Sullivan Cup Best Tank Crew
Gunnery Competition

The Sullivan Cup takes place the first week of May in even numbered years. The competition brings together tank crews from across the Army and across the world in a competition that rigorously and comprehensively tests their individual and crew-level proficiencies. The competition requires mastery of individual tasks, technical and tactical competence, and the ability to demonstrate an array of maneuver, sustainment and gunnery skills.
The competition focuses primarily on the performance of the soldiers functioning as a crew. The key to success for the winning crew is the training provided at their home station by their unit’s master gunners and tank commanders. The noncommissioned officers (NCOs) serving as master gunners were chosen to serve as subject- matter experts to aid and assist commanders at all echelons in the planning, development and execution of training individual- and crew-gunnery tasks, vital to the unit’s effectiveness in combat. The tank commanders, primarily junior NCOs, are overall responsible for training each crewmember, ensuring proficiency in their assigned position and cross training their crewmembers in other positions. The lethality of our formations begins and ends with the NCO.
Competitions like the Sullivan Cup serve to recognize excellence throughout the force and across the Armor Branch. More importantly, they highlight the importance of mastering the fundamentals that we must preserve as a fighting force to maintain a lethal edge over our potential adversaries.