 here. I was a crew member, all four positions and master gunner on the Sheridan from 86 till 94 when I went to selection. You made a lot of solid and totally factual statements in your vid. I can tell you there was nothing like pushing a tank our the rear door of an aircraft in flight then jumping out behind it, finding it, cutting it free, and then driving off to find a fight. There was nothing like being in the turret when that gun went off, drivers hatch too. A good crew could really put the wood to troops dug in, out in the open, in urban, whatever. The missile gave you a hell of a capability. I used the thermal sight to engage a tank target at night at 4700 meters at NTC. Target cease fire. The single best part of the Sheridan was the unit. 4/68 transitioned to 3/73 and that was the unit to be in in the 1980's. Wide open. We played hard and we played hard and we worked hard when we weren't playing hard. Everything I learned that led to my success in life I learned from the men and tanks of the 3/73. Every Sgt and above there was a badass and mentor. The list of all American heroes is long, Woodham, Rice, Creson, Hood, Spain. Regan, Bala, Winters, Wilson, Pegeus, Graham, Ramsey, on and on and on. E4 mafia was strong and we ruled the barracks complex after lights out even tho the lights never went out truly. There were livin lovin' maids, gut truck deliveries, local pimps and pushers, the stuff of legends. Jumpmasters were best in class and gunnery evals were ruthless and rewarding. Great unit that produced so many senior leaders and SF soldier's it's ridiculous. Yes the vehicle had flaws but the soldiers there made it work. Thanks for the video and for bringing back the glory days even if only short. Till next time
I'm glad this isn't one of those 25 minute videos of someone playing war thunder while they talk about something
I served with the 2nd of the 2nd CAV E troop as loader, driver, gunner and TC. I served From 75 to 78 and all the problems were fixed by that time. As long as you kept the maintenance up, it performed great. If they kept improving the Sheridan it would be a great asset today. It hauled ass, and was a great recon support vehicle, it never had a misfire and was generally very reliable. The people who had problems were lazy and did not do the maintenance.
Our main gun snapped the main gun wiring harness. Yep misfire that was scary as💩.
Oh yeah did I mention I served on a 551A1 AR/AAV It was definitely a love hate relationship in that you loved them when they ran and everything worked but when they didn't they really sucked. That seemed to be quite a bit. We did our annual ARTEP which was basically a test to qualify your readiness for combat. We started at Hohenfels and the objective was Grafenwoehr which is about I think 19 km. our track didn't even make out of Hohenfels when the sprocket sheered off in the sprocket housing on the left side. This was just bad timing and unforeseen. All the PM in the world couldn't have prevented this.💩 happens. The bad part of all this was they left us pin the impact area. We had had use of it while we were testing but when the unit moved on out toward Graff they left us where we broke down.. Of course this counted against us because our over all combat readiness as a cavalry unit was compromised by the loss of our track. To make matters worse the left us there long enough that another unit had taken over the ranges. Being a NATO training facility it wasn't uncommon other unit or better yet armies used Hohenfels in fact my first year a French unit was there even though France isn't in NATO they enjoy its benefits without being a partner. Getting back to the a story over being broken down in Hohenfels our track was about 50 meters from the center of an impact area and the wildest part of this is we were about to be fired upon by a German Army mortar unit. They were set up and ready to fire when the saw us waking up and crawling around the tracks turret. I guess they thought we were a new target. I guess the range safety officer contacted our First Sargent because he came booking it up to our location bringing us a hot breakfast and C rations for the day.His quick thinking saved our lives by jamming a tankers bar into the sprocket housing it allowed the track to move. We slowly drove our track to the edge of the training area which was cool because if you Germany every roughly 4 km in almost any direction is a town and most of those towns had a bar of gasthaus of combining of both if was one that didn't have one we never found it. For the new three days life was sort of a blur as between the beer schnapps and jagermeister I hard was ever cold and we always had a fire. Good times
Ahhhh...Graf and Hohenfels...I remember them well! Loading the vehicles on railroad flat-cars from Schweinfurt....almost ALWAYS rainy, miserable weather!
Thanks for your service, man.
Tbh the Sheridan seems like one of those tanks that were actually a lot better than what most people make them out to be today.
Much like the Shermans from WW2, Nicholas Moran (AKA The Chieftain) has done a really good job at reevaluating the M4s and has actually shown that they were some of the best tanks of WW2.
The Sheridan also, in Vietnam, was much appreciated by infantry units: its low ground pressure (thanks to the large tracks compared to the light aluminium hull) made them much more effective at crossing the damp, soft terrain in which the M47s/M48s would get bogged down in. The large HE and Canister rounds proved much more effective in the anti-infantry role (knocking down buildings, machine-gun nests and large swaths of forest line) than the 90mm or 105mm on other US Vehicles and the Vietcong barely used any tanks for themselves making the protection benefits of the Patton Tanks pretty much useless.
That said, overall the Sheridan adapted pretty well to combat situations it was never built for and unfortunately was barely used in the situations it was designed to be in (or fortunately because that would have meant an open conflict with the USSR in the plains of Eastern Europe).
Potentially a very theater appropriate design.
