How Bad Was The M551 Sheridan? 

My grandfather had worked on the m551 152mm gun and he told me that you could calibrate it to fir missles all day long but as soon as you fired a conventional round you would have to recalibrate the gun because the recoil would life it off the ground a bit and slam it down ruing the guns calibration

"In early January 1969, the first Sheridans and their new equipment training teams arrived in Vietnam. The reception by the 11th Armored Cavalry was cool. Then, on January 29, two Sheridans were on picket duty along the Long Binh highway. At about 0230, the crewmen were alerted of movement to their front. The Sheridan searchlights were turned on, and enemy troops were sighted crossing a dirt road. Two 152mm rounds were fired, each sending hundreds of small, arrow-like flechettes down range. At daylight, 125 bodies were found, along with dozens of blood trails."

I was a Sheridan crewman in the 11th ACR in Germany. They were a mixed bag. In the late 1970s they were getting worn out and since they were on the way out parts were hard to come by. The recoil was extreme but the gun was quite accurate with HEAT rounds. The closed breech scavenging system when it worked prevented cook offs. We fired a gunnery table without it and I am still here. They were quick and very agile and could go places we couldn't once they were replaced with M60A1s. Strangely most M551 crewmen I know look back fondly on them. In Nam the crews that replaced M113s with them were quite happy. Those that gave up M48s were not.

Honestly, I think that so long as people compare it to bigger tanks it's always going to be found lacking. But place it within its proper context: The M551 was really only in Airborne and Cavalry/Scout units. In those roles, its actual competition was the PT-76, BMDs, and even the ASU-85. And while the gun was liable to throw things off if you used conventional ammunition, the Shillelagh, while less reliable than you'd like, could be fired indefinitely with adequate effect on target before some of the heavier armored Soviet tanks in the 80s with ERA show up. Within that context, I think it's pretty darn good. There's only so much you can do with a vehicle within its constraints and while it doesn't work perfectly, if it was forced into combat beyond Panama it would have most likely served its crews adequately in a Cold War gone hot. It's more than capable of engaging in the counter-reconaissance fight against the Soviet equipment it would have faced and was just about the only thing you could give to the airborne units to give them armor of their own. Perhaps another vehicle might have served better, but I don't think that means the Sheridan couldn't have proven itself adequate in such a time.

Why doesnt it have a laser range finder in game?? That heat round is so hard to aim

I remember meeting a commander of a Sheridan a few years back, had lots of stories about them. One time his unit was burning some jungle brush around a base and another Sheridan tried to push a burning tree over but some embers got into an open turret hatch and ignited some loose powder from a damaged shell. The crew bailed except the driver because his revolving crew hatch was locked and the TC had to rescue him by bashing the hatch open with a sledgehammer and pulling him free before the ammo cooked off. The day after the fire subsided they went to inspect the wreck and all that was left was the turret since the aluminum hull had melted from the heat. He loved the canister rounds due to how well they dealt with the thick jungle brush in Vietnam. He didn’t have any opinions on the Shillelagh since he only fired them in training. He also said the steel turrets had a tendency to crush the aluminum hulls when they were air dropped.

My grandfather was an engineer with several defense companies from the 50's through the 90's. At some point during that time his team was tasked with building the parachute system for the tank. It was the first time such that the military had ever tried to make an air droppable vehicle of that weight, so it became quite the project. After many months of work, his team got a working prototype. First, they ran tests with just blocks of metal that had the same basic weight distribution and density. After they got the system working consistently, they were asked to demonstrate it to a panel of military brass, who of course wanted to see system they just payed a lot of money for. For this test, they were going to drop a real Sheridan, followed by a crew to drive it. The idea was to show how the drop left the tank in a drivable condition. Day of the test comes, and the generals and colonels are sitting in bleachers set up in the desert as the transport aircraft lumbers overhead. My grandfather and several other engineers from the project where there as well. Rear cargo door of the plane opens up and the pallet with the Sheridan flies out the back. The tank gets safely away from the plane, and just keeps on falling and falling. Immediately the engineers knew that something was went way wrong when the main parachutes failed to deploy, and all hell was about to break loose in roughly 30 seconds when a brand new tank was about to impact the ground at terminal velocity. Of course the drop was a safe distance away from the observation bleachers, but you could still feel the ground vibrate as a million dollar tank got turned into the worlds most expensive pancake. Needless to say the tank crew that parachuted out afterwards was unable to drive the Sheridan off into the sunset.

Next, "how bad will the M551 Sheridan be" 😂

The t92 had almost zero problems and was universally agreed to be a pretty amazing tank and congress was like nah it can't swim

I have an uncle who commanded these things in Vietnam. He said that the electronics were pretty unreliable, but thinks it would have been a pretty good vehicle going forward if they had managed to fix some of the bugs.

