T99

During WWII, most of the self-propelled mounts used by the US Army utilized field artillery pieces. In January 1946, it was decided that in the postwar era, such vehicles should use specially designed weapons. It was also required that new vehicles have overhead protection. Several concepts were designed to comply with these new specifications based upon the new T37/T41 chassis that was also then under development, but only two were selected for further development. These were the T98 and T99 155 mm howitzer motor carriages.

Although they were developed in parallel, the T99 was the first to be officially authorized in Spetmeber 1947. Two pilots were constructed by Detroit Arsenal and they were armed with the 155 mm Howitzer T97. This weapon had a traverse of 30 degrees to the right and left, and with an elevation range of -5 to +65 degrees.

The onset of the Korean War in 1950 caused a "crash development" program which greatly accelerated the development and production of several vehicles during this time. As was common during this period, numerous problems were encountered in trying to rush the development. With hindsight, it's easy to conclude a slower and systematic program would have been preferable. However, new weapons were required as soon as possible during this time period, resulting in imperfect designs and projects.

Up until this point, the T99 used the T41 chassis. But as the T41 was being improved into the T41E1, and this tank was being rushed into production, the T99 was redesigned as the T99E1 to try and retain commonality between the designs. The T99E1 itself would soon be redesigned as the T194, and then standardized as the M44.

The T99 is basically just a premium version of the M44 using the stock hull. Nothing too special about it, except it might see some worse soft stats because of the circumstances surrounding its development.



Guns: 155 mm Howitzer T97

Engines: Continental AOS-895-3 (500 hp)

Suspensions/Alternate Hulls, Total Weight (metric tons): T99 TBS (27.22)

Hull Armor (mm): 13/13/13

Top Speed: 56 km/h

Crew: 5 (Driver; Gunner; Loader; Commander; Radio)




See Also: M44, Exp. SPH

Sources:

Hunnicutt, R. P. Sheridan. 2015.