@@badlaamaurukehu Just a crappy implementation kinda like the bmp
@@noname-wo9yy nope, cause you can Air Lift and Air Drop the Sheridan too
in Vietnam it mostly station in Cua Viet and Danang... only early deployment in Cu Chi and surrounded area. After the NVA bring the PT-76 into battle, M551 end up station in Cua Viet and Danang only due to it overheat engine problem and VC anti tank capability increased with RPG-7 and type 69 supplies by NVA to replaced RPG-2. M551 serve it last battle to defend Cua Viet base back in 1969 tet offensive and station at there till 72. after that, when NVA started replace VC casualty with more conventional force, air support was use heavily instead of Tank and APC. Overall M-551 didn't serve much in Vietnam since most of it flaws that Matsimus mention in the video. Because where Sheridan can reach, is not where VC usually hide. it serve mostly patrol around bases in Cu Chi Saigon outskirt or around FOB in South surround Saigon. So overall it just do the patrol on search and destroy village near the base, didn't serve much fire support in jungle assault. the lack of floor protection give it poor protection against mines, which crews usually add sand bags bellow the seat to prevent mines and the titanium floor add up extra ton, which end up stress the engine even more and cost it stuck in mud often make them have to destroy since it can't be recover. While the 1/11 ACR love it because it have better firepower and maneuver than M113, the 3/4 ACR hate it because it poor protection and reliable compare with M-48 since it break down all of time with the engine stress and hydraulic leak. And during served in Vietnam it doesn't have missle, as well as HE is minimum use due to it tend to crack the frame of sheridan due to it extreme recoil, so underload flechette is loved by the crews because it doesn't blow un burned powder and powder smoke back into the turrets (yes the compressed air doesn't work most of time) and it doesn't damage the frame of the tank. Half of Sheridan deployed in Vietnam got destroy by either mines, or stuck in mud or toasted by enemies anti tank. So no it didn't got love that much.
It was never needed enough to demand improvement past mediocre
I saw a M551 for the first time in 1984. I had just graduated from The Infanty school at Fort Benning Ga. My first duty was at Fort Irwin Ca. Where the Sheridan was being used as a OPFOR BMP and T62 with what they called VidMods(Visual Modifications) after 2 weeks of driving and maintenance school and uniform change we where ready to join the ranks of the motorized rifle regiment. The Sheridan was actually pretty tough out there in the Mojave desert. We put a lot of miles on them and went in some pretty hairy places with them. They did break, mostly fan towers and stuck injectors which meant a trip to the CSA (Combat Support Area). Where our mechanics worked endlessly to keep them running. We gave the Blue force (US Army units there for training) a run for there money. Even when we went up against the Abrams and Bradlys for the first time we held our own just because they where playing in our backyard that we knew like the backs of our hands. Navigation in the desert can be tricky on the ground.
When I was going through Basic Training/A.I.T. at Ft. Knox, KY towards the late 70's as a Tank Crewman, a number of Crewman Hopefuls were both interviewed and others VolunTold they would move over from the M60A1 series tanks to the M551 Sheridan.
I had the skills and scores to allow me to test out but I was physically larger than the desired size (not Lilliputian but not almost 6' and muscular as HELL) so I wasn't selected.
Those who moved over were, by all accounts, small in stature but they all complained about being in the Loader position as described in this video.
I always liked the size aspect, speed and state of the art (for the day) plus the main gun/missile launcher but we heard fairly quickly about how temperamental the main gun/rounds were as well as it was a not-so-closely guarded secret that sometimes, as one missile was being fired, if another Sheridan was in close proximity and lazing to another, nearby, target, every so often the Shileighly(sp?) missile fired and in-flight could be "Stolen" by the other tank. Allegedly this was cause by the laser coding being used was too close in their pulses and in close enough sequencing that the missile seeker could be over-ridden and take off.
Also, again allegedly (as told to me by one of these former fellow crewmen) when a missile was "stolen" it couldn't me counted on to actively seek and engage it's newly acquired target but would instead just head up into the air or plow into the ground short of the target. No rhyme or reason as to the direction...it just "WENT" I was told.
So outside of the fact it was a much lighter weight tank with superior terrain negotiating abilities due to the lighter weight, I wanted IN because I just KNEW it would be better able to Shoot and Scoot with better survivability built in.
WRONG! as it turns out and was described on the video.
Still, it is an interesting device and if they would have incorporated a larger turret and used a better main gun, sighting system and less complicated wiring system, it might have turned into a better firing system.
But coulda-woulda-shoulda doesnt get the job done, does it? LOL
But l have to admit the M551 was a cool "concept" vehicle in its own right.
Thanks for the video and trip down Memory Lane.
Merry Christmas to You and all my fellow Veterans, Past, Present and Future!
God Bless you One and All!!
Hey Matsimus, during your spiel about the M41, I think the audio repeats, not sure how many pointed this out already, but if none have, then I guess there ya go.
You can hear a mouse click, I believe he wanted to do a second take but forgot to cut out the first take
ianp101 I thought I heard a glitch in the Matrix.
@@JPVee511 holy shit I thought the exact same thing!!! AHAAHHAHAHHAHAHHA
Engineers: “So what capabilities do you want your new tank to have?”
US generals: “Yes”
I worked as a driver, gunner, and loader on an M551a1 from 1986 to 1989. I was with the 3/73 Airborne Armor Regiment. As stated below most of the issues with the tank had been resolved years earlier. I was one of only 3 drivers that I know of to "swim" the tank. I found this to be the most terrifying thing I have ever done. All in all the tank I was on was fast and reliable. We were warned tho that if the tank caught fire it would burn VERY quickly because of it's aluminium construction.
All too true.
Matsimus, the Sheridan and the M48 both had automatic transmissions there was no clutch. I was a crewman on an M551A1 in the 11th ACR in Fulda Germany. By then they were long in the tooth and barely running. We did gunnery in Wildfichen with a busted CBSS with out a second thought, pretty stupid but I was only a PFC driver I had no say. We were over joyed to transition to brand new M60A1s.
The memories are flooding back of LAPES and Heavy Equipment airdrops of these babies at Sicily DZ in the 1980s. My favorite 36K pound special delivery out of the rear of the Herc! Thank God I never had a hung load at Green Light! Thanks for the video.
I have mixed feelings about the Sheridan. On the one hand it was really too light for its intended role on the battlefield, and too heavy for airdrops (I saw one being airdropped...it shredded its chute and made an very large crater upon impact), and the Shillelagh missile was a mess, particularly in terms of reliability. On the other hand, the concept itself wasn't bad, and had the whole thing gone into development 15 years later, when electronics technology was more mature, it would have been a far more successful system....
One thing you didn't mention....the damn thing was LOUD...
Heard one burn in on Sicily DZ, thought that was loud till a month later when a dozer burned in.
