M578 Light Recovery Vehicle

M578 LRV
M578 LRV
	An early US Army M578, circa 1965.
Type	Armored recovery vehicle
Place of origin	United States
Service history
Used by	Israel, USA, UK
Wars	Vietnam war
Production history
Manufacturer	FMC Corp. Bowen-McLaughlin-York
Produced	1962
Specifications
Weight	54,000 lbs (24,000 kg)
Length	18 ft 3.8 in (5.583 m)
Width	10 ft 4 in (3.15 m)
Height	8 ft 7.5 in (2.629 m)
Crew	3 men: Crane operator in cab right front Rigger in cab left front Driver in hull left front
Main; armament	.50-caliber M2HB machine gun
Engine	General Motors 8V71T; 8 cylinder, 2 cycle, vee, supercharged diesel; 345 hp @ 2,300 rpm
Operational; range	450 miles (724 km)
Speed	37 mph (60 km/h)

M578 Light Recovery Vehicle (G309) was an American Cold War-era armored recovery vehicle. The M578 utilized the same chassis as M107 self-propelled gun and M110 self-propelled howitzer. The M578 provided maintenance support to mechanized infantry and artillery units. Its primary mission was to recover damaged light armored vehicles from the battlefield using its crane boom.

Operation

The cab can rotate 360°, and a 30,000 lb (13,600 kg) capacity winch^[1] was run through a crane on the cab. Another winch, 60,000 lb (27,000 kg) capacity,^[1] was mounted on the front of the cab. Access to the cab was through a door on each side and by double doors in the rear, and the crane operator and rigger both had vision cupolas in the cab roof.