Meet the M60A2 'Starship'! Walk and talk-around at NACC Ft. Benning 

I went to tank drivers school at Ft. Knox in 1979 (MOS 19F). We used M60A2s for drivers training since the hull was the same as other M60s, and the then recently obsolete turret didn’t matter. For family day there was a cool demonstration of the turret spinning one way and the powered cupola spinning another, as well as a neutral steer and turret stabilization demonstration. Inside, the turret was small, but the various illuminated and rubberized buttons looked very space age/advanced. Operating the powered cupola was fun! And, each crew member had a hatch on the M60A2. I never saw the M60A2 again after basic as I was first assigned to an M60A1 crew, and then an M60A3TTS crew. Sofilein: the Army is now accepting female tank crew members, time to sign up…….

The people I know that served on a M-60A2 really liked it that the gunner had his own hatch.

"Starship" was a slang by the crews because it was such a space age tank for it's time - I mean c'mon, MISSILES?! I knew a couple of men in the Army that crewed these. They either loved it or hated it.The really high profile TC's sub turret was made that way to provide good 360 vision, and it worked really well. The M73 .50 cal machine gun in it didn't. The M60A2 designator indicated a factory built Starship; the M60A1E2 was an M60 hull with a retrofit Shillelagh turret, or so I read somewhere long ago. A typical Armor Battalion was supposed to have 1 company of A2's and 2 companies of A1's. The Scout Plt was supposed to have M113's with that other missile hauler, the M551. An interesting evolutionary dead end from our Space Age Army days. Keep the great content coming! I'm between jobs, and need something to fight off the boredom other than FB.

One of the few modern tanks equipped with a hatch for every crewman! A big plus!

When I went to Armor Basic Officers course in 75, you learned the M60A1 and the Sheridan. Those officers in the class going to M60A2 units received specialized training, the rest of us just got a basic orientation. When I went to Germany my battalion in 1st AD was M60A1, while the 1st AD 4-37 Armor was all M60A2. Next to us, 3rd Inf Div split their M60A2s up with one company in 3 battalions. 1st AD's 4-37 did OK as it simplied the maintenance, I think the 3d ID units struggled with maintenance and employment. The system was way ahead of its time, the electronic boxes did not take tank stress (firing, normal rattling, humidity etc) very well, today's micro circuits can handle it much better. I do not recall the term "starship being used, Just A2. However ti probably was a crew name.

A nicely done Tank Girl video without enough Tank Girl to watch. Thanks for this video, I have heard of this and wanted the story on it, and your flick is very comprehensive, and rounds up all the interesting details. Keep up the good work, Sofi!

Sofi , working through you videos and all these historical track vehicles....Love what you are doing and you make this ol Soldier smile ...Thank-you Tank Girl !!!!!!!

Starship.......YES! Whenever I see a M60A2, Grace Slick automatically comes to mind. Another fine video

This is only hearsay but I was told by an old RTR pal that it was wise to use a fire extinguisher down the barrel between rounds. I understood he had been on a joint exercise or exchange visit in W Germany with US Cav. Interesting story but can anyone verify or has anyone else heard this? Sofilien, keep them rolling. You are a breath of fresh air presenting these.

When I was in Europe in the late 70's I was on the M60A1 RISE. We heard horror stories about the A Duces, as we called them. When the RISE model came in they were afraid of issues with the new power packs. electronics and lack of spare parts and only allocated 1 per Platoon. As it turned out it was unfounded. I couldn't tell you what the crews called them, but to us they were the A Duce. To us the A Duce was a prime example of a good idea taken over by bureaucrats.

I went through basic training st Fort Knox in 70. We'd see these things on the road all time. They were really impressive when they rumbled by.

I use to see these back at Fort Hood back in the 80's, yes it is a odd looking beast. Good job Sofilein!