@@phred.phlintstone I dont remember seeing these airdropped except by LAPES. It was rumored that they actually only used 3-4 tanks for the LAPES as they were already damaged and couldnt drive. They would just pick it up with the pallet and re-rig it for use the next drop. This was 1987-1990 time frame.
@@phred.phlintstone I remember that mishap. The C130 broke it's back.
R Scott B I got to Bragg shortly after this happened. I heard the C-130 pilot was hot dogging.
The M551 was never meant to go toe to toe with main battle tanks. That is why they were regulated to Cavalry units. Scouting and screening duties and provide firepower when required as backup. We learned that in Germany in 1970.
But for airborne units, light tanks had to be used to air drop. I was in the 4/68 and 3/73 in the 82nd ABN myself. We were looking forward to getting the M8 Buford but someone up high did not like the idea of airborne armor and killed that project just as it was approved for production. Money wasted on projects that were never meant to reach the troops. I would have loved to have longer range and faster operation, the only thing I liked about the M60. That M68 gun system was superb, it was the vehicle I did not like.
A friend of my dads commanded one of these in Vietnam. My info is second hand so is subject to errors but the storied I've heard are still interesting. He used the tank to defend a artillery base during an attack (it might have been during the Tet Offensive) and would drive from position to position firing a few beehive rounds at each and then repeat. This went on for hours or days, don't remember. Never the less without his Sheridan the base would have been over run. After the battle the beehive round was found to be very effective and any enemy receiving a direct hit was vaporized and others were literally nailed to trees. Another thing was that they were trained in the firing procedure for a "Classified" round. To fire it the tank was positioned facing away from the target area, the turret turned 180 degrees to fire over the back of the tank, and once the round was fired the tank was to drive in the opposite direction of the target as fast as possible. They were never told what the round was but was probably a nuke. I've tried looking up info to see if the gun ever had a nuke developed for it but have never found much.
He also shared how they secured their perimeter for the night while on patrol with "jelly bombs". Take a empty 30 cal ammo can, fill the bottom with c4, cover with 50 cal and 30 cal ammo links, and wire for detonation. Anyone hit by these were turned to jelly by the high velocity hardened steel links. Lastly due to the tank being used to lead convoys and its pitiful armor, anything and everything was strapped onto the front of it for additional armor. Including a case of Budweiser beer. Turns out Bud is a decent at stopping RPGs. He remarked on when the Viet Cong got their hands on the new RPG7s. He said that the old RPG2s were nice and slow, you could see them coming and dodge. Where as the new ones were so much faster, and more accurate, it just wasn't fair!
He was sent home after a RPG or mortar hit the engine deck of the tank while he was standing out of the hatch, peppering his back with shrapnel. Most of it was removed by surgery but some of it still remains and sets of metal detectors at airports. On occasion he will get what seems like a zit on his back but when it finally pops inside will be a little shard of that shrapnel from Vietnam.
Thanks for the excellent vid and I hope you find this useful and informative.
Damn good info, I wonder what that round was. It was probably a very small tactical nuke.
@@complexblackness Secret nuke tank round used in Vietnam. "Total Horseshit".
@@KB4QAA What's horseshit? It wasnt going to be used in Vietnam, more likely in western Europe in the event of a Soviet invasion. Through the Fulda gap.
I got the Micro Machines sheridan tank when i was 5. That was my favorite piece of plastic.
I miss those i had the whole desert storm set wish i had them now
My Dad crewed one in the 60s in Germany. The Sheridan crews were proud of what they could do with their tanks. That's the impression he gave when talking about his time crewing them. From your presentation I understand why. He was proud of the black beret that the tankers wore back in the day.
Maybe the gun was supposed to propel the tank behind cover as it fired?..
Shoot 'n' scoot
It's their reverse gear to escape while pinning down the enemy.
They basically reinvent disappearing gun concept
Bad transmission? Were any of the designers German?
Oof
To be fair at the late WWII all transmision problems on the tigers were fixed, even if panther had still problems.
Juanlu Lourido The Tiger I never really had that problem
That had to do with the rush in making such heavy armor tanks. The transmission was under powerd for such armor so it made it brake down a bit over time.
The Germans eventually fixed the problem.
+@@juanlulourido548+ What about the Tiger II?
I served crewed a Sheridan in the First Gulf War with the 3/73 AR of the 82nd Abn Div. AMA. This video was a great history lesson but missed a few important points. Hit and run tactics with light tanks is an extremely viable tactic. Good to see the Army is finally giving light tanks a new life.
I was a Sheridan crewman the 82nd's armor battalion (by then called 3/73 Armor), arriving in early 1996 and staying until it was deactivated. By the time I was there all of the major kinks had long since been worked out. I found the Sheridan to be far more reliable than the Bradley and far more mobile than a HMMWV. I think it's important to keep in mind that Sheridan WAS NOT A TANK. Sure, it looks like a tank and we called it a tank, but it's a reconnaissance/assault vehicle. For that role, I think it's still unmatched. Think about the specs:
152 mm shotgun (canister/beehive), 1000 rounds of 7.62 machine gun, 500 rounds of .50 cal. Anti tank guided missile that could still kill most of the world's tanks. High explosive shaped charges that can knock buildings down (and fortress walls, as in Panama). Parachute deployable anywhere on Earth within 24 hours. Never throws a track. Rarely breaks down. Rarely gets stuck in mud. Short gun tube allows turret to traverse in dense woods and urban environments. Can "swim" across a freakin' river...
Fun facts:
1) The crewmen were all Cavalry Scouts (MOS 19D) , not Tankers (MOS 19K).
2) The most senior enlisted member of the US Military, (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Troxell), started his career as a Sheridan crewman (his combat jump into Panama was part of 3/73).
3) Due to the strange combination of qualifications (parachute qualified 19D with Sheridan experience), it was very common for soldiers to spend 15+ years of a 20 year career in the (one and only) Sheridan battalion.
