M48A5 Patton

The **M48A5 Patton** is an American Tier X versatile medium tank available in the tech tree.

The last modification of the M48 tank from 1970, developed to modernize the remaining M48 tanks in service up to the M60 tank's level. The modification featured a new engine, armament, and fire control system. Apart from armor protection, the 2,570 upgraded vehicles were practically indistinguishable from the M60 that featured the same armament and engine.

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## Player Opinion

### Advantages

* Decent rate of fire for the caliber leads to great base DPM of 2922.90
* Above average shell speed on all shell types
* Minimal accuracy penalties when rotating the turret or moving the hull
* Quick aim time
* Best in class view range with 420m
* Above average HP pool with 2000 HP
* Above average gun depression of 9 degrees
* Decent base dispersion
* Situational armor can lead to occasional ricochets, particularly around the turret and boat-shaped hull

### Disadvantages

* Mediocre top speed for a medium at only 45 km/h
* Very low camo and fairly large size makes it hard to keep hidden
* Large size for a medium makes it easy to hit, especially for artillery
* Prominent weakspots on both turret and hull

### Conclusion

The M48A5 Patton is a tank with an excellent gun that struggles to fully perform as it is set on a subpar chassis. Being such a large, slow target with mediocre armor, the Patton tends to be a more focused target as it is generally an easy pen for the enemy. To fight this, you should limit the tanks exposure time by taking quick shots with its excellent gun handling and staying at a second line position between close-range brawlers and long-range snipers, where there is a larger chance of the enemy's shell missing their intended shot and bouncing off a thicker armored plate. The tank's excellent view range allows it to more easily spot enemies through foliage or at longer ranges than other tanks, but its large size and poor camo make scouting activities risky. Its turret armor is rounded enough to cause occasional ricochets from enemies with lower penetration or poor aim, but the large cupola weakspot can be easily penned and hinders hulldown gameplay. Try not to directly brawl with tanks that can easily outtrade you and preserve your HP for later game, where you can fully utilize the above average HP pool and excellent DPM to clean up lower HP enemy tanks.

## Historical Information

These conversion upgrades present in the M48E5 were applied to all M48A3 versions still in service With the Army National Guard units, allowing the training levels of guard units as well as creating a common ammunition throughout all tanks. One feature to this upgrade package includes the M68 105mm gun, which was placed into the M116 mount and the all-metric measurement M16 fire control system. The tanks hull was updated by incorporating as many components of the M60A1 RISE Hull PIP Update Kit as possible. Due to many M48A5 tanks being conversions of earlier models, there were many small differences in specific characteristics, such as the number of support rollers on each side, headlight assemblies, and even cupola styles. The M48 Patton has saw combat service in the Vietnam War, Indo-Pakistani wars (alongside soviet T55s, British Centurions, and American M4 Shermans), many parts of the Middle East, and Africa.

### Variants

* T48: Developmental prototypes designed in 1950
* M48: Initial production variant
* M48C: Modeled with incorrect hull ballistic protection for the Armored Forces School at Fort Knox for non-ballistic training
* M48A1: Includes the M1 cupola and Mod B hull design
* M48A2: Redesigned hull with a simplified suspension system
* M48A2C: Adds M13 fire control system
* M48A3: Introduced the AVDS-1790-2A diesel engine and M1E1 cupola
* M48A4: M60 turrets placed upon the M48A1 hulls
* M48A5PI: Earlier conversions of the M48A1 hulls to the M48A5 standard
* M48A5: Featured the M68 105mm Cannon and a NBC crew protection system

## Other Resources

### References

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