5726 M551 SHERIDAN TANK.pdf

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27026
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Chris Hughes
alk Around®
About the Walk Around® Series
The Walk Around®series
is
about
the details
of specific
military
equipment
using
color
and
black-and-white
archival
and photographs
of
in-service, preserved,
and restored equipment.
Walk Around®
titles
are
devoted to
aircraft and
military
vehicles. These are
picture books focus
on operational equipment,
not
one-off or experimental subjects.
Squadron/Signal
Walk Around® books feature the best
surviving and
restored historic
aircraft
and
vehicles. Inevitably, the
requirements
of preservation,
restoration, exhibit,
and
continued
use may affect these
examples
in
some
details of paint
and equipment.
Authors
strive to
highlight
any
feature that departs from
original
specifications.
Proudly printed in the U.S.A.
~
Copyright 2012 Squadron/Signal Publications
1115 Crowley Drive, CarroUton, TX
75006-1312
U.S.A.
www.SquadronSignalPublications.com
-:1
All rights reserved. No part
of
this publication may be reproduced,
stored
in
a
retrieval
,
system, or
transmitted in any form by means electrical, mechanical,
or otherwise, without
written permission
of the publisher.
(Front Cover) An M551 of the
3/4th
Cavalry, 25th Infantry Division patrols around Cli Chi,
Vietnam, in February 1969. The
3/4th
Cavalry was one of the first units in Vietnam to be
issued the M551.
(Back Cover) A crewmember of an 82nd Airborne M551A1(TTS) displays his vehicle's
basic equipment load during Operation Desert Shield in Saudi Arabia, December 1990.
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Hardcover ISBN
978-0-89747-677-5
Softcover ISBN
978-0-89747-676-8
Military/Combat Photographs and
Snapshots
If
you
have any photos of
aircraft, armor, soldiers,
or
ships of any
nation, particularly
wartime snapshots,
please
share
them
with
us
and
help make
Squadron/Signal's
books
all
the
more interesting and complete in the future. Any photograph
sent
to us will be copied and
returned. Electronic
images are preferred.
The
donor will be fully
credited
for any photos used.
Please
send
them to the address
above.
(Title Page) The restored M551 belonging to the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation
(MVTF) in Portola Valley, California, wears the gray desert MERDEC (Mobility Equipment
Research and Development Command) paint scheme of the late 1970s and 1980s.
Acknowledgments
This
book is dedicated to the late Jacques M. Littlefield, founder
of
the Military
Ve~icle
Technology
Foundation
(MVTF) in
Portola Valley, California.
Special
thanks
are
due to
the
MVTF, home
of the
M551
Death
Stalker;
to
David Doyle
for
guiding
me through this book
and other photo projects;
to
Craig Michelson
and Mark
Walter at
the
American
Military Museum,
a.k.a.
"Tank1and";
to Brent
Sauer,
Paul Hannah,
and Chuck Sherman
for their photos;
to Roy Lingle for crucial
photos
of M551Al
details;
and
last but not least, to my
wife
Julie for her
patience while
I'd
go out and get
"tanked"!
During the
early
part
of
1957, the U.S
.
Army's
Ordnance
Committee was
in the
process of designing
a
replacement for the
76mm Gun
Tank
M41. At
the time, intelligence
reports
showed
that the
Soviet Union was
developing its
own
fully
amphibious
light tank.
The
current light tank under development in
the
United
States,
the
T92,
lacked this
feature
and
could
not be redesigned to incorporate
an amphibious
capability.
Therefore,
new light tank design came
about
that would be both
airborne and amphibious capable.
In 1959,
the
new light tank
was
designated the
armored reconnaissance/airborne
assault vehicle or
AR/AAV
In June 1960,
Cadillac Motor Car Division received a contract
to develop the new
AR/AAV
The
AR/AAV
XM5 51 was
named the
Sheridan
in August
1961
after
Major
General
Philip H. Sheridan,
a Union Army cavalry
commander in the
American Civil War.