4) The electronic boards mentioned in the video which could "shake loose" during firing were always secured with a piece of cardboard stuck (usually from an MRE box) in the lid. All the boards were actually all interchangeable, but controlled different things. Thus if you had a part of the board burn out, you could usually just open the box and re-arrange the boards to fix everything. I'd call that a brilliant design.
5) Each tank was named by its crew after qualifying in gunnery. The name of the tank had to start with the letter of the company.
6) Full-sized M16s being too big for the turret, crewmen were equipped with either a M9 Beretta, or an M3 "Grease Gun".
In the mid-1970s I was a scout in the scout section of an armored cav platoon. The platoon had a section of Sheridans.
Loaders used to slit the rubber propellant boot to make it easier (and faster) to remove when actually loading the round.
One of our Sheridans once fired and the breech cracked, allowing a flash fire into the turret. No one was hurt, but the loader's eyebrows were singed off!
Shillelagh missiles were optically tracked but remotely controlled (unlike the TOW missile). The gunner had to keep the sights trained on the target during the missile's flight. Upon firing, the missile would fall below the gunner's view, before coming up into view (after the ignition of the missile's rocket motor). Gunners would sometimes track their sights down, looking for the missile. This could cause the missile to impact with the ground. But not to worry. Gunners would correct the mistake and the missile would usually just bounce off the ground and go downrange and score a hit.
I did get to drive one once (a crew was short-handed) during firing tables. Usually I was helping out in the range control tower, or sometimes was actually running the firing line from the tower. I was only a Pfc! (My company commander had a great deal of faith in my abilities.)
Served on this in Panama and Desert Storm. I loved it. Super dangerous little monster.
When I was a kid I thought how cool it would be to be on a tank crew. Now that I know how dangerous they are, especially back then, and how complicated and fickle they are, you couldn't pay me enough. What a nightmare.
I was stationed in Germany from Aug 1971 to Jan 1974. E Troop 2nd Sq 14th (later 11th) ACR. Driver, gunner and lastly commanded my own vehicle. Earned a scar over my right eye because I was not paying attention to the fire commands while I was looking through my night driving scope...OUCH! Missed out as top gun by two points because I missed my missle targets. During my three trips to Grafenwhor I only experienced one misfire.
I performed my PMs religiously and rarely had any issues. I loved the vehicle then and still do to this day.
Hard to believe that this thing was on the books until 1998.
They are still in use at Fort Irwin as opfor units
They had nothing to replace it and still do not for airborne units.
@@mikeb.5039 The one's used for opfor were retired in 2003 i believe.
Awesome as usual, Merry Christmas, and happy New Year
Most of the tanks he talked about...laying around Fort Leonard Wood as target practice.
If i'm not mistaken, you can find a turret less Sheridan on the hand grenade range along with a bunch of gutted M151A2.
Lets not forget the AT4 rage...
I was Mech infantry in VN. As such we sometimes worked with both Acav units and armor. I would much rather work with the Cav with the Sheridan than the armor with the M48 at least off hard surface roads. The M48s were prone to getting stuck or being incapable in the mud. I.E. incapable of climbing a up the embankment to a rice paddy terrace. On ground that looked sound but was wet they could look like a submerging submarine. The Sheridan would go about anyplace a 113 would. However, we pulled into a place along the "Yellow Brick Road" called LZ Old Guard during Lam Son 719 to find a Sheridan with the turret blown off next to our assigned position. When asking the nearby mortar crew it turned out they had an ammo malfunction and the spilled powder was somehow ignited in the tank, we were told by a cigarette. This was a relief to me since we were facing a jungle covered hillside that rose steeply and I was thinking that it was enemy action from above. Anyway there was a little tank with the belly plating blown down and the turret upside down off to the side. I did not have a camera at the time... I suppose the communists salvaged it since then.
Love the way the loader looks at the camera "Are you seeing this bullshit?".
When I first saw the side of the Sheridan M551 at a military exhibit when I was a teenager, I mistook it for a British Crusader Mark II due to the sharp edges of its turret. I was corrected by a US veteran tanker who said "at this exhibit they don't show British crap tanks, and kid this is not a WWII tank" The M551 looked good to me, it had a low silhouette, it was small, wide tracked. Was it like the P400 air cobra WWII plane, which had great lines and armament but with many deficiencies? even this P400 plane was ridiculed by WWII pilots, I heard that they used to say " It's just like the P40 with a zero on its tail". To me, every time a US veteran dies it's like a library burned down. Thanks you Vets, I lived and learned due to your hands on knowledge and your sacrifices. You earned scolding me for my ignorance.
I remember three things about this beast. 1- when you fired the main gun it rocked your world. 2 - the missle worked incredibly well, WHEN it worked at all 3 - I lost 30% of my high end hearing
You should have tried the M40 106mm for noise. Without earplugs you hear nothing but ringing ears for two weeks.
@@ddawsond The M40 was a 155mm. It was pretty much out of service with US forces after Korea. By the way, M40 was also the designation of a sniper rifle based on the Remington 700.
Now the M40 recoilles rifle was called 106mm although it was actually 105mm. If you fired that, good on you. I never got to even touch one.
I was a gunner on an M551a1 in Germany in 77 and78, most of us loved them. They were fast, on or off road. In that 2 year span our crew only had one minor break down.
Interesting report. I was a platoon leader and later troop XO in Cavalry troops at FT Polk, LA (where conditions were not unlike Vietnam, WRT heat and humidity) from 1975-1979 when we turned the M551s in for M60A1RISE tanks. The squadron had 18 Sheridans (our C Troop was a LAARNG unit that still had M60 tanks and even a few M59 carriers rigged out as mortar carriers). My general experience was that the Sheridans were fairly mobile in the local terrain. The transmissions were a bit fragile, but generally held up well. We blew only one in that time, trying to recover a bogged Sheridan by towing it out with another. Didn’t do that twice.
