M103 heavy tank
heavy tank
The M103 heavy tank (officially designated 120mm gun combat tank M103, initially T43) was a heavy tank that served in the United States Army and the United States Marine Corps during the Cold War. Introduced in 1957, it served until 1974, by which time evolution of the concept of a main battle tank rendered heavy tanks obsolete.
Design and development
In December 1950, the U.S. Army made blueprints for a heavy tank reference design. In January 1951, it awarded Chrysler a $99 million contract to produce the tank. Chrysler tasked Robert T. Keller, the son of Chrysler Board Chairman K.T. Keller, with overseeing its design, and construction at the company's new Newark, Delaware, tank plant.
The first T43 pilot model was completed in November 1951. Officials said the tank would "out-slug any land-fighting machine ever built."
Like the contemporary British Conqueror, the M103 was designed to counter Soviet heavy tanks, such as the later IS-series tanks or the T-10, if conflict with the Eastern Bloc broke out. Its long-ranged 4.7 in (120 mm) cannon was designed to destroy enemy tanks at extreme distances.
In 1953, the Pentagon began to reverse the Truman administration's policy of a broad production base in favor of recently-appointed Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson's "single, efficient producer" concept. In September of that year, Wilson chose General Motors over Chrysler to take over production of the M48 Patton.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q619002. The Library of Congress control number is sh2013001483. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1957, 1974, 1950 and 1951.
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