The M46, M47, M48 and M60 Patton were the United States Army's principal battle tanks of the Cold War, with models in service from the late 1940s to the 1990s. The many models were named after General George S. Patton, commander of the U.S. Third Army during World War II and one of the earliest American advocates for the use of tanks in battle. The first of the series, the M46, was a development of the M26 Pershing with a much-improved power train, and the two are nearly identical visually, which often leads to mislabeled photos.