The CM-11 Brave Tiger () is a

main battle tank A main battle tank (MBT), also known as a battle tank or universal tank, is a tank that fills the role of armor-protected direct fire and maneuver in many modern armies. Cold War-era development of more powerful engines, better suspension sys ...

(MBT) that was developed by the American

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Uni ...

and the

Republic of China Army The Republic of China Army (ROCA), previously known as the Chinese Nationalist Army or Nationalist Revolutionary Army and unofficially as the Taiwanese Army, is the largest branch of the Republic of China Armed Forces. An estimated 80% of the ...

Armored Vehicle Development Center. It was introduced to the public on 14 April 1990. The CM-11 is a hybrid M60 chassis fitted with the turret from the older M48 Patton and the fire control system of the M1 Abrams.

Development history

The Republic of China (Taiwan) established the Armored Vehicle Development Center in 1980, and was tasked to develop military armored vehicles, and had cooperated with General Dynamics to develop the CM-11.Global Defense Magazine Vol. 70, June 1990 The development of the tank has two main purposes, first was to avoid the limitations set by the US-PRC Joint Communique (17 August Communique), and second was to allow the ROCA to acquire second-generation MBTs. The CM-11 is a hybrid tank using the M48A3 turret with the

M60A3 The M60 is an American second-generation main battle tank (MBT). It was officially standardized as the Tank, Combat, Full Tracked: 105-mm Gun, M60 in March 1959. Although developed from the M48 Patton, the M60 tank series was never officially ...

tank hull, combined with the new

M1 Abrams The M1 Abrams is a third-generation American main battle tank designed by Chrysler Defense (now General Dynamics Land Systems) and named for General Creighton Abrams. Conceived for modern armored ground warfare and now one of the heaviest ta ...

tank's

Fire-Control System A fire-control system (FCS) is a number of components working together, usually a gun data computer, a director, and radar, which is designed to assist a ranged weapon system to target, track, and hit a target. It performs the same task as a ...

(FCS). The United States designated it as M48H, where the "H" means Hybrid, and the Republic of China designated it CM-11 and named it Brave Tiger.

Design

In 1988, two prototypes were finished and 450 CM-11 were ordered to built. The M60A3 hull was procured from the United States in 1987, and the M48A3 turret and the M68A1 105mm main cannon was produced by the Army Ordnance Maintenance and Development Center. The commander's turret was procured from Israel with an

M2 Browning The M2 machine gun or Browning .50 caliber machine gun (informally, "Ma Deuce") is a heavy machine gun that was designed towards the end of World War I by John Browning. Its design is similar to Browning's earlier M1919 Browning machine gun, w ...

12.7mm (.50 caliber) machine gun, the loader operates an M240 7.62mm machine gun, the coaxial machine gun is also an M240. Both sides of the turret have a M239 smoke grenade launcher mounted, like the M60A3 tank.

Advantages

The greatest features and advantages of the CM-11 are that it has the same level of digital/analog hybrid

ballistic calculator A ballistic table or ballistic chart is a tool which predicts the trajectory of a projectile, and is used to compensate for physical effects in order to increase the probability of the projectile reaching the intended target. Ballistic tables are ...

as the

M1A1 Abrams The M1 Abrams is a third-generation American main battle tank designed by Chrysler Defense (now General Dynamics Land Systems) and named for General Creighton Abrams. Conceived for modern armored ground warfare and now one of the heaviest t ...

; it has a two-dimensional sighting and gun stabilization system, more complete than the M60A3's one-dimensional stabilizing device; combining the AN/VSG-2 thermal imager, AN/VVS-2 Image Intensifier, AN/GVS-5 Nd-YAG laser rangefinder, allowing the CM-11 to have fire-on-the-move and night combat capabilities. It also has the highest probability of first-round hit compared to all other ROCA tanks.

Disadvantages

Disadvantages of the CM-11 are its outdated design, armor, and gun. The Chinese

PLA PLA may refer to: Organizations Politics and military * People's Liberation Army, the armed forces of China and of the ruling Chinese Communist Party * People's Liberation Army (disambiguation) ** Irish National Liberation Army, formerly called ...

's second-generation Type 96G tank and its third-generation

Type 99 tank The Type 99 () or ZTZ-99 is a Chinese third generation main battle tank (MBT).US Army TRADOC Intelligence Support Activity (2011:5-40) The vehicle was a replacement for the aging Type 88 introduced in the late 1980s. The Type 99 MBT was China's ...

are both armed with a 125mm main cannon. The CM-11's armor does not offer significant protection against their 125mm APFSDS and HEAT shots. The ROCA knew this disadvantage very early, and tried to introduce

explosive reactive armor Reactive armour is a type of vehicle armour that reacts in some way to the impact of a weapon to reduce the damage done to the vehicle being protected. It is most effective in protecting against shaped charges and specially hardened kinetic ene ...

(ERA) from the French company

GIAT Nexter Systems (formerly known as GIAT Industries or ''Groupement des Industries de l'Armée de Terre'', Army Industries Group) is a French government-owned weapons manufacturer, based in Roanne, Loire. Group organization The Nexter group is ...

. However, the weight of the additional ERA installations caused excessive stress on the M60 chassis's

torsion bar suspension A torsion bar suspension, also known as a torsion spring suspension, is any vehicle suspension that uses a torsion bar as its main weight-bearing spring. One end of a long metal bar is attached firmly to the vehicle chassis; the opposite end termi ...

, so plans to install ERA on the tanks was put on hold until a solution was found. The CM-11's 750 hp (560 kW) Continental AVDS-1790-2

V12 V12 or V-12 may refer to: Aircraft * Mil V-12, a Soviet heavy lift helicopter * Pilatus OV-12, a planned American military utility aircraft * Rockwell XFV-12, an American experimental aircraft project * Škoda-Kauba V12, a Czechoslovak experim ...

, air-cooled twin-turbo

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...

is 50-year-old technology as well, having been introduced in February 1963 with the first 600 U.S. Army converted M48A3s. During the Spring Festival in 2012, the ROCA's 542 Armor Brigade of 6th Army Corps initiated their combat readiness drill, and showed a CM-11 installed with ERA for the first time. Developed by CSIST, angling was applied to the ERA design to reduce the probability of penetrating the hull. File:CM-11 Tank before Testing Demo 20130302a.jpg, CM-11 side view File:CM-11 Tank Rear View 20110813a.jpg, Rear view of CM-11

Upgrade program

In 2017, Taiwan's Ministry of National Defence announced that it had allocated $6.6 million USD to develop upgrades for the country's 450 M60A3 TTS tanks. When the upgrade program was announced, the United Daily News reported that the CM-11 fleet would be upgraded after the M60A3 program.

References