The gun system was interesting. If you were firing a missile (such as during gunnery training) you were good if you hadn’t fired any conventional rounds after the turret mechanic had checked the tracker box (which held the circuit cards you mentioned). The problem was that the conventional round recoil would shake the circuit cards loose. If shaken loose, you could still fire the conventional rounds all day, you just couldn’t fire another missile until the turret Mech fixed it. Mind you, once you shot the first missile, you could continue to shoot missiles all day, so long as you didn’t fire a conventional round.
I had an AOB classmate who went to one of the ACRs in Germany, where the units swapped their five scout tracks for three more Sheridans in each platoon. He told me that his troop designated two Sheridans in each platoon as Missile tracks, and converted the ammo racks to only hold missiles. In the event of war, these two tracks would only fire missiles.
Lastly, many M551s were turned into VIZMODs, to look like Soviet vehicles at the National Training Center starting in 1980.
no matter what i will still love this tank :3
The main problem people have when they think about the M551 is, IT WAS NOT A TANK. It was never intended to be a tank. It was a recon vehicle. Its purpose was to move into place, observe, and report, then get the eff out. It was never meant to go toe to toe with any tanks. Or any other AFVs, for that matter. It was intended to provide immediate fire support for friendly infantry. If it fired on hard targets, the idea was to shoot and scoot. By using missiles it could hit targets which, at the time, were far outside the effective range of any conventional tank gun. But it was basically harassing fire. The conventional rounds were intended for use against heavy but unarmored targets - buildings and bunkers. The M551 was pressed into service in a tank-like role in Vietnam because that's what the units had available.
You could say the M551's greatest success was that it acted as a successful proof of concept for designers of anti-tank missiles, and Russian tank designers. The Shillelagh proved that there could be effective line-of-sight ATGMs, as opposed to early Soviet designs like the Sagger, which required the operator to "fly" the missile to the target. He had to keep the missile in sight and manually close the angle to the target, where an M551 gunner only had to keep the crosshairs in the right place and the electronics made the flight adjustments. Now, the Russians have tanks with 125mm guns which can handle both conventional smoothbore high-velocity kinetic energy rounds, and ATGMs. As happens frequently in the development of military equipment, a technology we tried and were disappointed with was picked up by our (potential) enemies and honed to a fine edge.
-- Ex tanker, 1970s
Although the vehicle had many short comings, I personally believe that the M551 is my favorite tank. The reason why I believe it is my favorite is because it is one of the only military vehicles in history where retiring it from military use has left a small but noticeable gap within the airborn units. The tank has not been replaced and therefore the airborne currently have no tank capable of doing what the M551 could which was it could be air dropped as mentioned in the video. However, this is not the sole reason why it is my favorite tank. All around the Sheridan was an ambitious and quite unique idea and that’s why it’s my favorite tank. A tank with a powerful punch carrying an advanced weapon system, while being capable of amphibious operations and capable of being airdropped. For all of these reasons, that’s why the M551 is my favorite tank. Keep up the great videos and this one was fantastic.
I spent more time on Sheridans than M60s but spent a lot of the M60 time replacing thrown track. I never threw a track on a Sheridan. The best running track I was ever on.
Was assigned to B troop 3/5 Air Cav in 1976/77 A troop had the M551, watched as they were doing a low level extraction out of a C130. Turret went one way, tracks another and body a forth way. Took them several hours to clean up the area.
As I said to a Lieutenant once, "a tank is a big, slowly moving, target."
I was on Sheridans in Vietnam and later in Germany. In addition to the malfunctions and problems that you mentioned, I also experienced or witnessed enough other systems failures to fill a book.
The turret and main gun systems were the least reliable, but the automotive systems also had numerous failures.
Overall a good concept, but the 1960s technology was not robust enough to do what the designers were attempting.
They were fun when they worked, they just weren’t reliable.
Served as a Tank Range safety office at Ft Hood in Late 70’s to early 1980. 1/9 Cav.
We had M551, a throughly bad tank.
I spent a lot of time with a ramrod hammering those 152 rounds back our of tracks that misfired.
That was rough.
I was a Scout pilot playing tanker safety worm.
We were sharing the range with National Guard M60 tanks from 49th Armored Div.
The M 60 crews made us look bad.
Target, hit
Machine gun target, hit
A real tank vs the mattel tank.
We got rid of the Sheridan and got our own M60 A1 MUCH BETTER
@@edwardgelsone1012 Sounds like maintenace problems. Weak gun seals aside I never had miss fires from either the conventual or missiles, Germany or Bragg. Granted you could have had bad Ammo but much of that can also be poor practice of ammo handling. Rate of fire and range was the poor spot on the M551. Accuracy at longer ranges improved when laser range finders came in for the conventional gun but you will never get a high rate of fire with an electric breech or long range with a short gun tube. And we had to make do with the choke reticle gun sight like that found on the M40 recoilless. Anything beyond 1200 was considered hit or miss but I did get two solid hits at night at 1850. I guess practice with that 106 recoilless came in handy. So other than a slow rate of fire, short range and weak designed recoil system, we did alright.
At Fort Irwin, these use to be the vehicles we used as OPFOR, before being replaced with the M113 OSV 'bmp'
AH-1F sighting at 2:54. I hadn't known what the base vehicle for some of the NTC vis-mods was the Sheridan, but now it's obvious. I learn something new every time I watch this channel.
That turned back the clock for me. I remember the 1/509th Airborne OPFOR in Ft. Polk, Louisiana driving them with red stars on the side. That was 1995. I had forgotten that until you mentioned it. Great vid!
I was a loader on one of these in 1977 (B 1/10 Cav. 4th. Inf. Div.). I experienced most of the problems that you mentioned, PLUS, having to keep one of those green ScotchBrite pads on hand to manually clean the electric firing probe every other shot as it got crusty with carbon and refused to fire otherwise. Hand-cranking the breech open and closed is NOT fun, and when the scavenger system fails to evacuate the bore....a thick, white "angel of death"-looking vapor comes oozing out the breech into the turret and starts choking everyone and burning their eyes out of their sockets...GREAT fun! To be fair, though, everything we had was Vietnam-vintage equipment and WELL used. Replacement parts were hard to get a hold of, as well...we were told that US Army EUROPE was getting most the budget. Later on when I was stationed in West Germany we were told that CONUS received parts priority...hmmmmm. I preferred the M-220 A1 (M-113 outfitted with TOW missile system) to the Sheridans.
