M36 GMC (China)

␗M36 GMC

␗ISU-152

␗ISU-122

␗M36 GMC

␗ISU-152

␗ISU-122

China

IV Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
5.3	5.3	5.3

Class:

Tank destroyer

Research:46 000

Purchase:155 000

Show in game

This page is about the Chinese tank destroyer M36 GMC (China). For other uses, see M36 Jackson (Family).

Description

The ␗90-mm Gun Motor Carriage M36 is a rank IV Chinese tank destroyer with a battle rating of 5.3 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.91 "Night Vision".

General info

Survivability and armour

Armourfront / side / back

Hull38 / 19 / 19

Turret76 / 31 / 25

Crew5 people

Visibility101 %

Armour type:

• Rolled homogeneous armour
• Cast homogeneous armour (Gun mantlet, Transmission area)

Armour	Front	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	38.1 mm (56°) Front glacis 50.8-107.8 (9-63°) Transmission housing	19.05 mm (37°) Top 25.4 mm Bottom	19.05 mm (42°) Top 19.05 (1-45°) Bottom	19.5 mm Front roof 9.5 mm Engine deck
Turret	31.75 mm (2-53°) Turret front 76.2 mm (°) Gun mantlet	31.75 mm (0-21°)	25.4 mm (2-23°)	N/A

Notes:

• Tracks are 30 mm thick, bogies are 10 mm thick while the wheels are 20 mm thick.
• Small slivers of 5 mm armour hang off the top side hull armour, giving minuscule protections at those areas.
• Track blocks on the side hull armour allows an extra 30 mm of armour at their locations.

Mobility

Speedforward / back

AB52 / 7 km/h

RB and SB48 / 7 km/h

Number of gears5 forward

1 back

Weight28.1 t

Engine power

AB954 hp

RB and SB500 hp

Power-to-weight ratio

AB34.0 hp/t

RB and SB17.8 hp/t

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	52	7	28.1	710	954	25.27	33.95
Realistic	48	7		442	500	15.73	17.79

Modifications and economy

Repair costBasic → Reference

AB2 490 → 3 080

RB2 921 → 3 613

SB4 048 → 5 007

Total cost of modifications40 600

78 500

Talisman cost1 400

Crew training45 000

Experts155 000

Aces630

Research Aces440 000

Reward for battleAB / RB / SB

110 / 170 / 210 %

160 / 160 / 160 %

Modifications

Mobility	Protection	Firepower
Tracks Research: 2 000 Cost: 3 900 115 Suspension Research: 2 300 Cost: 4 400 130 Brake System Research: 2 300 Cost: 4 400 130 Filters Research: 3 400 Cost: 6 600 195 Transmission Research: 4 400 Cost: 8 500 250 Engine Research: 4 400 Cost: 8 500 250	Improved Parts Research: 2 000 Cost: 3 900 115 Improved FPE Research: 2 300 Cost: 4 400 130 Crew Replenishment Research: 3 400 Cost: 6 600 195	Horizontal Drive Research: 2 000 Cost: 3 900 115 90mm_us_M82_APCBC_ammo_pack Research: 2 000 Cost: 3 900 115 Adjustment of Fire Research: 2 300 Cost: 4 400 130 Elevation Mechanism Research: 3 400 Cost: 6 600 195 90mm_us_M313_Smoke_ammo_pack Research: 4 400 Cost: 8 500 250

Armaments

Main armament

90 mm M3 cannon

Ammunition47 rounds

First-order11 rounds

Reloadbasic crew → aces

9.7 → 7.5 s

Vertical guidance-10° / 20°

The 90mm cannon on the M36 is great at its BR. The stock AP has good penetration but lacks damage, so it is recommended to quickly unlock the APCBC which is superior in every aspect.

90 mm M3					Turret rotation speed (°/s)					Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode	Capacity	Vertical	Horizontal	Stabilizer	Stock	Upgraded	Full	Expert	Aced	Stock	Full	Expert	Aced
Arcade	47	-10°/+20°	±180°	N/A	21.10	29.25	35.52	39.28	41.79	9.70	8.63	7.95	7.50
Realistic					14.28	16.80	20.40	22.56	24.00

Ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
M77 shot	AP	162	160	148	135	123	113
M82 shot	APCBC	173	170	159	145	133	121
M71 shell	HE	13	13	13	13	13	13

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile Mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
M77 shot	AP	822	10.61	N/A	N/A	N/A	47°	60°	65°
M82 shot	APCBC	813	10.94	1.2	14.0	137.2	48°	63°	71°
M71 shell	HE	823	10.55	0.1	0.5	925	79°	80°	81°

Smoke shell characteristics
Ammunition	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile Mass (kg)	Screen radius (m)	Screen deploy time (s)	Screen hold time (s)	Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g)
M313	821	10.7	13	5	20	50

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the M36 GMC (China)

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	3rd rack empty	4th rack empty	5th rack empty	6th rack empty	Visual discrepancy
47	39 (+8)	30 (+17)	21 (+26)	12 (+35)	7 (+40)	1 (+46)	No

Notes:

• Recommended load is 21 (+26) to remove most ammo from the hull.
• Racks 5 and 6 are ready racks and take priority in being filled as well as depleted.
• Full reload speed will be realized as long as ammo exists in either ready racks. If both ready racks are empty, a penalty to reload speed will occur.
• Simply not firing when the main gun is loaded will load ammo from racks 1 to 4 into 5 then 6, as long as there is ammo present in racks 1 to 4. Firing the main gun will interrupt the loading of the ready racks.

