The M60 main battle tank was designed to counter Soviet armor, but for three decades one in Washington faced another adversary: Avalanches.
That doesn’t mean tanks were used to attack an avalanche as they rolled down a mountainside. Rather, the Washington State Department of Transportation used M60s for many years to lob a shell at unstable snow sitting on steep slopes above towns and roads. The explosions triggered the snow to slide off the mountains with no risk to anyone below. The process is called avalanche control or mitigation.
Starting in the late 1990s, the department had a force of three tanks for avalanche control, but that number dwindled to one M60 by 2015, said John Stimberis, one of the department’s two avalanche forecaster supervisors.
Over time, the number of technicians qualified to fix the tank dropped because the Army no longer uses the M60, Stimberis told Task & Purpose on Wednesday from his office which is adorned with a sticker that reads: “There are very few problems that cannot be solved by the suitable applications of high explosives.”
In 2018, the Army required the department to return its remaining tank, in part because it was difficult to maintain, and because the service had required that all federal and state agencies that use artillery to prevent avalanches switch to M101 howitzers for the sake of consistency, Stimberis said.
“The Army said, ‘we’re taking the tank back,’” Stimberis said. “They gave us a few years’ warning. They said, ‘Here’s the direction we’re going, we’re going to have howitzers only for artillery-based avalanche control. And any of these other legacy systems, you’re going to return those and find another method — either use the howitzer or find another way of doing avalanche control.’”
The state’s transportation department still uses a howitzer for avalanche control, but the artillery piece is more than 80 years old, and it will eventually be replaced by remote systems, said Stimberis.
All in all, Stimberis said he misses the now-returned tank.
“The tank was pretty cool,” he said. “But the bottom line is: There are better ways to do it with the remote systems, and our overall goal is providing safety on the highway and doing it as efficiently as possible.”
A brief history of the M60
The Army first fielded the M60 tank in 1960 to counter improvements in Soviet armor. It was developed in the late 1950s as an upgrade from the M48, and it was designed to oppose Soviet tanks at the time, including the T-54 and T-55, said retired Army Maj. Michael Liscano Jr., who spent 22 years as an armor officer.
Liscano also has a background in tactical and operational employment of armor and mechanized units in large-scale combat operations as well as the armor acquisitions process, armor doctrine development, and armor history.
“The M60 Patton was one of the most important tanks in U.S. military history, serving for decades and seeing action in multiple wars,” Liscano told Task & Purpose. “It featured a 105mm M68 gun, which was a licensed version of the powerful British L7 rifled cannon, giving it an edge in firepower. The M60 also introduced a diesel engine, which improved fuel efficiency and range compared to earlier gasoline-powered tanks.”
The Israelis used M60s in the 1973 Yom Kippur War against Soviet-built T-62 tanks used by Egypt and Syria, Liscano said. Although the tank proved to be effective in battle, it was also vulnerable to anti-tank guided missiles, such as the Soviet Sagger.
Years later, the Marine Corps used M60A1s during the first Persian Gulf War in 1991, none of which were lost in combat, showing that older tanks can still be successful with modern upgrades, Liscano said.
Notably, the tank was also involved in one of the most infamous police chases in history. In May 1995, a man stole an M60A3 from the California Army National Guard Armory and took it on a 25-minute rampage before he was shot and killed by police. No one else was injured during the incident.
Although the U.S. military replaced the M60 with the M1 Abrams, several countries continue to use upgraded versions of the tank, including Egypt, Turkey, Taiwan, and Brazil, Liscano said.
“While no longer the most powerful tank on the battlefield, the M60’s legacy as a durable, adaptable, and battle-tested war machine remains strong,” Liscano said.