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
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