Machine guns

12.7 mm M2HB machine gun

Ammunition1 000 rounds

Belt capacity200 rounds

Reloadbasic crew → aces

10.4 → 8.0 s

Fire rate575 shots/min

Vertical guidance-10° / 70°

Horizontal guidance-60° / 60°

12.7 mm M2HB
Mount	Capacity (Belt)	Fire rate	Vertical	Horizontal
Pintle	1,000 (200)	576	-10°/+70°	±60°

Usage in battles

Play style with the M36 should be about the same as the M10. The speed is slightly better and armour is still just as thin, but it has an improved turret traverse rate and a 90 mm gun, making it able to engage targets much easier. The play style is also similar to the M18, since they have the same concept - speed and manoeuvrability with a powerful armament.

The greatest advantages of the M36 are its speed and its armament. As such, the best course of action is to make use of the speed to get to good early game positions on the map. The 90 mm gun is powerful at its BR, and it can penetrate many tanks at its BR from the front. But, this is not the case for more heavily armoured targets such as those in the IS series or the Panther series, but it can reliably kill every tank at its BR from the side in 1 to 2 shots because of the high explosive filler in the APCBC round. In addition, most enemy tanks can reliably penetrate you from the front, as the M36 does not have thick armour. Your armour can only protect you when a shell hits it at an extreme angle, or against low penetration weapons, such as those one some anti-aircraft vehicles. All of these factors mean that the M36 should never engage enemy tanks from the front, unless they are preoccupied with a friendly vehicle or not looking in your direction, but the M36 should engage enemies from the side. As such, the M36's mobility should be used to get to positions that the enemy would not expect where it will be able to shoot the enemy in the side before they even realize you are there. The M36 can also use its mobility to flank effectively. If an enemy knows your location and has an operational gun, you should not push out into their line of fire, as they are likely to come of better than you. If an enemy is likely to be able to shoot you, do not chance it, as only one shot will often knock out or disable the M36.

In a downtier, there are not a lot of heavily armoured tanks that the M36 can't penetrate, so the player can also choose to not flank, but to sit at a position and be a sniper. It's best to find a spot that:

• Overlooks a key street / passageway where enemies will likely to pass / go to
• Has hard cover or hill to hull-down
• Has bushes to hide in
• Is not too close to the frontline

This way when any enemy comes in sight, the M36 can easily finish it off, therefore "locking down" this key passageway, preventing the enemies to push and attack which gains a significant advantage to your team.

One thing to note: if there is an enemy plane in the vicinity, getting to cover is a priority as the turret is open topped, and a plane can kill all three turret crew in one pass with only low-calibre machine guns.

Modules

Tier	Mobility		Protection	Firepower
I	Tracks		Parts	Horizontal Drive	M82 shot
II	Suspension	Brake System	FPE	Adjustment of Fire
III	Filters		Crew Replenishment	Elevation Mechanism
IV	Transmission	Engine		M313

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Easily achieves its top speed of 42 km/h regardless of the terrain, allowing it to get to most positions in good time
• Excellent firepower with a maximum penetration of 173 mm and 137 g TNT; easily pens and one-shots most opponents like the Tiger H1, Pz.IV 70 and the Shermans, combined with its x5 scope magnification it is a deadly sniper
• 10° gun depression provides great terrain adaptation.
• Around 16°/sec of turret rotation is adequate to respond to surprise attacks
• Powerful roof mounted M2 MG can deal with light vehicles and incoming planes

Cons:

• Only 5 km/h of reverse speed can get the player killed sometimes
• Weak armour overall, can die from artillery strikes or small bombs
• Open topped, vulnerable to aircraft attacks
• Quite big and tall for a tank destroyer- harder to hide
• Does not have access to the better APCR like the American one

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the vehicle in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the vehicles;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• encyclopedia page on the tank;
• other literature.

China tank destroyers
PLA
Gun vehicles	PLZ83 · PLZ83-130 · PTZ89
Missile vehicles	AFT09
ROC
Missile vehicles	CM25
USA
Gun vehicles	␗M8 HMC · LVT(A)(4) (ZiS-2) · ␗M10 GMC · ␗M36 GMC
Missile vehicles	␗M113A1 (TOW)
USSR
Gun vehicles	␗SU-76M · ␗ISU-152 · ␗ISU-122 · ␗SU-100