Re: Early U.S. Army armed helos
The US Army was in the process of testing a wide array of weapons between 1956 and 1960. None of these were fielded in any operational capacity.
Some of the kits had been approved for a wide array of units in December 1960. The first approved armament kits for the OH-13 and the OH-23 began to be issued in 1962. The kit for the OH-13 and OH-23 was formally designated as the XM1 in January 1962. The basis of issue coincided with the reorganization of the US Army to the ROAD organization.
Development of the XM2 was parallel to the development of the formally designated XM1. The XM1 kit did not see service in Vietnam, but had been issued to Army units and could have been used had war flared up in Germany for instance. By the time OH-13 equipped units deployed to Vietnam, the M2 had become the standard armament kit.
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