[3] Extra armor plating was applied to the rear of the turret bustle as a counterweight for the heavier 120 mm T53[4][1] main gun.

Of course, other nations often put the ballistics of an AA gun to work in a tank, but the Americans did this most often.

The gun had exceptional characteristics, surpassing its closest analogue, the 128 mm Flak 40, in muzzle velocity, while having a shorter barrel.

A study of the effectiveness of tank weapons showed that the 120 mm AA gun was an ideal candidate.

However, work was not urgent, and these vehicles are only mentioned in the documents of the Aberdeen Proving Grounds starting with April 1948.

These negligible numbers were due to the bulk of the effort being spent on the Heavy Tank T30.

On the other hand, the lighter ammunition made loading the gun faster, especially with two loaders.

The biggest problem encountered during firing was the amount of fumes that collected in the turret.

Gunnery trials at Fort Knox ended up with the loaders hospitalized, and the Aberdeen Proving Grounds had similar issues.

The design of the fume extractor was much simpler than the complex solution with locking the breech and clearing it with compressed air that were tried before that.

Both were built around a lengthened version of the T26E3 chassis,[4] and apart from the different use of guns and engines, they were originally almost identical.

The two pilot models of the T34 were not delivered until 1947, and they went for tests at Fort Knox and the Aberdeen Proving Ground.

However, the 120mm gun was found to be problematic due to the powder gases which leaked into the turret.

[5] Despite solving the problems with the gun, the tank was deemed too heavy for the US Army and the Marine Corps requirements, so no production orders were placed.

There is at least one surviving example on display in the National Armor and Cavalry Museum, Fort Moore, Georgia.