United States Since its introduction in service in 1963, the M60 AVLB has supported the armored forces of the US Army and Marine Corps in many conflicts and military exercises. It was also exported to a handful of nations that also used the Patton series of tanks. Both the M48 AVLB and the M60 AVLB variants were deployed to
Vietnam. The US Army retired the M60 AVLB from combat use in 2003 and has been superseded by the
M104 Wolverine. The
US Marines received their first M60A1 AVLBs in the late 1980s. They have been deployed with Marines Corps armored divisions during Operation Desert Storm in Kuwait and Iraq in 1990 and 2003 Iraq War as well as Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. As of 2009, the Marines had an inventory of 55 bridges and 37 launchers in service. The M60-based AVLB has been found to be inadequate to support the
M1 Abrams tanks and
M2 Bradley armored vehicles, and its age is making it difficult to maintain and sustain with parts becoming obsolete. Furthermore, the
Army has determined that the
M104 Wolverine is too costly to operate and maintain, causing its production to be suspended. Both the Army and Marine Corps are planning to replace the vehicles with the
M1074 Joint Assault Bridge (JABS). The JAB also has a faster deployment time, with a set-up of three minutes compared to AVLB's ten-minute set-up. First deliveries are planned in mid-2017, with
low-rate initial production expected to be reached in 2019. As of 2020, The Marine Corps was divesting the AVLB as part of
Force Design 2030.
Israel The IDF refers to the AVLB as the Tagash. The first armored bridge layers to enter service with the
Israel Defense Force were constructed from captured Jordanian M48s. The United States supplied launcher and bridge assemblies for the AVLBs through the 1970s. They were mated to M48 and M60 series hulls by
Israeli Military Industries TAAS Slavin Plant. The Tagash AVLB has supported the IDF in the
Yom Kippur War,
1982 Lebanon War,
2006 Lebanon War and the
2014 Israel-Gaza Conflict. The IDF continues to use the M60A1-based bridge layers except with modifications. Vehicle modifications included new all-steel Merkava tracks and drive sprockets, although some vehicles continue to use the original T142 track. Due to the growing use of a number of trenches in fortifications and the greater number of natural narrower obstacles rather than larger ones, a tandem assembly bridge called the Tzmed or tandem was engineered. Two bridge sections can be fitted to any M60 AVLB system without any modification to the launcher. The main advantage to an up-and-out system compared to a horizontal system is the reduced mechanical complexity. The Tzmed assembly also enables the AVLB to bridge gaps in which the elevation of the opposing bank and the bridge itself, when laid out, is steep. The Tzmed assembly weighs in at only 13.5 tons with two bridge sections.
Other users The Spanish Army began the Programa Coraza – 2000 (Program Armor – 2000) in March 1995 to modernize and update its armor forces. One of its goals is the development of a new armored vehicle launching bridge (AVLB), based on the M60A1 chassis and equipped with the new MLC 70 class Leguan bridge, which is capable of supporting the
Leopard 2 A5 tanks, as well as any other tanks and armored vehicles in the Spanish inventory. For the time being in close liaison with Engineers at the Army Logistics Command has contracted for an initial 12 vehicles. They are still in service with a few other countries including
Portugal,
Singapore and
Pakistan. ==Specification==