I was a school trained M60A2 crewman (1974) with MOS 11EW1. I was assigned to Co A 3/33 Armor in January 1975. We received our brand new M60A2 tanks later. We did occasionally use the term Starship when putting down our fellow M60A1 tankers. We had the starship and they had the dinosaur. Among ourselves, we called it the A deuce. As far as machine guns go, you could make the M73/M219 work by hand boosting the belt into the gun. The feed system was weak and the gun didn't like to drag that belt uphill out of the bin. The M85 worked well on high rate, which was just fine because high rate meant more rounds down range. The only big problem with that was a limited supply in the ammo box. I gunned a lot and I was one of the few to fire an actual live war shot missile. All missiles I actually fired worked as advertised. I also had zero problems with any conventional shots and the pressurized air evacuation system never gave any problems on my tank. The whole fire control system was delicate though, and our talented turret mechs were VERY IMPORTANT PEOPLE!!

Good info, tanks! Audio came in clearly too.

They really tried out just about every plausible idea on the M60 hull

Sofi - another favorite tank of mine. Thank you. The missile tank concept timeframe coincides with the Air Force and Navy's brilliant decision that future jet fighters would only need missiles to fight, guns were considered obsolete. Of course we now know how effective that strategy turned out to be at the start of the Vietnam War. See the original gunless design for the F110/F4 fighter.

Nice! I like the prepared commentary added after the footage.

Thanks for this historical video and the extensive research on this. I remember as a child playing with a toy version of this tank. Thanks for taking me back. Awesome 👍.

Outstanding video and presentation as always. Thanks from California.

Photo with your smiled face while sticking out of the turet hatch at the very end is a graet idea. It shows clearly how passionate you are ith the AFVs. Would love to see more tracked IFVs. Of course German, Frech and soviet/post-soviet designs. :)

Stickler for the M103... XD love your content!

I served as an 11 Echo, 19 Echo & 19 Kilo from 76-97... While stationed on M60A1's with I Co 2/6th Cav, Armor School Support, from June 76 to Jan 78. Our Sister Company, H Co 2/6th Cav had the only "60 A Deuces!" I never heard them called "Starships," nor did friends in H Company call them "Starships" while stationed at Knox! In fact it wasn't until the late 90's that I ever heard the "60 A Deuces" called "Starships" and had no Idea what my Air Force friend was talking about! It's like the M48 & M60 "Patton Tank..." We never called it "the Patton!" It was never listed as a Patton in any of the Technical Manuals! To this day, I tell Civilians I severed on M48A5's (Korea), M60's & M1 IP's & M1A1's.Abrams.... Looking through the comments, none of my Armor Brotherans called the "60 A Deuces" the "Starship..." The M85 .50 Cal was a "Love/Hate Affair..." You either "Loved It" or "Hated IT!" But the M73/M219 Coax was a "POS Paper Weight!" I had left 1st Tank (1/72d) in Korea in Feb 79 & reported to "lovely" Ft Polk & was one of the last Active Duty Units to receive the new & BELOVIT M240 Coax in! I loved the 1911A1, the M2 "Ma Deuce" and the M240! And spent my best years on M48A5's and M60A3s... Probably because of the Comrades I spent them with! Anyway, you do a Great Job "Young Lady!" ;)

Wonderful! thanks

Great commentary about a bizarre tank. I remember building a model of it and questioned the need for that huge cupola. Would love to see a video about the earlier M48 Patton tanks with the 90mm gun or something about the LVTP-5 as well. The Japanese Type 74 is also a cool, but basic tank to look at.

I love these crazy post-WW2 hidden armor gems 💎 Refreshing 🍷

If memory serves, an example of one of these variants currently rests at the tank museum in Danville, VA, if you ever get a chance to stop by.

They could have put a tow launcher on this and the Sheridan instead of the 152mm Shiellegh . Maybe use the 105mm on the M60 and a auto cannon like the Bradley setup on the Sheridan hull . I’ve always thought the Bradley turret would have worked well on the M551 .

40th Armor in West Berlin had the M60A2 while I was stationed there 1975-78. My quarters were about a half mile from their barracks. I remember watching them motor along in front of my apartment.

...I spat out my mouthful of coffee @ 0:41 XD XD :D ;D....Oh Sofilein, you've just made my day, dear :D

My favourite weird US tank of all time, thanks for the video on it.