In 1975 I was an armored cavalry scout in the 1/4 cav at Ft. Riley Ks. Though I normally crewed on an M114, I was cross trained as a loader on the Sheridan for tank gunnery. When we fired the conventional round the entire vehicle leapt 3 inches into the air and 6 inches backward. We couldn't fire with the turret oriented to the side because it would cock the road wheels off their bearings.
Anyways, about the 3rd shot of the day we were suddenly drenched by warm sticky red stuff. We thought someone got in the way of the breach and got splattered around the inside of the vehicle. Big relief to find out it was just a ruptured cherry juice seal.
One other idiosyncrasy. between firing the gun/launcher you had to polish the electric firing probe with a green scotchbrite pad or you'd get a misfire.
On a later exercise we did loose one to an onboard fire. Turns out their fire extinguisher was empty. They always had cold sodas though.
For all the problems highlighted in this video - I loved it. I crewed the Sheridan during 2 different tours in Nam and was only let down once time when my vehicle blew a pack during the invasion into Cambodia. I sat outside a small ville all night long until the squadron trains cane along early in the morning and took us under tow behind an M88. Probably the worst night in Nam - no one got one moments sleep as we dismounted as that broke down Sheridan made a very tempting target in the moonlight. Other than that - there was no missile system on the 551s in Nam so we didn't have that problem. The Xeon searchlights were vulnerable while making busts through the jungle and mine was wrote off as a combat loss. We strained the engine / transmission over and over knocking down trees. We removed the governors from the engines to get more speed. Ever see a 551 doing 45+ MPH throw a track on an asphalt road and the driver locking up the brakes on the one remaining track? Made a lot of great circles as it continued down the road. :) In Nam there was so much dampness that if constant maintenance was not conducted on the gun system the breech could rust shut. The cupola armor kit was okay and as the tank commander I felt safer than sitting in the drivers position or the gunners. Bottom line - in Two years it never let me down - regardless of what the mission was. Loved the vehicle and even crewed a few at Fort Carson and Fort Campbell. Did I ever wish for a better recon unit - yep but we used what we had. Don't get me started on the M114A1E1. LOL That is another story!
I was in the 82nd and my MOS was M60/M551 turret mechanic. These "tanks" were not meant for the main battlefield which is why they're called "Airborne Reconnaissance Assault Vehicle." Their primary mission was to be troop support for the soldiers that were dropped in. Yes I've seen dozens of them dropped... really skidded... into a DZ via C130 along with Gamma Goats and the like. I only witnessed 2 bad drops due to bad packaging of the tank. I witnessed just as many bad Goat drops if not more. Of course the armor was weak as aluminum isn't known for it's protective abilities. It was built to be light. Compared to the other tanks of the era, the Sheridan was quick and road like a Cadillac. The turret... when it worked, it worked well. When it didn't work it was a nightmare, there was little in-between. Loctite was used generously. The amphibious side of things was truly hit or miss and drivers were cautioned not to do it unless it was a life or death situation. I still have my 4" thick M551 Manual and pull it out from time to time to remind me of why I don't miss working on it. :)
I was in one of these at Wildflecken in 1977, 3/11th ACR, with me fresh out of Fort Knox. Transmission troubles, comm troubles, and then the thing gets on the firing line and blows its bore evacuator off with the first shot. I'm just glad we never tried to swim those terrors.
I drove and later Loaded an M551 Sheridan in 1974
with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment at Ft. Bliss Tx. (El Paso)
. It had a TON of problems in it.
I saw one in front of me one night catch on fire, the crew bailed out and the ammo inside cooked off and blew the whole Turret STRAIGHT up in the air about 100 feet.
I even had a HE 152 MM round bust in half in my Lap while trying to load it.
The powder was all OVER the floor and ME!!
Man, I was glad to go to Germany and be on an M60A1 TANK
........later with the 3rd Armored Division. :P
"On The Way!"
Christmas Eve tAnk vid. Sweet! Merry Christmas!
Very interesting, thanks Matsimus! Shows what can happen when there are too many design parameters.
I served in A Co., 4/68 Armor, 82nd Abn. from 10/75 to 10/78 as a platoon leader and company XO. We were lucky to maintain an OR rate of 70%. The biggest weakness was the flex plate in the torque converter of the Allison AT250 transmission. I could count on at least one failure every time we went to the field. The mentioned cherry juice was also very flammable. There was an apple juice (green in color), that was not as flammable, but did not have the hydraulic capacity to handle the recoil. It was (theoretically) amphibious with the rubber curtains up. It also had an onboard Halon fire extinguishing system which could be activated both inside the track and outside. You can see the recess in the hull on the left front where the external was located. When they were good, they were very good. When they bad, they were awful.
Good information. I did not know that the M551 was such a problem
Our tank battalion’s recon platoon (reinforced) was issued M551 Sheridans to replace the M48A3 the rest of the battalion used. I knew we were in some difficulty when my medics were also issued nomex when working with the platoon. A real bugger to get an injured driver out in a hurry. Saw more than one “cook down” in a mixed slag of road wheels and other bits. My son had the privilege of transferring the last of these little monsters to the desert for use by “aggressor” forces. Last real airborne platform that sorta worked was the SPAD - rubber bands for tracks.
