This is a company of M551 Sheridans of the 4/68th Armor Bn. We were practicing for a Division “Pass In Review”. These M551′s weighed about 17 tons. You could put one on a C-130 and have 2-3 inches to spare on each side. I never saw one air dropped, but saw several brought in via “LAPES”. The “Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System” would have the C-130 pilot come in as low as he could without touching down. An extraction chute would pull the M551 out of the back end of the aircraft. The extraction chutes would then become drag chutes to slow and stop the load. I did see one time when the chutes separated just as the M551 came out of the aircraft. Now we had 17 tons of tank sliding on a pallet down the dirt landing strip in front of the bleachers on Sicily DZ at 130 kph. It was still going hard when it hit the trees at the end of the landing strip. The VIP’s were less than impressed.
The main gun was 152mm and could fire a conventional round, of HEP, Anti-personnel, or smoke. No Sabot. Or you could also fire an anti-tank missile out of the same tube. These were not designed to slug it out with main battle tanks. It was officially called an AA/ARV, or Airborne Assault/Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle. It’s size made it ideal for giving the 82d a little more punch.