How dare you bully this child, this little guy? He's just doing his best.

The M551 will always be a good tank in my heart (:

During the 1980s, the Naval Surface Weapons Center experimented with installing the 105 mm Gun M68 in the turret of an M551 Sheridan and using the recoil system for the 152 mm gun-launcher. The cannon was trialed with and without a muzzle brake. Although the installation worked, it would have required significant development before it was satisfactory. The turret ring in particular couldn't quite handle the recoil force of the massive weapon and was damaged after some tests. However, it was deemed practical to mount a 105 mm gun on such a lightweight chassis. The experiment would influence the development behind the Armored Gun System (AGS).

They were the first armor response in Saudi Arabia after the Iraq invasion of Kuwait, and they used their Shillelagh missiles against Iraqi targets once the ground war went hot. The Shillelagh was comparable in performance to the TOW-II (though not the -b or other variants) in terms of penetration and flight speed. The issue with paper fragments in the bore detonating rounds was resolved (IIRC) with a compressed cold air evacuator. Part of the issue with the combustible cases in Vietnam was that moisture caused the cardboard casings to swell, which would make them split, and propellant would collect in the turret basket and hull floor, which made fires in the vehicle even worse. I seem to recall hearing that the casing material was changed to correct this but I could be mistaken. Regardless, yeah, it was a pretty bad vehicle.

A family member built circuit boards for the military and the Sheraton is used as an example of what not to do when it comes to circuit boards. Because the Sheridan had an issue of shaking the circuit boards loose which wouldn't cause immediate failure but over time especially after a few more shots and could cause failure of critical components. So for the several companies he worked with they use to Sheridan as a benchmark of what not to do a circuit board and its mounting hardware had to be able extreme forces many times more than what was expected in the vehicle that is to be put in.

I used to be a paratrooper in the 82nd 86-90 I saw one of those tanks burn 🔥 in on a heavy drop what a sight tank falling from the sky

Hey spookston I was wondering if you could do one of these on the centurion I really like the way you don't sugar coat a vehicles performance so it would be interesting to hear you talk about the centurion since over here it's considered the best tank the British army has ever had. I'd love to hear you talk about peoples perceptions of military procurement and how it does and doesn't affect western countries foreign policy decisions if you don't mind anyway love your videos and keep up the good work.

My grandfather (also) worked on the Sheridan's electronics in Desert Storm. He did optics repair on it, and he speaks rather fondly of it. He referred to it as the "Sheridan Shillelagh" quite often which I found odd but I won't argue. He worked on the optics for the missile guidance, he said. Edit: fixed typo

I honestly just feel bad for this thing. Its performance is just laughable and the problems make me wonder why tf congress got to tell the army to stop making a promising thing because the enemy thing could _f l o a t_

seeing how this gun was used on the XM tanks maybe the next vid can be about the XM-1 and the 2 variants of it?

I find it a bit odd that the US failed with the concept of the combined Gunlauncher and the Shillelagh missile. It seems the Soviets had a better approach. Instead of creating a new gun with a missile to launch through it, they just designed a missile for the existing gun. With all the T-55, 62, 64, 72, 80 and BMP-3, they had/have missiles for their guns. No matter of caliber like 100mm, 115 or 125mm, naming Bastion, Svir, Kobra missiles (depending on the variant).

The M551 just feels like it was designed way too early for what it was intended to be. If we went back and made the same thing now, it would probably be flawless, but with the tech of the time, serious teething issues were inevitable. Granted I'm biased because I just think they're neat.

Funny enough we brazilians got a lot of the M41 units and we had to struggle with that tank in our army for more than a decade until we finally got the M60A3 TTS in the end of the cold war.

Whoa! I always wanted you to talk about the T-92, what a neat surprise in this video

The funny thing is, if we took the concept, and gave it a short barreled version of the M256/L44, we'd have a very capable tank for urban warfare

My youngest brother was the navigator aboard one of the C-141s that airdropped the ten Sheridans during Operation Just Cause. Most of them landed on the DZ, but one went splat when the chutes did not properly deploy and I believe another landed in a swamp. I still rib him about it, claiming it was his ship that dropped the one in the swamp due to poor navigation (never actually verified).

I was an artillery forward observer with F-Troop 17th Cav Americal Div. We had Sheridans and the crews despised them.

Would be nice if it had a fucking laser range finder in game

That air drop during Just Cause in 1989...most of the tanks promptly got stuck in a swamp to one side of the airfield. The DZ had been covered by long grass, and they thought it was solid ground underneath. Only two were immediately recoverable out of (I think) seven. "Light" tank is a relative term!

