The advancements in armored vehicles made these Cold War-era engineering relics of great interest and importance because of their continued service in modern armed forces worldwide. Quite a number of them survived only because they were subjected to massive upgrading and kept running.
The T-62 is a Soviet-era medium tank still in service with several major operators. Even then, this is not something that statistics purport the T-62 to have, it is something that belongs to the majority opinion: “The T-62 is a decent medium tank for what it faced, exceptional for its time, and quite an alright tank all things considered,” according to one expert. Sure, it does not have any of the major bad characteristics of some of the tanks, such as Chieftain or T-64. The T-62 has proved effective and has been well used by competent crews, whether Israeli, U.S., or Soviet, in different battle conditions.
The biggest users in existence have maintained the T-62 in service, constantly upgrading the vehicle and enhancing its capabilities. This is in sharp contrast with what was done with the M60 by its largest user: removing it from active service. The different operational status between the T-62 and the M60 conveys the idea that the operators of the former find it worth the trouble of maintaining and upgrading the vehicle, something that the operators of the M60 do not.
Designed to oppose the Soviet T-54 and T-55, the M60 tank has been in heavy use since 1959. It has to be said that the U.S. military has already been withdrawn, but it is still used by the armed forces of many countries, including Taiwan, Israel, Egypt, and Turkey. For instance, Taiwan is planning to attach a new engine to a relatively aging fleet of around 460 tanks of the M60A3 version so that these can serve for as many years as possible. The United States has offered to replace the current AVDS-1790-2C engines of the tanks with a more powerful AVDS-1790-8CR, giving 1050 hp compared to the existing 750.
Successive developments in military technology warned against the prospect of making the M60 obsolete. “The M60 was an example of how incremental advances in military technology could progressively result in better fighting machines,” one eminent military historian put it. The 120-millimeter smoothbore main gun in its arsenal and better armor bear proof of how the tank was upgraded over the years.
Nevertheless, both machines have demonstrated continued relevance through several upgrades and modifications. The T-62 did demonstrate its effectiveness in this modern conflict, of which the Russian-Ukrainian war is—in part—one of the recent showcases of mechanized warfare echoing that of the 1980s. The same has been true of the M60, updated with the 120-mm M256 cannon and digital fire control equipment, which has kept it useful in the modern way of war.
In conclusion, the T-62 and M60 tanks are examples of the Cold War-era military engineering legacies. To show their legitimacy in today’s warfare and further prove they are battle-worthy to fight in jousting wars in this age, both the tanks are in use and production to further demonstrate the fact that even old tanks cannot be viewed on the battlefield as failure.