M-728 CEV

The M-728 CEV, (combat engineer vehicle), is a specific M-60 tank variant to serve with combat engineering units. At the end of the 50s a vehicle designed as the T118 was being developed, based on the T95 experimental tank, but when the M-60 tank was approved for the US Army, the T95 and T118 program were abandoned. However it was decided to use the engineering equipment intended for the T118 and mount it on a M-60A1 tank hull in 1963, designating the new vehicle as CEV T118E1. The specific equipment of the new vehicle consisted of a 165mm M-135 gun for demolition tasks, a retractable “A” frame boom mounted on the turret, a M9 bulldozer blade mounted on the front of the vehicle and a 11,500 kg capacity winch mounted on the back of the turret. M-728 CEV entered service in 1966, and 243 vehicles were built from 1966 to 1972. The M-728 participated in the last stages of the Vietnam War doing a good job despite the harsh climatic and rough terrain and also was in the 1991 Gulf War, where they could not keep the pace of the M-1 Abrams tank, being left behind to avoid delays in the blazing American advance.

M-728 CEV gallery and more info