M47 Patton
In service 1952 - 1960s in US service; into the 1990s elsewhere
Based onM46 Patton (successor to)
A stopgap built in enormous numbers: the M46 hull with a new turret rushed into production for Korea, then handed out across NATO in their thousands.
Built byDetroit Arsenal and American Locomotive Company
Photograph pending. No clearly licensed photograph of this vehicle was found.
Development history
Korea caught the US Army mid-programme, so the M47 married the improved M46 hull to the elongated turret designed for the experimental T42, giving better ballistic shape and a stereoscopic rangefinder. Roughly 8,500 were built from 1952. The rangefinder proved hard to use, the bow machine-gunner was a wasted crew position and the type arrived too late for Korean combat, so the US replaced it quickly with the M48. Its real career was abroad: supplied under military aid to Italy, West Germany, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and others, M47s fought in the Indo-Pakistani wars and remained in some armies into the 1990s.
Variants
One canonical record, 2 recorded variants.
M47
1952M46 hull with the T42-derived turret and stereoscopic rangefinder.
M47M
1969Export rebuild with M60 engine and fire control, bow machine-gunner deleted; Iran and Pakistan.
Related vehicles
Separate records that derive from this vehicle, grouped by how they relate to it.
Successor to this vehicle
Notable actions
- Indo-Pakistani War of 1965
- Indo-Pakistani War of 1971