What is this M 103?
M 103 is a heavy tank used by the United States Army in several wars and battles. This is one of the few US tanks that have a long service history. This tank has done a great service during the Cold War.
Origin
When we talk about the origin of the M 103, its place of origin is the United States. And this was built as a heavy tank. Even though the heavy tanks had so many obstacles and failures, this M 103 was a total success. At the time the medium tanks had the best demand. But they were not strong enough to break the barricades. So, they gave a heavy tank a try and the result was this M 103.
History
When we talk about the history of the M 103, we can talk under two main categories. The service history and the production history. Let us take a look.
The service history
As already mentioned, M 103 is one of the US tanks that has a long period of service history. This tank was in service for whole 17 years. For a war tank, it is a victory. They used this tank in service from 1957 to 1974. This was used in the Cold War by the United States Marine Corps and the United States Army.
The production history
This is one of the few mass-produced heavy tanks during the war periods. As mentioned in the records, they built 300 of these to serve the nation. These M 103 were manufactured by a famous company called Chrysler.
Variants
As for most of the tanks, M 103 also had a few variants. There are two variants for this tank, named M 103 A 1 and M 103 A 2. That is all about the production history of M 103.
General information
There are several categories under this topic. Let us look at them one by one.
Armor
When we talk about the armor of the tank, there are two categories we can look into. The hull armor, the turret armor.
The hull
Here we talk about the thickness of the armor. The hull armor of the M 103 was 114.3 mm thick from the front and it was 55-66 degrees angled. The sides of the hull armor were about 50.8 mm thick from the upper part and 44.44 mm thick from the lower part. The back of the hull armor was 38 mm thick and the roof was about 25.4 mm thick.
The turret
The front of the turret armor was around 127 mm to 350 mm thick from place to place and the sides were around 76.2 mm to 93 mm. the back of the turret armor was 51 mm thick and the roof had a thickness of a 38 mm.
Armor type
There were two armor types in this tank. The cast homogeneous armor and the rolled homogeneous armor. This rolled homogeneous armor can be seen on the turret roof of the M 103.
The crew
The crew of M 103 had 5 members. They were the commander, the gunner, the driver, and the two loaders. As the M 103 had a handy interior, they were pretty comfortable in it.
Dimensions
The total length of the tank was about 37 ft and 2 inches. And the height was about 10 ft and 6 inches. This tank had a width of 12 ft 2 inches or 3.71 meters. The whole mass of this tank was around 65 tons. They calculated it with the short tons. Here a unit equals 2 000 pounds.
Mobility
Now let us take a look at the mobility of the M 103.
This tank had a forward speed of 36 km/h and a backward speed of 9 km/h (AB). In RB and SB it had a forward speed of 34 km/h and a backward speed of 9 km/h. There were 5 forward gears and 2 backward gears. So, there was a total of 7 gears in this tank.
Modules
Finally, let us look at the available modules and their specifications. There are several modules we can talk about and let us see one by one.
Engines
There were two engines in this tank.
| Engine | Chance of fire on impact | Weight | Engine power |
| Continental AV-1790-7C | 20 % | 569 kg | 860 hp |
| Continental AV-1790-5B | 20 % | 569 kg | 810 hp |
Guns
There were three guns in this tank. The first gun was the 120 mm Gun T122.
120 mm Gun T122
This had a penetration of 242/340/60 mm and a damaging power of 400/400/515 hp. The rounds per minute of the fire rate were 5.45 and the dispersion was about 0.4. The aiming time of this gun was 2.5 seconds and this gun weighed 2790 kg.
120 mm Gun M58
The second gun on this tank was the 120 mm Gun M58. This had a penetration of 258/340/60 mm and a damaging power of 400/400/515 hp. The rounds per minute of the fire rate were 6 and the dispersion was about 0.37. The aiming time of this gun was 2.3 seconds and this gun weighed 3100 kg.
105 mm Gun T5E1/45
The last gun of this tank was a 105 mm Gun T5E1/45. This had a penetration of 208/245/53 mm and a damaging power of 320/320/420 hp. The rounds per minute of the fire rate were 6.45 and the dispersion was about 0.39. The aiming time of this gun was 2.1 seconds and this gun weighed 2400 kg.
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