Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
The premium M46 Patton joins France as the main tank prize in the Last Legionnaire season as winter moved on to 2025.
This tank is exceptionally versatile, allowing it to be used in any role during battle, and will also be a great addition to several French builds, helping to add some variety and speed up research thanks to its premium status.
Enhancements
In general, the M46 is slightly better than its direct ancestor, the M26, in several key aspects. One area where it has improved is its engine, although top forward speed hasn’t changed, performance has improved significantly. This extra power means the M46 can reverse a little faster and boasts more overall agility, making it quite efficient in this regard.
Armament
The M46 uses a functionally identical gun to the M26, retaining its horizontal and vertical aiming angles, but offering increased firepower. Apart from the new muzzle brake, the most important addition is the new HEAT-FS ammunition, which features a high muzzle velocity and good penetration of up to 305 mm regardless of range. Since the M46 participates in battles where ERA and deployed armor are more rare, it makes sense to use these HEAT-FS rounds as the main round on this tank. Although for those side projectiles, the APCBC ammunition is best used
Protection and Armour
Now moving on to armour, where the M46 has not changed significantly compared to the M26. The front of the turret and hull area can easily withstand hits from weaker tank guns, and while the hull is relatively bland from the front, it can withstand many weaker guns when tilted. However, the interior compartments are relatively cramped and full of ammunition, with a frontal penetration of the armour usually resulting in an explosion of the ammunition or the loss of most of the crew.
History
In 1945, a program was launched to create a new medium tank for the US Army based on the M26 Pershing. The Detroit Arsenal built 10 prototypes with a new engine, a slightly longer chassis and an upgraded M3A1 gun with a new muzzle brake. The prototypes were submitted for testing in 1949, but before completion the vehicle was approved for production and standardized as the M46 General Patton medium tank. The M46 tanks participated in the Korean War and were also supplied to European countries in the 1950s, particularly France and Belgium.