Ok I'm curious why people have such an issue with using the USF AT gun. For starters it's pretty cheap and can be acquired without going Captain if you go Airborne or Recon Support (both of which are very good doctrines this patch so you're certainly not gimping yourself with those). It has the largest cone of fire and the rate of fire will do wonders against mediums and can get good chunks of health off from heavier tanks if it gets some rear armor shots.
Granted the base penetration (assuming the stat site is up to date) is only 140 compared to the Pak40s 200.
Then again the Pak doesn't have the AP round ability that should give it 50% extra penetration which would make the penetration 210 which is far from lackluster in my opinion. I found that the M1 penetrated a Tiger frontally pretty reliably from max range + the self spotting and increased range it gets with vet 1 is very useful.
If I can pick for example between stealing a raketen and an M1 i would pick M1 every single time. I will gladly pay a minuscule amount of munitions (and USF is not a munitions starved faction to begin with so I see no problem in paying for penetration) if it nets me a proper AT gun. It may not always penetrate from max range but it will stay relatively safe compared to certain gimmick AT gun that gets instagibbed by the things its meant to counter and is such fun and joy to play against/with...
I don't know what people expect from an AT gun that has specifically been given a munition ability that is meant to help dealing with heavier armor and not utilizing it when fighting heavy tanks. In its price range it performs its job well enough and will scale into late game with its utility and vet. And yes I admit it is more micro intensive than just A-moving double 6-pounders but I think that issue can be overcome with L2P and smoke and flank. Kappa
Not sure if you're trolling as your nickname let's suppose it.
M1 ATG lost its effectiveness when Tigers, panthers and such are hitting the field. You like to pickup the M1 over the raketen, that's normal but have you tried to analyse why? Simple, USF only have medium tanks, you wouldn't be picking any M1 left on the field if the USF player had steal you your King Tiger.
USF is the one with the less AT option of all factions, I let you do the count of what OKW (better AT faction), Ostheer, UKF and Soviet have in comparison.
The problem with the Jackson lies in two points:
-1 Lack of stock AT option between the M1 and the Jackson, per say the M10 should have been stock along with the sherman.
-2 Lack of Tier 4 where the Jackson should have been put with a stock Sherman upgrade to meet Ez8 stats.
In the current format the Jackson will never be balanced, it has to stay relevant vs Medium, even if not dominating them and need to be a capable counter for KT, JT, Ele, that's not possible from a design perspective without introducing at least an upgrade to differentiate both figures.
Now IMO, there is an upper problem in COH2, it's the dominance of Tank Destroyers on the battlefield to the point where nobody build regular tanks.