AF35254 AFVClub 1/35 Combat Engineer Vehicle M728

Additional Information

M728 CEV (Combat Engineer Vehicle) — combat engineering transport (sapper tank), created on the basis of the main battle tank M60 "Patton" and designed to create defensive fortifications and destruction of enemy fortifications.

Equipped with a front-mounted M9 bulldozer knife 3.71 m wide with hydraulic drive, fixed on the sides of the tower A-shaped crane boom, traction winch and can be equipped with a roller mine trawl for high-speed overcoming minefields (the width of the track pass 2x1,2 m).

When creating a sapper tank, the standard for the basic model M60/A1/A3 rifled 105-mm tank gun M68 was replaced by the 165-mm short-barrel m135 gun used on the M551 "Sheridan" tanks, which has a ammunition set of 30 shells with plastic explosives of increased destructive force (this gun is a licensed copy of THE l9a1 gun, the main armament of the fv4003 Centurion Mk sapper tank.5 AVRE of the British armed forces). In addition to the gun, the M728 CEV had two machine guns: M73 under the standard NATO cartridge 7,62x51 mm, as well as mounted on the commander's turret machine gun M85 50-caliber cartridge 12,7x99 mm.

According to available data, the manufacturer (Detroit Tank Arsenal) was released only 291 sapper tank M728 CEV.In accordance with the established standards, each tank division and each mechanized corps of the US army were equipped with two units, and infantry brigades and armored cavalry regiments — three units M728 CEV.
the Machine first entered the army in 1965 during the Vietnam War and was used to destroy fortifications, overcome obstacles, transport bombers and in the performance of engineering works.Was in units of the us army ground forces during operations "desert Shield" and "desert Storm" in 1990-1991.
However, the M728 CEV proved too slow to be used in conjunction with the new armoured vehicles (e.g. third generation tanks such as the M1 Abrams) and has not been used as active combat units since 2000.