M88A1 Medium Recovery Vehicle

Rear View of the M88A1

The M88 was originally introduced in 1961 as an armored recovery vehicle for the M48 Patton tank. It was manufactured by Bowen McLoughlin York in York, Pennsylvania, and was powered by a 980-horsepower Continental V-12 supercharged gasoline engine, with a 10-horsepower gasoline auxiliary power unit. The M88A1 was introduced in 1977 as a recovery vehicle for the new M60 tank, and is powered by a 750-horsepower Continental V-12 twin-turbo diesel engine, with a 10-horsepower diesel auxiliary power unit. In addition to newly-built M88A1s, the existing M88s were converted to the new design. Over 3,000 were built for the United States Army and Marine Corps, however they lacked the capacity to recover the M1 Abrams tank, and have since been replaced by the new M88A2.