M578 Recovery Vehicle
Among the smallest tracked recovery vehicles fielded by the U.S. Army is the M578. Chief among the reasons for its bantam weight is the fact that it was not originally designed to be a recovery vehicle at all! Rather, it was to be an air-transportable crane for replacing barrels on M107/M110 selfpropelled guns, with which it shares a chassis. Ultimately, this T120 crane was equipped with a modicum of recovery gear and designated the M578 Light Armored Full Tracked Recovery Vehicle.
The front of the M578 is essentially the same as the chassis of the selfpropelled guns. The engine is mounted to the right and the driver sits on the left, separated by an insulated metal firewall. Directly behind the power plant is an auxiliary drive, which powers the generator and the hydraulic pumps when the engine main engine is shut off. The M578 has two winches, a 30,000-pound boom winch and a 60,000-pound capacity drag winch. The hydraulic pumps provide power for the winches, boom, cab and rear spade.
The crane cab houses the crew during recovery operations. Directly behind the crane operator’s seat is a full height tool locker for recovery gear storage, accessible from outside the crane cab. While both the hull and crane cab are made of welded steel armor, it is intended to protect the crew only from small caliber bullets and shell splinters. The M578 is equipped with a M2 .50-caliber Browning machine gun for self-defense.
The powerplant for the M578 is the Detroit Diesel GMC 8V71T turbosupercharged eight-cylinder, V-type two-cycle diesel driving through an Allison model XTG-411-2A cross drive transmission.