8-star Main Battle Tank: M48 Patton
 
The Patton tank is actually a series of tanks. The name of Patton comes from the famous American general George Patton in World War II, and the M48 is the third-generation improved model of the Patton series. The original intention of the development of the M48 was that the M46, the first generation of Patton tanks on the Korean battlefield did not perform well. The M46 is actually a power-enhanced version of the 7-star medium tank M26 Pershing, and even some M46s are directly modified from the M26 chassis.
 
The U.S. military urgently needed a new tank to change the war situation. Since the second generation Patton M47 has serious hidden dangers, the U.S. military turned to the research and development of the M48. The M48 is also the first generation of main battle tanks in the United States. It defines the design ideas of modern main battle tanks: a new type of tank with heavy firepower and armor protection, as well as the mobility of medium tank.

 

It entered official service in 1952, gradually replacing the M46 on the Korean battlefield, and then serving in large numbers on the Vietnam battlefield. In addition, due to the M48's good reliability and easy maintenance design, this tank has been retired in the United States for a long time, and there are still a considerable number of active models in some countries.
 

8.1-star main battle tank: M48A3 Patton
 

(M4A3 on the Vietnam battlefield)

The M48A3 is an improved model of the M48 of 1963, with an upgraded fuel tank and engine, as well as an electronic fire control system. Interestingly, the upgraded power train is identical to the 9-star MB M60 described below. It is also for this reason that the M60 has already started producing at that time, so the M48A3 didn’t has a new tank, all were modified from the old model M48.

 

 

8.2-star main battle tank: M48A5 Patton

In the 1970s, M48 were basically replaced by M60, but these M48 were in very good condition, and the cost of M60 was too high (the cost of an M60 at that time was 420,000 US dollars), so the U.S. military chose to modify these M48 and replace the main guns and machine guns. The main gun, code-named M68, was developed from the United Kingdom and is exactly the same as the 9-star MB M60.
 
In addition, since the military has begun to install the M60, the M48A5 has not served in the U.S .military, but has been handed over to the U.S. National Guard.
 

9-star main battle tank: M60 Patton
 
When introducing the M48 series earlier, the M60 was mentioned many times. This is because the research and development of the Patton series is mostly based on the improvement of the previous model, while the M60 is improved on the basis of the M48A2. The M60 has changed the body turret and is equipped with the M68 main gun mentioned above. At the same time, it is equipped with an infrared searchlight that is easy to target for night operations. In addition, due to the increase in armor thickness, in order to improve the relatively insufficient power of the M48 series, a more powerful diesel engine was replaced.

The M60 was officially served in 1960, but the firepower of the new main battle tank of Soviet in the same period could easily penetrate the armor of the M60, which led the U.S. military to rush to develop the M60A1 model with better protection and put it into production in 1962. This also is one of the most produced models of M60.
 
In 1987, after the production of the last M60A3 was completed, the M60 production lines were completely stopped. A total of more than 15,000 of M60 were produced, and more than 20 countries are or have used the M60. At the same time, the M60 is also the last model of the Patton series, and the U.S. military replaced it with the M1 Abrams.
 

9.1-star main battle tank: M1 Abrams
 
In the mid-1970s, the U.S. military began to develop a new tank to replace the Patton series. More or less problems with the test vehicles made it impossible to determine mass production. During the transition period, the M60 model introduced above was born. In 1973, Chrysler Defense and General Motors submitted proposals respectively and set the design direction of the M1. The plans of the two companies were basically the same, except for the choice of engine.

In 1976, because of some "political" factors, Chrysler Defense finally won a $20 billion M1 development contract. By May 1979, the M1 was put into production, in total there were 3,273 of M1 Abrams tanks produced between 1979 and 1985, and officially entered service with the U.S .Army in 1980.

The M1 tank is equipped with composite armor and is also the first tank equipped with Chobham armor. This new type of armor can effectively block the damage of armor-piercing projectiles to the occupants in the vehicle. Combined with the excellent defensive performance of composite armor, the protection performance of M1 is very good, which is also reflected in the data of the game.

 

9.2-star main battle tank: M1A2 Abrams
 
At present, the MB with the highest star rating in the Liberty Camp, it is also the latest model of the M1 tank of U.S. military in reality. The M1A2 was developed during the Cold War to counteract the Soviet Union's new main battle tank, but since the Cold War was over when the M1A2 officially entered service in 1992, the military changed the production plan of 3,000 to only 77; the remaining 600 of M1A2 are modified from good condition M1.

The M1A2 has been replaced with new equipment on the basis of the M1 and M1A1. The composite armor has been upgraded to the second generation depleted uranium armor. At the same time, a new aiming system has been added, which can lock the enemy faster. The main gun has been replaced from the 105mm caliber M68 to the 120mm M256A1 smoothbore gun, which is also the largest caliber main gun currently equipped by the U.S. military on tanks.

The data of the game also accurately shows the difference between these two tanks. The data of the 120mm caliber is much stronger than that of the 105mm, especially the difference between the Pen depth and the damage.
 
In reality, because there is no need for war, the U.S. military doesn’t need to continue to invest a lot of money in research and development, and the development of M1A3 is slow. And most of the M1/M1A1 have also been retired or modified into M1A2. As a 9.2-star MB, it deserves its name.