The traversing and elevating mechanism (T&E) is the device used to adjust the vertical and horizontal placement of the rounds in a controlled and accurate manner. The T&E is vital in adjusting fire or moving from one target to another without having to keep sighting in the weapon system.
Once a weapon has been set into place and sighted in, the gunner should not have to use the sights, instead, the gunner should rely on the T&E adjustments to engage the targets. Components of the T&E are graduated in mil increments, where one mil can be defined as one meter at one thousand meters. The elevating handwheel ranges from zero to 50 mils and manipulates the weapons system’s barrel up or down.
When manipulations in the vertical direction consist of more than 50 mils, the gunner must refer to the elevation screw scale to keep track of the manipulations. The elevation screw scale is graduated in 50 mil increments and ranges from positive 100 mils to negative 250 mils. The traversing handwheel allows the gunner to make one mil incremental changes in the horizontal direction. The traversing hand wheel is capable of making adjustments totaling 50 mils.
The gunner must refer to the traversing bar if more traversing is needed. The T&E is attached to the traversing bar of the M3 tripod, which is graduated in five mil increments and ranges from 400 mils left to 400 mils right, where the center of the bar is zero.