That is pretty much the story of every weapons system developed in the 1960s. AiM-4 Falcon Missiles, early model AiM-7 sparrows, T-64 opposed piston engines, the list goes on. Frankly some hybrid of the m551 and the m50 ontos would have been pretty nice - I mean if the problem is recoil, then recoilless Rifes are the way to go - yes? Or turn it into an air-mobile MLRS, and leave AT to Man-portable LAWs for the airborne.

The M41 when I used it in War Thunder, I was shocked with how it seemed way better than it was. The T-92 was also quite nice though it dealt with better tanks. The M551 Sheridan doesn’t seem fun to use in WT at all especially with the large recoil from the non missile round

I`d like to see a video like this but on the m24 Chaffee or walker bulldog

Was there ever any consideration given to developing a closed breach cannon capable of firing the 106mm projectiles from the M40 recoiless? Obviously a different propellant base would have to be used. Such a weapon could have given a light tank a highly effective AT weapon (~350mm of pen) out to 1500y and commonality of ammo development with all other 106 rounds. The performance of the 106 actually matches the 155 Heat round the 551 did actually get so the only downside is the lack of the missile for long range work. Not to mention to simplify range estimation the spotting rifle could be easily adapted as well. Something the Brits we’re doing contemporarily on their tanks. Basically, why wasn’t a low velocity 105 considered?

Really wish they'd add the damn upgraded version already. Thermal vision and laser rangefinder, would be so good for it's performance.

TEPAS guy here , I trained foreign allies in how to use old tanks we sold them in the 90s , we sold alot of ooold tanks including M60 and 551 . I actually enjoyed the Sheridan and it was fun to crew and the missile option was an interesting twist and last models had alot of missile issues fixed enough. Also it was ALWAYS interesting to see Tankers with jump wings 😂

I hope one day, you do a vid on the churchill tank, or even a british tank

Gotta say my favorite light tank is the M18 by far

Sheridan moment

I feel had the US armed the M-551 with the same M-54, 90mm high-velocity gun mounted on the M56 Scorpion of the same era. The Airborne force would have had a truly competent Airborne armored support vehicle they needed, instead of let's see what happens the Beta-test they got.

My friend was a mechanic on the M551 he said the engine tended to run away sometimes

My grandpa did opfor games in the 80s and got to use some of these tanks in their modified configuration

I like the Sheridan a lot, though I've never been in one. It can do a lot of novel and useful things you don't appreciate until you need to do them. It sounds like the majority of problems with it could have been solved with a refit program to install a new gun. Something much lower caliber with more traditional munitions, maybe a chopped down version of one of the 105's paired with a rack of ATGMs on the exterior. Either way with any sort of overhaul and refit effort, these could have served with more distinction than they did. They also look damn good.

After your video,I feel lucky to survive the vehicle.

Was on one in the 1974-76 time zone on the border a good track for its day

I hope we get the TTS variant in the future

3:33 That actually is an ancient concept called paper cartridges. Many guns of the mid 19th century used them. Maybe most famously the Prussian needle gun but also pretty much every single gun in the American civil war outside of a few muzzle loading relics. It wasn't until about the 20th century that metalurgy had improved enough to make reliable shell casings and manufacturing had developed to the point it could be made in large enough quantities.

David Drake (scifi author, Hammers Slammers) served in Nam with the 11th Blackhorse Cav, who had Sheridans. While he worked as an interrogator, not a tanker, his opinion formed from working/talking with Blackhorse tankers about the Sheridan was bad. It was apparently regarded as under-protected its the aluminum armor, and vulnerable to mines with its flat/thin hull.

I think it was more a victim of the era’s electronics rather than being a bad idea

Could you do a "how bad is the Jagdtiger" video?

just a thing during Just Cause some of the M551 Sheridan's dropped got destroyed on impact to the ground. tank encyclopedia has a big article on this

When I was a tanker in 1968-71, the big feature that made it desirable was that it was air droppable .

"Instead of getting the best of both worlds, they ended up with a disaster." Perfect summary of everything that ever attempts to be a "jack of all trades."

You videos are nice I watch your vids on my pc after my own "friend" sinking me on purpose in war thunder

Buying you pc at august looking on to it 👀

Special place in my heart for this tank.

hi spookston, if you ever do more of your "everything wrong with" series, you should consider looking at foxholes tanks. They are alternate history tanks based on interwar/ww2 tank mixes.

Could you do a video about how bad was the Churchill 7?

I just now realized he used one of the song from Subnautica as background music.

i would like to see one of these videos about the M24 chaffee

Do a video on the challenger 2 myths

The Marine Corps is looking at acquiring a new light tank which in my mind is the natural evolution of the concept of the m551 as an AFV for lighter airborne/expidionary forces

Kinda wish we had the ability to upgrade the M551 to the TTS variant in WT like the BMP-1’s can upgrade.