Ironically enough the Israeli IDF has been operating their secretive Pereh tank, based on the M60 Patton for the last thirty-five years. Which is actually a mobile anti-tank missile launcher disguised as a tank, carrying 12 Tammuz missiles. It's pretty bad ass.

T28/T95 would be an awesome tank to talk about. I love the walkaround already.

Im curious what those 3 trailer hitch balls you see at 1:52 were used for?

Great choice. I have a soft spot for the ugly ducklings. I began wargaming in 6mm with the Challenger rules system. A classic example of something being viable on paper/tabletop, but not in reality. The Shillelagh weapon system that also graced the other ugly duckling (M551 Sheridan) was rated as having laser fire control system (apply Doctor Evil accent), which was exotic and advanced. It’s contemporaries, (M60A1, Chieftain, Leopard, AMX30 were still using ranging machine guns or optical sights), Challenger/M1/Leopard2 were on the cusp of coming into service. The missile had a respectable warhead, but as noted, once you started firing conventional shells, (in game anyway), that was that for missiles. That left you with a HEAT warhead, and what must have been terrifying, a Canister round. Interesting that in the mean time the Soviets must have been taking notes and to this day are still credited with tube launched missiles.

Love these new walk around videos. M-88 Recovery

i like that turret design!

Nice, succinct view of a rare and interesting tank. Thanks! Since you asked, though, the next tank I'd like to see some in-depth videos about would be the Merkava series. Barring that, any of the Cold War Soviet stuff would be cool. I got to poke around inside a functional BMP-1 (and some other non-functional stuff) at Taji in Iraq and I'm now quite curious for more.

Nicely done! Thanks for the walk around.

Really liking this format of walk around. Very informative!!

Gorgeous tank!

The cupola with those viewports is very reminiscent of UFOs depicted in B movies from the era.

Good and informative video. Joined US Army in 1981, so was around to see the M60A3, M551 Sheridan, and the M60A2 while it lasted. NEVER heard the term "Starship" until recently - say about 5 years ago or so what with all the war gaming consoles coming out. When I was in they were called M60A2s or other "unique" names, IF you get my drift. M551 Sheridan's - fought then plenty of times while deployed to the Nation Training Center, Fort Irwin, CA. Actually have a co-worker that was a crew member on a Sheridan, so built a 1:35 scale plastic model for him.

I really love your videos , im a huge fan and love learning all this from you . thanks for the awesome videos

I think one of the primary technological advances of the M60A2, in addition to the combined gun/ATGM launcher, was that the gun system was stabilized, and could theoretically be fired accurately while the tank was moving. All previous U.S. tanks, including the M60A1s, had to be stopped in order for the gunner to accurately fire the main gun. This requirement to be stationary when firing increased the tanks’ vulnerabilities to enemy tanks and ATGMs. All later tanks, from the M60A3 onward, had stabilized guns, and could shoot accurately while moving.

Chieftain would be cool to hear about as my uncle used to drive one. Great vid sofilein. So much info but explained brilliantly so as not to baffle. Look forward to the next one. Will share it with my community. We are console. But tanks are tanks to a tank geek.😁👍🏻

I was in AIT training at Fort Knox and saw one of these in the field where we were. I snapped one picture of it and when I had it developed that picture was missing. About a week later I was called on to tha CARPET and I was told why it was missing . At that time it was a Secret project !!?? I later went on to teach tank gunnery at the United States Armour School at Fort Knox . I have a lot of history on the M551 General Sheridan. I taught the system to ROTC students and what was called at the time Shake-an-bake students also. With having so much experience on the M551 it landed my butt in Vietnam with the stupid thing with the 11th armored cav.

Yes this was a nice tank, I was a 63C with 1st of the 67th, 2nd AD at FT Hood 77-79. I drove them, I worked on them and got to see them firing up close, awesome experience.

I spent 4 years crewing an A2, i always thought that the starship nickname came from the control panel for the missile system and the gunners control station with all the multi colored lights when it was powered up.

You get to see some of the coolest vehicles!