In 1969 after going through Basic, a “Shake and Bake” NCO Academy and Armor AIT I was sent to “Jump School “ at Fort Benning, Georgia. All this in Preparation for . . . You guess it, Training on the M551”Sheridan” Tank. I went to Eglin AFB in Florida for “Escape and evasion all the time learning to learn the use of the M-60 Machine Gun a “SAW”. Ass an aside: “ The M-2 50 Cal. & The M-60 7.62 mm” machine guns were the most useful weapons, besides the M-16, I used in Vietnam. In your documentary on the M-551 pretty much covered the usefulness of that weapon. Fortunately, when I got to the replacement center “in country”, they ask me if I wanted to be a “Door Gunner” on UH-1D a Huey or “Iroquois”. I answered in the affirmative and quickly ended up in “Shotgun Rider” School in Hawaii. I never saw a “Sheridan Tank” again. I did two successful tour in Vietnam. My favorite Armored Vehicles were the M-115 and M-113 ACPs. I didn’t spend much time on them in the “Nam” but exercised with them in Germany. I was the “Command Sgt. Major’s” Jeep Driver and also would drove the “S-1 & S-2 Headquarter’s Tracks. In Germany we played Army as we never engaged the Soviets “ Thank God”. They supposedly had 60 Divisions of Armor poised on the “Fulda Gap” we were virtually a “trip wire” to tell the US that WW III had started.
I was TDY to the Armor Engineer Board in 1967. From what I see in this video we did the preliminary testing in the Ohio river bottom. The testing ran quite more time than was planed. Up side, it kept me out of Viet Nam. I had orders come down from DOD to report to Oakland to go on to Viet Nam. Snice I was TDY to the AEB my Company he asked what to do and DOD said to leave me in the Engineer Board. I was told by the CO, when I got back from Kentucky< DOD told him that what I was needed to finish the M551 testing so no Viet Nam. I had 7 months left in the service!
Hey that's Camp Perry @2:30! I used to drill there sometimes.
Fantastic video! loved the footage and in depth info
OK, where to start. 1. Loose powder - when fielded in Vietnam, the ARMCAV Sqns were allowed to use it to replace one of two vehicles, the M114A1. which was also being replaced by the M113A1ACAV or the M48A3 medium tank. The M114A1 was armed with a .50 M2HB (or sometimes a 20mm M139) and did not require a loader. The M48A3 loader was used to grabbing metallic cartridge rounds out of racks and slamming them into the breech. The M551 was fielded w/o what the Army today would call NET (New Equipment Training, still happens though). Loaders picked from M114A1 crewmen or from M48A3s were NOT trained in handling the consumable cases. The next problem was that the environment in Vietnam was NOT favorable to consumable cases (as they existed then). The Army thought it had done its due diligence, sending M551s to Panama for a few weeks in the triple canopy forest. But the Army didn't reckon on the LONG term exposure. Several Army weapons and systems had similar issues. The early models of the M72 LAW deployed to Vietnam suffered from misfires, poor rocket and fuse performance after extended storage. These issues were not suffered by the crews which received proper training and were stationed in temperate zones like W. Germany or CONUS or even in the desert. 2. CBSS - Yes, flare backs were a problem until the CBSS solved these issues. Which meant that like the M16, the weapon got a reputation which it suffered from through its career. Rate of fire did not matter. This was NOT an MBT. It's missions were recon and assault. Two rpm for the MP round was not bad for subbing for the missile at close range for a vehicle that was supposed to scout and screen. The MGM-51 took 30 seconds to reach max range, which means you weren't firing more than one missile a minute either. 3. Suspension and engine problems - Again issues were in early models. By 1970, those issues were corrected and did not show up in W.Germany. If there was an issue, the engine was too loud to sneak up on people, which sort of cancelled out the recon part of the name. During the period when the excess M551s were used as VISMODs at the NTC, despite being a couple tons lighter, they were driven into the ground by the OPFOR and the engine and suspension issues were not there. Nor did 4/73 w/ the 82d suffer the same failures. 4. "Black boxes". The M551 was no worse the many other precision weapons in the US armed forces at this time. These precision guided weapons matured in the early through late 1980s, when the MGM-51 could have been converted to passive laser guidance or even EO, pushing max range w/improved rocket motors out past 5,000 meters. Yes, firing the "conventional" round could break the "boxes" or at least decalibrate the system. The response was that M551s operated as two vehicle sections, one firing the missile where/when ever possible and the other the MP round. Still the M551 featured a laser range finder and stabilization. 5. When deployed for "Desert Shield/Storm", the M551s in the 4/73 had their image intensification sights (starlight) replaced with the same TTS as the M60A3 TTS. While they had a tall silhouette w/cdr's cupola armor, they could go almost turret defilade and use their thermal sights to recon Iraqi positions at night and periods of low visibility. This would have given them a MAJOR advantage over the PT-76, BRDM-2 or early model BRM, not to mention BMDs or even Soviet MBTs. The Soviets continued to use active IR through the T-80B and the Cold War. Using the IR searchlight, the max visual range at night was 1800 meters. The M551 w/TTS could see to 5,000 meters in all weathers and at night. The M551 would easily have picked off earlier, less protected T-55, T-62, T-64 and T-72 MBTs. 6. The M551 could have been armed differently. The 76mm M32 was tried in the M551. The Stingray turret with low recoil 105mm was also tested on the M551 chassis. 6. Two things basically killed the M551 except as a specialist vehicle for airborne ops. The M1 could move as quickly and as fast and quieter. And the mission of the ACRs in W. Germany changed from scouting and screening to primarily screening. This meant the ACRs were re-equipped with M1s in a "heavy" configuration. When the Cold War ended, the Army found itself facing a future of "expeditionary" ops, where an upgraded M551 would have been perfect for a lighter ACR.
I loved seeing these in Ft Irwin. Great video Matsimus. Would love to learn more about the MBT-70 project and why it fell through between the US and Germany.
Too much put into the vehicle what with a hydraulic suspension to level the vehicle, air conditioning and even talk of putting a bunk in the rear of the turret I heard. But more likely the civilian's habit of adding on for the sake of raising the price that discouraged the Germans. They put their money into the Leopard tank and the rest is history,
The Sheridan was issued to heavy cavalry , heavy infantry, and airborne units. It was perfect for the airborne because it was so light to transport and it provided the extra firepower needed for a fight.
