M47 Patton The M47 Patton was the second tank of the Patton series , and one of the U . S Army ' s principal medium gun tanks of the Cold war with models in service from the early 1950s to the late 1980s . The tank belongs to the Patton family of tanks , named after General George S . Patton , commander of the U . S . Third Army during World War II and one of the earliest American advocates for the use of tanks in battle . It was a further development of the M46 Patton tank . History . The M47 was the U . S . Army and Marine Corps primary tank , intended to replace the M46 Patton and M4 Sherman tanks . The M47 was widely used by U . S . Cold War allies , both SEATO and NATO countries , and was the only Patton series tank that never saw combat while in US service . Although roughly similar ( from a distance ) to the later M48s and M60s , these were completely new tank designs . Many different M47 Patton models remain in service internationally . The M47 was the last US tank to have a bow - mounted machine gun in the hull . Design . Although a new power plant corrected the mobility and reliability problems of the M26 Pershing , the subsequently renamed M46 was considered a stopgap solution that would be replaced later by the T42 medium tank . However , after fighting erupted in Korea , the Army decided it needed the new tank earlier than planned . It was deemed that there was not enough time to finish the development of the T42 and fix various problems that were likely to emerge in a new design . The final decision was to produce another interim solution , with the turret of the T42 mounted on the familiar hull of the M46 . The composite tank , developed by the Detroit Arsenal , was named M47 Patton and entered production in 1951 . Its main gun was the M36 90 mm gun with an M12 optical rangefinder fitted . The secondary armament consisted of two . 30cal Brownings , one bow machine gun in the hull and one coaxial machine gun in the turret , and a . 50cal Browning M2 on a pintle mount on the turret roof . The T42 turret had a larger turret ring than the M26 / M46 turret , and featured a needle - nose design which improved armor protection of the turret front ( similar to the M60A1 tank of 1962 ) , an elongated turret bustle and storage bin which protruded halfway across the engine deck , and the turret sides were sloped to further improve ballistic protection ; this gave the turret a decidedly lozenge - shaped profile . It also featured the M12 stereoscopic rangefinder , which was designed to improve first - round hit probability but proved difficult to use ; the rangefinder protruded from both sides of the upper turret front , which would be a feature of American tanks until the advent of the M1 Abrams in 1980 . Production began at the Detroit Tank Arsenal in June 1951 before the M47 was standardized for production . Delays in shipment of the M12 rangefinder and other problems due to the rushed production schedule caused a protracted testing period , and the first M47s were not fielded to the 1st and 2nd Armored Divisions until summer 1952 . Standardized in May 1952 , the M47 Patton ' s production ran until November 1953 ; Detroit built 5 , 481 tanks , and American Locomotive Company ( Alco ) produced 3 , 095 , for a total production run of 8 , 576 M47 Pattons . Deployment . With the arrival of the improved M48 Patton in 1953 , the M47 was declared limited standard in 1955 and were replaced with the M48 series in tank units soon after . After being declared obsolete in 1957 , M46s and M47s were retained in active duty infantry division battlegroup assault gun platoons ( four tanks each , one platoon per battlegroup , for a total of 20 tanks per division ) until replaced with the light truck mounted SS - 10 anti - tank guided missile in the early 1960s . M47s were used by the Reserves for a relatively short time , soon being replaced by early production M48 Patton series tanks ; thus , most of the M47s were exported in the late 1950s . The US Marine Corps also fielded M47s starting in late 1952 ; after the Korean War , all seven Marine tank battalions , three divisional , two reserve training , and two force level , all fielded M47s . But these were soon replaced with M48A1 Pattons and M103 heavy tanks , with the last M47s being retired in 1959 . The M47 was widely used by NATO and SEATO allies as well as other countries , including Austria ( 147 ) , Belgium ( 784 ) , Ethiopia ( 30 ) , France ( 856 ) , Greece ( 300 plus over 30 from West Germany ) , Iran ( around 400 ) , Italy ( 2 , 480 ) , Japan ( 1 for evaluation only ) , Jordan ( 49 ) , Pakistan ( 230 ) , Portugal ( 161 ) , Saudi Arabia ( 23 from the US , 108 on the international market ) , Somalia ( 25 from Saudi Arabia ) , South Korea ( 531 ) , Sudan ( 17 from Saudi Arabia ) , Spain ( 389 ) , Switzerland ( 2 for evaluation ) , Turkey ( 1 , 347 from the US and West Germany ) , West Germany ( 1 , 120 ) , and Yugoslavia ( 319 ) . Like the US Army of the time , the West German Bundeswehr also used some of their M47s as interim tank destroyers / assault guns until replaced by the Raketenjagdpanzer 1 tank destroyers armed with SS - 11 anti - tank guided missiles in the early 1960s . US Army M47s remaining in storage were expended as targets ; in the 1970s , they were used for the M60A1 ' s gun with devastating effect . The 105 mm HEAT round would penetrate the frontal armor with ease . Many M47s in like - new condition met their fate in this manner , showing the M60 crews first hand the effects of modern tank weapons on conventional steel armor . Combat service . The M47 was used by the Turkish Army , in the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in July and August 1974 , with an estimated 200 or more Pattons involved in the action . At least one operational M47 , number 092273 , was captured intact by the Cypriot National Guard and was reported to be still in service as late as 1993 . The M47 was used by Jordan in the Six Day War in 1967 . Pakistan used M47s against India in the Indo - Pakistani War of 1965 . Iran used Pattons against Iraq in the Iran - Iraq war . Croatia used M47s against the Serbs in the Croatian War of Independence but their performance was inferior to that of the Soviet T - 55 s . The Pattons were retired from service immediately after the war , and are now used as gunnery / missile targets during military exercises . Variants . " Additional Equipment "