The M103 is an American heavy tank of the Cold War era. The first prototypes of this machine were made in 1957, and serial production was carried out in 1957-1964. The drive - in the M103A1 version - was provided by one Continental AV1790-5B engine with a capacity of 810 hp. The length of the car body was 6.99 meters, and the width was 3.63 meters. The combat weight was 56.7 tons, and the range was approx. 130 kilometers. The main armament was a 120-mm M58 gun, additional - 3 machine guns of caliber 12.7 and 7.62 mm. The M103 tank was developed for the needs of the US Army and the US Marine Corps as a counterweight to the heavy Soviet T-10 tanks. In the new machine, special emphasis was placed on the best possible armor - especially the front part of the hull and the tower - and the use of the most powerful weapons. Obviously, this led to a relatively high weight of the machine, which, combined with a relatively weak engine, resulted in low mobility and average maneuverability of the M103, especially in the basic version and the M103A1. In the course of operation and with the appearance of new versions of the machine, attempts were also made to harmonize some elements of the M103 with other American tanks (for example, the M46 or M47), which did not have a good effect on the reliability of the M103 drive. system. In the production process, three main versions of the machine were created: M103 (basic version), M103A1 (version with a new sight and ballistic computer) and M103A2 (version with a new engine and a different sight). Tanks of this type have never been used in combat. They were decommissioned in the 1970s.
