![]() This device provided the gunner with a separate target image for each eye. To overcome the M24's weakness in firepower, the T37 design featured a long-barreled 76-mm with a stereoscopic rangefinder. Design work began in 1947 to build a vehicle to perform cavalry roles and support airborne operations. Of the triad of new tanks under development, the T37 light tank reached completion first. Such rapid production guaranteed teething troubles, but the importance attached to rapidly equipping combat units with the new tanks precluded detailed testing and evaluation prior to quantity production. Testing and development cycles occurred simultaneously with production to ensure the speedy fielding of new tanks. In the United States, tank development and production entered a period of frenzied activity similar to that experienced in 19. Not until the arrival of M4 and M26 tanks in August 1950 did American forces possess a comparable armor ability to the North Koreans. On paper, each formation included one battalion of M4 medium tanks, but in fact each division possessed only a company of M24 light tanks, which proved no match for the North Korean T34-85s. The first tanks rushed to Korea came from infantry divisions stationed in Japan. Not only did the war catch the Army unprepared, the fear that it might become a global conflict highlighted the U.S. The outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 added urgency to the Advisory Panel's recommendations. Yet, very little of the products of these efforts were incorporated into U.S. Instead a small post war technical intelligence community concentrated its analytic effort on captured German equipment. had received two T-34 tanks from the Russians in a Lend-Lease swap at the end of World War II, little technical analysis was performed on these vehicles. tanks, as had been the case of the M2AI in 1940, were obsolete before they ever made an appearance on the battlefield. The need to design tanks against the correct threatwas also clear. It also requested immediate and sustained fiscal support of tank development and production to bridge the gap between American and Soviet tank numbers and capabilities. Therefore the Army Field Forces Advisory Panel on Armor recommended accelerating development of new tank designs and focusing research and development efforts upon tank guns and ammunition. The Army considered its own armored divisions as the principal defense against the Soviet military threat, but it did not believe it possessed enough tanks of the right type to sustain a ground conflict. The Cold War's onset in the late 1940s triggered fears that the Soviet Union possessed far more tanks of superior quality. In the immediate postwar years, however, this development occurred slowly amid Army demobilization and downsizing. Worsening relations with the Soviet Union encouraged implementation of the Board's proposals and development began upon the T17 light tank, the T42 medium tank, and the T43 heavy tank. It acknowledged the need for a light, medium, and heavy tank, and recommended that a new tank be developed for each class. In May 1946, the War Department Equipment Board completed its report on Army materiel needs. Its replacement, the M46, featured a new engine, cross-drive transmission, a bore evacuator, and fire control and suspension improvements, modifications that resulted in better overall performance, but it was still not an ideal heavy tank. The M26 heavy tank increased firepower and armor al the expense of mobility. The various versions of the M4 medium tank proved mobile and reliable, but it lacked sufficient firepower and protection. Its low-velocity 75-mm gun, originally developed for aircraft use, possessed little antitank capability. The M24 proved popular and superior to the M5 light tank that it replaced, but it remained under-armed. None of these vehicles were considered ideal. Army with three principal tanks in its inventory: the M24 light tank for cavalry missions, the M4 Sherman medium tank that constituted the bulk of the Army's tank strength and equipped the armored divisions, and the M26 heavy tank originally designed as a counter to the German Tiger and Panther tanks.
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