M60D (7.62 mm)

Description

The M60D is an American 7.62mm General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG). In game the weapon can be found as a loader's roof-mounted machine gun on the XM-1 (GM) and XM-1 (Chrysler). Being only a 7.62mm machine gun it is largely ineffective against all but the most weakly armoured, or open cabin, vehicles.

Vehicles equipped with this weapon

• XM-1 (GM)
• XM-1 (Chrysler)

General info

The M60D has a good rate of fire compared to most other American 7.62mm machine guns at 650 rounds per minute. It is very similar in terms of performance to the L37A1 (7.62 mm) and L37A2 (7.62 mm).

Available shells

The M60D can only be equipped with one ammo belt consisting of one Armour Piercing (AP) bullet, followed by one Tracer (T) bullet. Neither bullet has much penetration (maximum of 10mm), however the AP bullet performs much better than the tracer bullet.

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Penetration in mm @ 90°
	10m	100m	500m	1,000m	1,450m	1,500m
AP	10	9	7	4	1	0
T	5	4	2	1	0.1	0

Shell details
Ammunition	Velocity in m/s	Projectile Mass in kg	Fuse delay in m:	Fuse sensitivity in mm:	Explosive Mass in g (TNT equivalent):	Normalization At 30° from horizontal:	Ricochet:
							0%	50%	100%
AP	853	0.0108	N/A	N/A	N/A	??°	??°	??°	??°
T	835	0.0095	N/A	N/A	N/A	??°	??°	??°	??°

Comparison with analogues

Compared to previous American 7.62mm machine guns (the M1919A4, M37 and M73) the M60D had a much better rate of fire at 650 rounds per minute, compared to 500 for the other guns. However it has a lower belt capacity at only 100 rounds, compared to 250 for the other guns. It has the same ballistic performance as the other guns. The M60D compares almost identically to the British L37A1 and L37A2, with the same rate of fire, belt capacity, and ballistic performance; however it's ammo belt consists of a 1:1 split of AP and T bullets compared to 2:1 for the L37s.

Usage in the battles

Due to the very low penetration this weapon it is largely ineffective against enemy armour (although you may be able to penetrate some vehicles with extremely thin armour). The gun is primarily useful for incapacitating exposed crew members in open topped vehicles (although there are few such vehicles at the battle ratings this gun is found at). The gun can also be used for ranging on some vehicles, as well as marking enemy vehicles and obscuring the view of enemy players (shooting at their gun sight). You can use the gun against aircraft however it does minimal damage, and being co-axially mounted on most tanks can often not be brought / kept on target against aircraft.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Good rate of fire compared to previous American 7.62mm machine guns
• Good rate of fire compared to most other 7.62mm machine guns

Cons:

• Low penetration makes it ineffective against armour
• Low Damage
• Less AP rounds in ammo belt than comparable L37A1 and L37A2.
• Low belt capacity compared to previous guns

Historical part

The M60 is an American General Purpose Machine Gun, cambering 7.62×51mm NATO round. Following WW2 America began a program to develop a new, lighter 7.62 mm machine gun; in order to replace the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle and M1919A6 Browning machine gun (a M1919A4 with a shoulder stock, designed for infantry use). The M60 was designed by Saco Defense, with parts of the gun inspired by aspects of the German FG-42 and MG 42, as well as the American M1941 Johnson machine gun. The Saco T161E3 prototype was tested against weapons such as the FN MAG and modified MG 42s, and in 1957 was officially adopted by the US army as the M60.

The M60 saw service throughout the Vietnam war, the gun was seen as bulky by troops, but it was still fairly lightweight. The weapon picked up a reputation for being easy to damage, and components wore out fairly quickly, however it was liked by troops due to its simplicity and versatility. The M60 began to be replaced in the 1980s in favour of the lighter M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW), however was retained in some numbers due to it's better accuracy, longer range and better stopping power compared to the M249.

From 1995 onwards the M60 began to be largely phased out from US service in favour of the more reliable (albeit heavier and less controllable) M240 (7.62 mm) machine gun. Small numbers of M60s are still in use today by the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, and some reserve units. Internationally the M60 is still used by a number of countries.

The M60D variant was designed as a mounted version of the M60. It differs from other models in that it has spade grips (like the Browning M2HB), instead of a pistol grip. It was mounted on a range of armoured vehicles, boats and helicopters and is still used today on SH-60 Seahawk helicopters and RAF CH-47 Chinooks.

Media

An excellent addition to the article would be a video guide, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.

Read also

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

• reference to the article about the variant of the cannon/machine gun;
• references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.

ETC.

Sources

• Wikipedia - M60 machine gun

Tank machine guns
USA
7.62 mm	M37 · M60D · M73 · M240 · M1919A4 · Mk.52
12.7 mm	FN M3P · M2HB · M80 · M85
Germany
5.56 mm	MG4
7.62 mm	C6 · MG3A1
7.92 mm	MG13 Dreyse · MG34 · MG37(t) · MG42
12.7 mm	S.MG.50
USSR
7.62 mm	DT · PKMB · PKT · PKTM · RP-46 · SGMT
12.7 mm	DK · DShK · 6P49 · NSVT
14.5 mm	KPVT
Britain
7.62 mm	Browning MG4 · L3A1 · L8A1 · L8A2 · L37A1 · L37A2 · L94A1
7.7 mm	Vickers
7.92 mm	BESA
12.7 mm	L21A1
Japan
6.5 mm	Type 91
7.62 mm	Type 74
7.7 mm	Type 97
12.7 mm	Type 60 (B)
China
5.8 mm	QJT
7.62 mm	Type 55 · Type 59 · Type 86
12.7 mm	QJC88A · Type 54
14.5 mm	QJG02
Italy
7.62 mm	Beretta MG42/59 · FN MAG 60-40
8 mm	34/40M · Breda Mod. 38
13.2 mm	Breda Model 31
France
7.5 mm	AAT-52 · MAC 31
7.62 mm	A-A-F1N
8 mm	Hotchkiss Mle 1914
Sweden
6.5 mm	ksp m/14-29
7.62 mm	ksp 39 C · ksp 58 · ksp 94
8 mm	ksp m/36 · ksp m/39B
12.7 mm	ksp 88