My brother had the weird and scary experience of being driven over while in a fox hole by a retired M-60A2 at Benning back in 1990 while in basic training. The vehicle was only used for training scenarios. I wonder if this is the exact same tank?

Remember making a model of this tank as a kid. It was going to be the newest and greatest thing.

She just had to get inside! They squeezed Ed in too. I don't think there's a tank out there that Sofi wouldn't climb into - except Arty! She leaves them to Rita as her recent Bastogne video shows (M7 Priest).

What a baller little tank!

GREAT video!! Can't wait to see one of the tanks at Big Sandy Machine Gun Shoot shoot all of it's armament. Keep up the GREAT work. Looking forward to seeing more video's from ya. 👍👍

Maybe it has been awhile for me (MOS 19E) but "Starship" was not named for the 152 rifled/ATGM turret. It was named for the Xenon White-Light or Infrared Spotlight used for night ops. Either a M48 or M60 "ship" mounting a "starlight" The M60A2 was a total failure due to a crappy stabilization. The next leap of "starship" found its way into my tank, M60A3, which had a much improved "starlight" night vision called TTS or tank thermal sight from 1980 and an AOS.

Woooaa I love this tank 😍

Awesome video. Would love to go to Ft. Benning someday

The M60A2 is like the Airbus A380: a failed system. I served on this "piece of junk" in the mud and rain of Germany. It was pure Hell to get replacement parts but that was to be expected. Company maintenance would request replacement parts on muddy punch cards. It is not surprising that the tank was always in a state of disrepair. That is not the fault of the tanks or the men who manned them. It is the fault of the "chair-borne" genius who never imaged that the dirt in the field would not mix well with his brillant punch cards. BTW, in my six years on active duty, I never heard the nickname "Starship". It is an urban legend. We used more vulgar names for the M60A2.

Love this content, keep it up 🤘 please more experimentals and prototypes !

Would love to see a Sherman Firefly or a Centurion. Among my favourite tanks of WW2. Great video.

Can really tell you love tanks!

I was an M60A2 platoon leader in '75-'76. I never heard the "Starship" nickname, although a number of other colorful nicknames were bandies about on occasion.

It's almost like one of those 'Where's Waldo' pictures - except there's thousands of tanks and Sofi's head popping out of one or all of them.

A good number of M60A2 were also converted into M60 AVLB's and M728 Combat Engineer Vehicles.

01:06 I heard that as "M60 805mm gun" and was like WTF?! for two seconds before I realised she actually said "M68 105mm gun" and order and sanity return to my tankiverse.

That's a purdy tank.

I personally won’t be happy until you visit Cairns Arms & Artillery museum which is an amazing private collection here in Australia. It is due to receive a restored Panther from Bovington in May this year. Would love your review on the collection and an interview with the owner.

Please do a vid on the AMX elc bis! Gotta love the pocket tanks.

Excellent, chirpy and no music. It would have been a nice balance to see you reading some of the text. Keep up the good good work.

Ummm the designers favourite band was “starship” ... nothings gonna stop us 😜

As bad as the rep on this tank was, it’s still really cool to look at. Looks like it came from a sci-fi film.

The gunners hatch was good but I was a loader & driver of this tank & the turret would trap your helmet between the gun mantel & the driver hatch I was a tanker @ ft hood 2/67 at 2nd Armour division

I crewed the M60A2 with the 1/37 Armor Katterbach Germany 75 to 79

Really cool looking tank. 😁

Ah M60, je t'aime, mon armour! Edit : thanks for not ruining a good video with some dreadful distracting background music.

crewed on in Germany 1976-1978 then got the M60A3 in 79 I believe it was.

Never understood the point of this thing. The M60A1 with the M68 cannon was good enough to kill Soviet tanks and accurate enough to do it at range. This whole system just seemed like a bunch of bright ideas some engineers had and convinced the Army to adopt. Also, why are all the displays there in such rough shape? Does no one maintain or even wash them off once in a while?

