Raytheon M60 Upgrade

The National Interest has posted an article about the Raytheon M60A3 Service Life Extension Program (SLEP).  The article pretty much parrots the content of a video by Raytheon that was recently posted on youtube.

Frankly, the amount of media attention this upgrade program has gotten is somewhat surprising.  M60 upgrade packages are by no means a new phenomena and many seem more impressive than what Raytheon is offering here.  While the SLEP offers a substantial firepower increase, improvements to mobility and firepower seem modest.  An increase to 950 HP is welcome, but without changes to the transmission and suspension, it is hard to believe that mobility will be increased to any substantial degree.  It is possible that these other components are upgraded in the SLEP and simply are not mentioned in the video.  Certainly, more impressive mobility upgrades have been offered in the past, such as the Super 60 offered by Teledyne Continental Motors way back in the early eighties.  As for modern M60 upgrades, both the Israeli Sabra series and the Jordanian M60 Phoenix seem to offer as much or more than the SLEP.  There is also the General Dynamics M60-2000 (also called 120 S), although this upgrade borders on being almost an entirely new tank (with a price tag to match.)