I was a Sheridan crewman in Vietnam with F Troop 17th Cavalry 196 LIB, We actually loved the Sheridan , It was extremely fast and could turn on a dime ..It took a mine well and seldom got stuck in the mud.
My first duty assignment was with 1/10th Cav in '72 which was what was left of F troop when 4th Inf. withdrew from Vietnam . Did you know a Sgt. Lott? @@edwarddion8762
@@kentonvelomancer3466 I left Vietnam in Feb 1971, we were at LZ Hawk Hill ,( Hill 29 ) at the time. a couple of months later the troop moved to Danang and was the last armored cavalry unit to leave country in 1972.
I never heard about them combining with another unit, but will take your word on it. I was 14D then later 14G
we were in the Americal Division which later became the 23 rd Infantry
Little known facts, UK and Aussie trialed it and said NO thanks!
The Sheridan saw more action as OPFOR VISMOD T-72s at the National Training center than it did in Vietnam. They used it for years with a fiberglass gun for the infamous red force (the 11th ACR) back in the day.
but we did it for real in Vietnam
Very great channel, and details , keep it up!!
If the US did not sell them to us here (Philippines) as surplus units, it means they are really that bad.
Jano Mariano Hell, we don’t want you guys dying with no chance of survival or fighting back. That’s wouldn’t be very nice of us. You’d be better of with some Sherman’s rather then this thing lmaoooo
This is too true.
I ave never seen a Sheridan outside of a museum but as a young soldier I found myself in a tank battalion in 1981(I am not a DAT), and actually talked to tankers who had been on Sheridans and they always stated that you kept your controls in one hand and a wrench in the other to repair the tank after it fired. I have never met a tanker who had anything good to say about the vehicle at all!
I crewed the stripped down version of the M-551 as an OPFOR tanker at Ft. Irwin 84-86. easy to work on, fun to drive, but I'm glad I didn't have to go into combat with it. Steel on Steel.
Honestly i think i have some love for the design and the concept of this tank that just makes it special to me its really a shame that it presented so much problems and flaws, gotta say is my favorite tank desing by far tbh.
For all those WOTB players,this tank is in game and it’s missies are pretty OP and
Well,it’s a tier 10 it’s in the T49 tech tree instead of the T57 heavy
You can get the T92 with the T49 turret and then this
Also, this has the T49 turret and I LOVE the T49
Matt you're pumpinh\g out these videos during chrrisy like crazy mate.... good keep it up
I'm surprised you didn't mention the starship in the title
Starship applies to the M60A2. This was an M60 variant with a completely new turret built around the Shillelagh guided missile system.
@@glbglobal1512 it was for the same missile though. I thought it was relevant to it
And the "Starship" was never referred to by that name while in service. Certainly I never heard it called that and I've read elsewhere that the nickname was attached to it after it had been phased out.
@@davegrenier1160 yeah I just saw it on armoured warfare
I was Infantry when I was stationed with 1/2 Cav. I received on the job training and was a gunner on a Sheridan for a little over a year. By the time I was in the turret most of the problems you spoke of were fixed. I hated the paper casings on the Heat/Hep rounds. The Sheleighly Missile wasn't reliable. I had one on the range fly about 60 meters and bury itself in the ground. I had a loader actually break TPT (Training Practice Target) Round casing during a live fire exercise. Hydraulic fluid on the floor of the turret. Oh and don't forget the "opturator seal" for the main gun used when firing conventional ammo to prevent hot sparks from shoot out of the breach. Please keep your foot INSIDE the turret ring. the turret being electrical could rotate pretty fast anything outside the turret ring would get crushed between the turret ring and the side wall of the tank.
* side note
The 152 was beloved in Vietnam because of the HE power, and the cannister rounds firing flechettes.
I spent from 1975 to 1982 on the M551a2 Sheridan and never had a problem with them. They where great in Germany during the Cold War the functioned well on the border and durning war games the Sheridan ran circles around the heaverier built American Tanks. The had great mobility and could get places the much heavier tanks couldn't go. I enjoyed your point of view on the tank.
An M-551 was the first armor vehicle I was ever in and I was impressed...sort of...but then I was about 13. I later realized what a hunk of junk it was but as you noted the army kept some of them for the 82nd airborne since they could be air dropped. My brother was the C-141 navigator that dropped one during the Panama campaign operation Just Cause.
Lol at 10:05 when Matsimus interrupts himself in order to start allover again. :D
When I was in the 82nd this was the division armor. The intent was to pull these tanks out of the back of a C-130 at low altitude with a parachute (LAPX). It never worked. I saw it get stuck once and they had to cut away the parachute. Other times the tank and sled would tumble end-over-end after hitting the ground. Thankfully, I was Infantry.
09:53
10:10
Don't you hate it when that happens? :p
Great video man. I love your vehicles videos.
I hope one day you do the AMX30B2
Got my first and only exposure to the M551 as a platoon leader in A Trp, 1st Sqdn, 3rd Armd Cav Regt. The budget was so tight in those days that each troop got just one practice Shillelagh guided anti-tank missile per year. If the 152 main gun was fired with conventional ammunition, the launcher would be knocked out of calibration. When 152 ammo was fired, recoil caused the first two road wheels to lift right off of the ground. I well remember the supposedly fire retardant barrier bags that were to be kept over each caseless round. It was also protected by a rubber sleeve that we of course called rubbers or condoms.
AWESOME THANK YOU AND HAVE GREAT XMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Some minor corrections. 4/68th Armor transitioned to becoming the 3/73d Armor in 1984, which is the unit I served in. 3/73d was deactivated in 1997. The OPFOR unit at the National Training Center operating cosmetically modified Sheridans was 1/73d Armor. They were operating Sheridans throughout the 1980s and 90s. You also missed a conflict. The 82d brought elements of it's armor battalion to Grenada in 1983 as part of Operation Urgent Fury. By the mid 80s, our Sheridans were long in the tooth and frequently deadlined by maintenance issues.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Matsimus