The Chieftain did a snapshot video on the M60A2

My 1st real Job was part of a government contract to demill and Recycle all these M60a1, M60A2 and m48 tanks. I came across hundreds of them that had 10miles, and 2hrs on them and had been sitting in a Tx field for 30 years. They still smelt new inside, Had plastic on the optic lenses and I doubt ever had a crew. There were also thousands of them that had been well used, but I don’t think I ever came across 1 that had more than 300hrs or 500 miles on them. I think this was in 1996-2001, We would run a slave cable from one tank into another one that had been sitting for 20 or 30 years in the same spot. Then flip the master battery and every one of them powered everything up and then they started right up on the 1st try every time.. I got to drive them like I stole them for as long as needed to insure I run any fuel remaining out of them and did things in them any tanker would have only dreamed of. When I was done and sure It was running on fumes, I drove it to the main building and they all got taken apart, for recycling and the haul and turrets were cut into 2x2 chunks and melted down. The motors were sent back to the Army/USMC for reuse, or a hole was cut in the side of the blocks. It was the best Job a 21yr old could have dreamed of, I knocked over trees, played bumper tanks, ramped them. We took the turret off 1 new M60a1 and the suspension raised up 2 or 3 feet and we welded a plate over the hole and installed a couple old Ford Truck Bench seat there with seat belts for passengers and that thing would fly. It killed me when it was the last of the tanks in the contract and it had to go to.

I would like to see the MBT-70 , SHERIDAN , FIREFLY.

Cool design that was ahead of its time. (Edited, never mind my request was like 2 videos ago 🤪)

5:22 ".... others were converted to Armored Vehicle Launched Bridge (AVLB)."

WOW! I didn't know any still existed! 1/67 Armor 2AD had these at Ft Hood. Not a good weapon system. I never heard it called Starship.

That a really cool touch to get to see people in the positions on the tank. Great video!

@Sofilein You dabble in history well!

Question... Did this turret influence the design of the early Merkava turrets?

War Thunder players don't give this thing enough love. I just started Research on it a few days ago. Can't wait to bamboozle some unsuspecting Bloc tankers with thicc HEAT rounds.

bangin vid, big ups!

This is my favourite tank. Fuck the haters!!!

former 19E, M-60a3 Tanker who went through Disney Barracks in 1984. thought we called these the M-60a2 CEV, for Combat Engineer Vehicle. but heck, it's been awhile.

They were a nightmare working on them.

New tier 11 premium tank from Wot :)

Never heard them referred to as Starships. I was a tanker in 1st AD in the late 70's. As with the 551's the electronics were very unreliable. The common theme was if you wanted to fire missiles you did that first. The second or third conventional round would rattle the electronics enough that they would not work again. It was also a common sight to see a chain wrapped around the main gun. That indicated total electronic failure and the chain kept the turret from freely moving around. Israeli's proved the big commander cupola's were a dumb idea. Even just a shock wave from a nearby artillery hit was enough to knock off the cupola, usually killing the TC. M73 was the 7.62 coax MG. A real POS. We usually had one in a platoon that worked well enough. We'd rotate it between tanks for gunnery quals. M85 .50cal was my favorite. You had to take really good care of them and clean regularly, which many would not do.

German weasel - keep up the good work S

The name starship comes from the fact the turret looks exactly like bobafets starship from starwars ..

Well since you asked, even though they aren't in WoT... The M2 and M3A1 Bradley's and if there is a M109A5 I doubt there is a M109A6 Paladin (Have gun will Travel... yes it was named after the old radio/TV show) M901 ITV,

Some great tanks that you profile maybe wot console should pay attention instead of reskins and more historical accurate goodjob on the videos as always a pleasure

It was called "Starship" because of all the space age tech that went into her...

Hey Sofi, I know they're not tanks but how about something on MRAP's and MATV's.

I think you are the author of some of the graphics used in your videos. If so, please use some transparency on your watermak there. It tend to mess with the perception of it. If you make the graphics, or someone makes it for you pls try to add some flavour to the basic simplified, schematic view. Like a sketch touch or sth. I think it will help a lot and add some detailig and quality to your content. I like walkaround with your coment. Dont change it. Its great. Try add some funny and unusual points. One at a time will do the job perfectly. Keep up with great job. You are our tank girl :)