 Various entities suggested other weapon options which were not pursued.The 76 mm gun saw first use in a test batch of M18 Hellcat gun motor carriages in Italy in May 1944, under their development designation T70.The moderate performance of the 76 mm gun by 1944 standards was one of three reasons the plans for M18 production were cut from 8,986 to 2,507, of which 650 were converted to unarmed utility vehicles.