Caliber machine gun

COMMAND AND RECONNAISSANCE VEHICLES

On the front hull, a wider trim vane or surfboard was installed with cutouts around the headlight groups. The rectangular door with round corners in the rear wall was replaced by a circular door. The complex two man turret armed with the M85 .50 caliber machine gun was eliminated and replaced by a simple one man turret for the commander on the left side of the hull roof behind the driver. It was armed with an externally mounted M2HB .50 caliber machine gun.

The commander had a 360 degree view through eight vision blocks. A flat hatch on the right rear of the hull roof was for the observer. Periscopes were installed in the hull roofjust forward and behind the observers hatch and two pedestal mounts for a .30 caliber machine gun were located on the roof adjacent to the hatch. The driver remained in his position in the left front hull. For closed hatch operation, he was provided with three hull mounted M26 periscopes and his hatch was fitted for the installation of the M19 infrared periscope.

Although the T114 was operated by a three man crew consisting of the driver, commander, and observer, a jump seat was provided for a fourth man. The Chevrolet V8 gasoline engine developed 160 gross horsepower at 4,200 rpm. This liquid-cooled engine was installed in the right front hull with the 305MC Hydramatic transmission and the geared steer unit.

The front mounted sprockets drove the vehicle on the 16 1/2 inch wide, band type, tracks. The flat track, torsion bar, suspension supported the vehicle on four road wheels per side. Track tension was adjusted by an idler at the rear of each track. The vehicle was amphibious without any special preparation and it was propelled in the water by the tracks.

OTCM 37970, dated 29 December 1961, classified the T114 as a limited production type and 615 of the vehicles were produced during 1962. Some additional changes were made in the production vehicle. The roof mounted periscopes for the observer were eliminated and replaced by a single rotating M13 periscope in his hatch cover. The .30 caliber pedestal mounted weapon was replaced by a 7.62mm M60 machine gun (U.S. Army).

Several weapons and mounts were evaluated to improve the firepower of the T114. Some of these were tested on the early pilot vehicles. This program resulted in the development of a new Model X commander's station which was introduced to replace the turret. Initially, the new station was armed with a turret type M2HB .50 caliber machine gun and it could be aimed and fired from inside the vehicle without exposing the commander. The machine gun was elevated and traversed manually and could be fired electricallv or manually.

When fitted with the new commander's station, the vehicle was designated as the T114E1. The remaining 600 vehicles in the original production order of 1,215 were completed as T114Els during 1962. On 16 May 1963, AMCTCM Item 966 type classified the T114 and the T114E1 as the armored command and reconnaissance carriers M114 and M114A1 respectively. A total of2,495 M114A1s were delivered during 1963 and 1964 bringing the total run to 3,710 vehicles.

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