I still have to research it though.

3:32 so like, “projectile disfunction”?

Supposedly there was a proposal to mount the same gun as the bulldog in the Sheridan except it would be modified with an autoloader

looking at this video makes me miss when missile guidance actually worked and wasnt shit... god i miss it so badly.

Eyo, I would like to know what your grapical settings are, Ive only recently started playing but holy shit are the shadows black as the night, legit cant see a tank right in front of me if its hiding in a shadow. Also, it creates a massive contrast with the surrounding light, which is really straining on the eyes.

The M551 Sheridan was also experimentally fitted with a derivative of the 76 mm Gun M32A1 used by the M41 Walker Bulldog. It is interesting to note that Chile experimented with upgrading its M41 Walker Bulldogs with OTO Melara's 60 mm High-Velocity Medium Support (HVMS) Gun which is claimed to be capable of penetrating the side armor of the T-62 (15 to 79 mm thick) at 2,000 meters. Perhaps the 60 mm HVMS Gun could have been a viable upgrade option for the M551 Sheridan?

i honestly never knew the sheridan had a negative reputation at all, ive heard a lot of good things about it from former servicemen, oddly. just a cool looking design. also overpowered in WGALB

Id love to see some vids about swedish tanks, i think they have some very interesting vehicles.

That tanker at 0:13 looks suspiciously like Nicholas Moran.

Just out of curiosity, why make a second video about this tank?

It is possible that the M551 Sheridan could have been better employed as a tank destroyer / ATGM carrier in an armored battalion's anti-tank platoon supporting the main battle tanks.

I want you to create a SPGs tutorial please🙃

Aint this a reupload im sure i saw this 1-3 weeks ago

I was a crewman on the M551 in the 4/12 Cav 5th infantry division, and i loved this track! Quick and very nimble, huge main gun and could traverse water, unless you have been in the belly of the M551 please don’t criticize a tank you have never served in

I thought you already made this video

tbh Spookston can you try to check the tank history of Czechoslovakia tanks? like lights and mediums? idk if there were heavy tanks in blueprints but my guess that it would be most unlikely

is this a re-upload? it seems like i saw this video a week ago

At least the tank in the tech tree of wot before this one is a lot of fun (t49 I think)

2:15 imagine being cancelled because of the pt-76b

Didn't spookston already make a video on the sheridan? Or am I missing something

Okay okay.. Did you already make Sheridan video 2 weeks ago?

Having a 152mm HE gun on tracks to supplement mechanized infantry seems like a good thing compared to having only 30mm on bradleys and the 105mm Stryker MGS. The Sheridan is also C130 transportable unlike the bradley. I'd rather have a Sheridan with its gun than a stryker with the 105mm.

the fact that the M551 was used in the Gulf war is mind blowing enough, considering what type of a vehicle it is..

didn't I see this video like a week ago?

I have a question . You mentioned that the m 551 got a thermal imager. That made me think that a lot of us tanks that were considered obsolete by the time thermal imagers were introduced seemed to be getting one, which is completely in contrast to which the soviets did with their tanks. Do you have any idea why this might have happened?

Love the authentic war footage😅❤✌

It had thermals and LR god I love it even more

Didn't you do a Sheridan video 2 weeks ago?

Hey bro I have a question, what graphics settings do you play on because it always looks good but you get 150 fps, and I can’t imagine you have a super high spec computer.

God that t71 looks like a panther but with a shrunken hull

This tank was my best friend in Vietnam.

We want the T92 to be amphibious! AAI: We cant make that happen Congress: FINE! We'll just cancel you!!! Honestly, sounds about right... Sheridan: Its gun breaks the tank when it fires, its armor is trash, its recoil is crazy, its shells cause the tank to randomly explode, it kills crews Congress: WE'LL TAKE YOUR WHOLE BATCH!!!!! But....but its not even amphibious!!! Congress: Oh, umm, oh well....we will over look that minor detail. AAI: FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

If the M551 had a laser range finder, why doesn't it have one in WT ? Yes it may be a earlier version in game but why not either give it the laser rangefinder so it can match the starship or just down tier it?

If war thunder added the XM551 Sheridan it would consider to be overpowered

Can you do how bad was the Panzer 68

It was so bad that those who had to use this tank wanted their walker bulldog back

The M551A1 was not a "Tank" it was never designed or intended to be a "Tank" , It was in fact an AAARV (Airborne Assault Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle). The M24 and M41 were also mentioned and these too were not designed as MBTs. They were "light reconnaissance vehicles". At 25 Tons and made of aluminium, the M551 was no equal of the 50 ton M48 series or the 52 ton M60 series which were in fact Main Battle Tanks.

I would say it a good test ground for a mix fire tank.