The
new vehicle was
unique in that its main
armament consisted
of
the 152mm
XM81 gun-launcher
that
could
fire both the
XM13 guided
missile
or
combustible case conventional ammunition.
Twelve
pilot
vehicles were built
by 1965,
and
in May 1966,
the Sheridan was officially
standardized for
manufacture. Between June 1966
and November
1970, 1,662 M551
Sheridans
were produced
-
all of
them
at
the
Cleveland Army Tank Automotive
Plant.
Armament of
the
M551 consisted
of the 152mm
gun-launcher M81. Secondary
armament
included
either a 7 .62mm
machine
gun
M73
or
M219 mounted
co-axially with
the
gun-launcher, and a .50-caliber
heavy machine
gun
M2 mounted in
the commander's
cupola.
Weighing just under 16.5 tons
combat
loaded, the M551
could reach speeds
of 43
miles per hour on land.
When
rigged for
amphibious operations,
it
could
attain
approximately 3.5
miles per hour in calm
water.
The M551
was
first deployed
in
combat in
Vietnam
in
February
1969.
The vehicle
also served with U.S. armored cavalry
regiments
stationed
in
West Germany
during the
Cold
War.
Beginning
in 1972,
a
laser range finder
system was
procured for
the Sheridan.
Vehicles
so
fitted were designated ARlAAV M551Al. In 1977, a further
series of
modifications
came
in the form
of a
Product Improvement Program or PIP that included
various
power pack improvements,
a stronger
drive
sprocket
mount,
and
new
steel
tow
lugs to replace the aluminum
ones
that had
a
tendency
to
shear
off under high
stress
loads. In
spite of the
modifications, the M551 was
still
plagued by problems
with
the
M81
gun-launcher system and various
maintenance issues.
These
led to the
vehicle
being
withdrawn from
all active
Army
units,
other
than the
82nd Airborne
Division,
since
the
M551 was
the
only armored vehicle
in the
Army's
inventory that could be
air
dropped.
With
the
82nd
Airborne, the M551
saw combat
during the U.S. invasion
of
Panama
in December 1989
and
in
Saudi
Arabia
and Kuwait
during
the
war
against
Iraq,
code
named Operation Desert
Shield/Desert Storm
in 1990
and
1991.
It
also formed the basis
of a series of
visual modification
(VISMOD) vehicles
that
were
built
to
look like Soviet-
bloc equipment. After the
M551 was
retired
from service with
the 82nd
Airborne
in
1996, the
VISMODs
remained
in
service
at the National Training Center (NTC)
at Ft.
Irwin, California, and
the Joint Readiness
Training Center (JRTC)
at Ft. Polk,
Louisiana,
until 2003,
at which
time
all
M551 types
were withdrawn from
service.
Built by the Allison Division of Cadillac Motors starting in 1966, the M551 was in service
with the
U.S.
Army for over 35 years, with the last of the vehicles being retired in 2003.
Many M551s finished their careers with visual modification (VISMOD) kits for use at the
National Training Center (NTC) at Ft. Irwin, California, or the Joint Readiness Training
Center (JRTC) at Ft. Polk, Louisiana. This Sheridan was modified to simulate a Soviet
T-72 main battle tank. (Charles Sherman)
Vehicle left
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....
- - - -
Idler assembly
- - -
~
-
Vehicle front
Vehicle right
~g
Hydraulic track adjuster
1
1
"-
Torsion bar
r
1
1
1
1
1
1
A compensating idler wheel is positioned at the front of the tank on each side. Each
wheel consists of an inner and outer idler wheel with an idler hub sandwiched in between
them. They are held together with 22 self-locking bolts.
Lacking rubber tires, the idler wheels are a natural metal color wherever they meet the
track shoes. The inner rims of each wheel are burnished to a sheen after recent contact
with the track shoe's guide teeth.
Y
1
1
1
1
1
1
Road wheel arm
Anchor
\:
1
Shock absorber
®/
1
r
Sprocket drive assembly
"--.~
I
1
1
t- - - - - - - - -
-
- - - -
-
-
- - I
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Vehicle rear
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