M-18 Hellcat tank destroyer
The fastest tracked vehicle of the war, the M-18 was a fresh design, not a modification of any tank in service. Over 2,500 were built from July 1943 to October 1944. Although it had good speed and was much lighter than the M-10 and M-36, the armor was extremely thin and by 1944 it's gun was no longer able to deal with German heavy tanks at safe ranges.
Small arms for the crew included five M-1 carbines with 450 rounds, 12 grenades, 4 smoke pots and a tripod for the M-2HB A/A gun.
The M-18 has a crew of five. The commander sits in the turret and mans the A/A machine gun. Also in the turret are the main gunner, who fires the cannon. Also in the turret is a loader. The driver sits in the body. Next to him is the radio operator. The turret hydraulically traverses at 24 degrees per second. The M-18 uses 11.43 gallons per hour at routine usage. A full load of fuel and ammo costs $xxx.
M-18 Hellcat
Subassemblies: Large Tank chassis with mild slope +4, full rotation
Small TD turret with advanced slope [Body:T] +3, full-rotation Mini Weapon
open mount [Tur:T] +0, tracks +3.
Powertrain: 254-kW gas engine w/ 254-kW tracked drive train
and 164 gallons fuel in standard fuel tank [body]; 16,000-kWs batteries.
Occupancy: 2 CS Body, 1 CS Turret, 2 CS both
Cargo: 6.1 Body, 2.1 Turret.
| Armor | F | RL | B | T | U |
| Body | 5/90 | 4/60 | 4/60 | 4/40 | 4/20 |
| Tracks | 4/45 | 4/45 | 4/45 | 4/45 | 4/45 |
| Turret | 6/100 | 5/60 | 5/60 | 0/0 | 0/0 |
Weaponry
75mm Long TG/3" M-1A1 [Tur:F] (45).
Very Long Ground HMG/M-2HB [Mini:F] (800).
Equipment
Body: Fire extinguisher, medium radio receiver and transmitter.
Statistics
| Size: 21'x10'x9' | Payload: 1.74 tons | Lwt: 18.95 tons |
| Volume: 138 | Maint.: 50 hours | Price: $15,900 |
HT: 12
HP: 1800 [Body], 285 [Turret], 600 [Each Track], 30 [Open Mount]
| gSpeed: 55 | gAccel: 4 | gDecel: 20 | gMR: 0.25 | gSR: 6 | GP: Very Low (4/5) |
Design Notes
The design purchased 162 gallons of fuel tanks; the historical value
has been used instead. Design weight was decreased 10% to match historical
weight.
Design gAccel was 3 and gSpeed was 37. gAccel was altered to increase
speed to the historical level. The M-18 was considered to have an advanced
suspension system (compared to other American tanks) which was partly responsible
for the higher speed.
Variants
The only variant that saw service was the M-39, starting in early 1945.
The turret was removed and the hull was modified to take a crew of 2 with
7 passengers. The M-2HB was retained in a small ring mount at the front
of the open-topped passenger compartment. Weight was 17.5 tons and height
was 6 feet. It was used both as a troop carrier and an artillery tractor.