M551 Sheridan Tank Conduct of Fire 1969 US Army Training Film TF17-4137

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DEMONSTRATES THE METHOD OF FIRING EACH OF THE WEAPONS ON THE GENERAL SHERIDAN TANK, INCLUDING THE 50 CAL AND 7.62MM MACHINE GUNS, 152MM GUN/LAUNCHER, AND GRENADE LAUNCHERS.

Originally a public domain film from the National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M551_Sheridan

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The M551 "Sheridan" AR/AAV (Armored Reconnaissance/Airborne Assault Vehicle) was a light tank developed by the United States and named after General of the Army Philip Sheridan, from American Civil War fame. It was designed to be landed by parachute and to swim across rivers. It was armed with the technically advanced but troublesome M81/M81 Modified/M81E1 152mm gun/launcher, which fired both conventional ammunition and the MGM-51 Shillelagh guided anti-tank missile.

The M551 Sheridan entered service with the United States Army in 1967. At the urging of General Creighton Abrams, the U.S. Commander of Military Forces in South Vietnam at the time, the M551 was rushed into combat service in Vietnam in January 1969. In April and August 1969, M551s were deployed to units in Europe and South Korea, respectively. Now retired from service, it saw extensive combat in the Vietnam War, and limited service in Operation Just Cause in Panama, and the Persian Gulf War in Kuwait. The Australian Army also trialled two Sheridans during 1967 and 1968, but judged that the type did not meet its requirements.

The Sheridan was retired without replacement officially in 1996. A large bulk of Sheridans were retained into service at the National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, California and as Armor Officer Basic training at Armor Training Center, then located at Fort Knox, Kentucky. They worked as simulated Soviet armored opposition force (OPFOR) to train U.S. military units on simulated tank on tank armored combat to test on combat effectiveness in a desert environment. They were finally retired from the NTC in 2003...

Production started on 29 July 1966, and it entered service in June 1967 with 1st Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment at Fort Riley. In the end, 1,662 M551s were built between 1966 and 2 November 1970. Total cost of the M551 program was $1.3 billion. The M81 gun had problems with cracks developing near the breech after repeated firing, a problem that was later tracked to the "key" on the missiles that ran in a slot cut into the barrel. Most field units were modified to help address the problem, but later the modified M81E1 was introduced with a shallower slot, along with a matching modification to the missile, that cured the problem. The gun also has been criticized for having too much recoil for the vehicle weight, the second and even third road wheels coming clear off the ground when the main gun fired.[citation needed] Some were experimentally fitted with conventional 76mm guns, but these never entered service...

The first Sheridans to arrive in South Vietnam did so in January 1969 and were accompanied by their factory representatives, instructors, and evaluators as the new vehicles were issued to the 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry, and the 1st Squadron of the 11th ACR. By the end of 1970, there were more than 200 Sheridans in South Vietnam,[18] and they stayed in the field until the last U.S. armored cavalry unit, the 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry prepared for re-deployment back to the United States on 10 April 1972... Like the M50 Ontos anti-tank vehicle, the battle reports from the troops were sometimes glowing, while the reports higher up the chain of command were often negative. This was largely due to the high casualty rate of both Sheridans and their crews as mines and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) that would only damage an M48 Patton tank, would destroy the Sheridan and kill or wound most, if not all, of its crew...

The Sheridan had several advantages: it did not get stuck in the mud as often as the 52-ton M48 Patton tank did, nor did it throw its track off as often. This alone was enough to win the tank crews' favor. The light weight and high mobility proved their worth, and the gun proved an effective anti-personnel weapon when used with either the M657 HE shell or the M625 canister round, which used thousands of flechettes as projectiles.

About the reliability of the engine system and gun, the tank was, however, really not up to the task...