Even older than the “sixty-two: T-54 tanks drove into the special operation zone
Everything related to Russian armored vehicles in the zone of a special military operation in Ukraine has become a really burning topic. Many people remember the intensity with which there were disputes about the commissioning of tanks T-62M and their modified variants. However, they are still not going to subside, however, it seems that the focus will soon completely shift to the older brothers of these machines.
Yes, we are talking about the T-54/55. Their redeployment was noticed relatively recently - the network is full of photographs of one or, perhaps, several echelons with these tanks moving somewhere in the open spaces of our country. Moreover, there were many explanations for this phenomenon, up to the most naive, that they were going to dismantle them for other cars.
But the casket just opened: their path-path brought them a little further than the factory buildings, where the tanks are dismantled not by repairmen, but by shells that have pierced the armor.
A few words about the tank in Zaporozhye
The mood of our - domestic - general public is quite understandable, therefore, opinions about the appearance of these old machines at the front are very likely to be extremely polar to each other. However, conclusions, no matter how obvious they may seem, are too early to draw - even many Western resources are cautious in this regard.
All that is available at the moment is one photo and video (screenshot) from the telegram channels, which depict the same T-54. Therefore, it is premature to talk about how many and, most importantly, in what capacity these tanks arrived in the Zaporozhye region.
The latter, that is, about quality, is especially important in the sense that over the past months there has actually been a frightening amount of reasoning and even statements that old tanks are not tanks at all, but self-propelled guns, and they are used exclusively for firing from closed positions, and do not come into contact with the enemy at all. Only one thing can be said here: they both attack and participate in active defense. Therefore, it is not worth belittling the feat of our tankers, shedding blood and working on old and less protected vehicles.
Neither the range of fire, nor the guidance devices from the tank will make a self-propelled gun under any circumstances, therefore, all episodes of such use of vehicles are forced measures when there is nothing else at hand, and in conditions of positional "butting". Given the rigidity in terms of the nomenclature of equipment in the troops, no one with a frankly crazy idea in the style of "let's make artillery divisions from tanks - the old ones" will come forward.
So the T-54/55, if they really go to the front in some commercial quantity, with a high degree of probability they will be used primarily as tanks, and then everything else. Let alone on the defensive.
The tank is really old
Like it or not, it is impossible to argue with the statement that the T-54 is a really old tank. Yes, over the years of production, this machine has undergone a number of changes and was produced in several modifications - the photographs from the Zaporozhye region show the T-54B, which was put into service in 1956. However, formally, this tank, as a platform without being tied to upgrades, still managed to catch Stalin.
At the same time, it is likely that T-55s will also appear in the zone of a special military operation, which differ significantly from their predecessors in terms of engine, anti-nuclear protection, internal equipment, machine guns, and so on. However, they have practically no radical differences in combat properties, so it’s easier in our case to combine them and talk about two at once. Especially about their armor and weapons, which are in many ways the determining factors - other aspects have already been touched upon here more than once.
First of all, of course, we need to touch on the topic of booking the T-54/55, which plays one of the primary roles in any conflict, and even more so in a special military operation.
Tank T-54B
And by today's standards, it's practically non-existent.
Of course, no combined armor - exclusively homogeneous steel. Its maximum thickness in the frontal part of the hull is at the level of 100 millimeters (or up to 200 mm, taking into account the angle of inclination of the armor plates). As for other projections of the hull, the thickness of the steel mass in the sides varies from 60 to 80 mm, and in the stern - up to 45 mm.
The turret, as the most exposed part of the tank, has similar indicators in the frontal part - up to 200 mm, as well as up to 160 mm of steel in the side parts and up to 60-65 mm in the stern.
In those days when the T-54/55 tanks were still relevant, such armor was quite enough, if not from the entire spectrum of threats, then from most of them, for sure. But in this case, all that it can reliably protect against is: bullets of all calibers, small-caliber artillery shells and fragments. So all tank shells, missile systems and even anti-tank grenade launchers available in the Armed Forces of Ukraine pose a serious danger to the vehicle. Therefore, it is highly undesirable to use a tank for direct combat with an enemy who has heavy anti-tank weapons available.
Tank T-54 in the cut. You can observe the thickness of the reservation
There are also questions about the armament of the vehicle, namely its main caliber in the face of the 100-mm rifled gun D-10T2S. However, what questions can there be for a gun, the basic version of which was created during the Great Patriotic War ...
Yes, the gun has two-plane stabilization, so the tank can also hit targets on the move, although the result is formally 50 to 50. And the barrel, again, is rifled, so at long ranges the accuracy will be higher than that of smooth-bore guns, although similar the comparisons themselves are terrible - we have come, we are comparing those characteristics that we had not really thought about before.
But only high-explosive fragmentation shells can demonstrate impressive power: under two kilograms of explosives in combination with a thick-walled steel case, they can show Kuz'kin's mother not only to light armored vehicles, but also to enemy infantry. Of course, not with the same effect as the 125 mm OFS, but still.
But with the armor-piercing part of the ammunition, things are not very good.
Of the most "fresh" - adopted by the end of the seventies - in the ammunition load of the T-54/55 series tanks, if we take the domestic nomenclature, you can only find feathered armor-piercing sub-caliber shells 3BM25 "Isomer" with a tungsten core, as well as two variations of cumulative shells - 3BK17 and 3BK17M.
Feathered armor-piercing projectile 3BM25 "Isomer" for 100-mm rifled gun T-54/55
A sub-caliber projectile with this interesting name pierced a plate of armored steel 150 mm thick at an angle of 60 degrees from the vertical (300 mm of reduced armor) from a distance of two kilometers. But his cumulative counterparts hit armor with a thickness of 3-4 calibers, respectively.
On the defeat of what is this enough in the current conditions?
Basically only for light equipment, including infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers, both Soviet and Western-style, as well as French-made wheeled "tanks". But if we talk about tanks without quotes, then the most vulnerable to 100-mm guns can only be the Slovenian M-55S transferred to Ukraine, while the rest can be hit only in weakened projections - sides and stern.
However, you need to understand that a gun and shells are far from all the important components for hitting targets. Here, the sighting system of the tank is of no less importance, which, even for the T-54B, even for the T-55, leaves much to be desired for the present time.
These machines do not have any means of automating the preparation of a shot, therefore, one cannot count on such “benefits” of civilization as a ballistic computer, a laser rangefinder, and even more so an automatic target tracking machine.
All that the gunner has at his disposal is an optical articulated sight of a telescopic design, which allows firing from a cannon and a machine gun coaxial with it in daylight conditions. And in most cases, due to the skills developed to determine the lead and range to the target, although there are corresponding scales and marks on the optics.
For night conditions, there is no thermal imager - only a sight on an electron-optical converter (EOP) with active illumination from an infrared searchlight "Luna" (L-2) mounted on the right "cheekbone" of the tower and kinematically connected to the gun. Moreover, the range of detection and identification of targets in this mode, in fact, does not exceed one kilometer.
The main production version of the T-55. Finnish army vehicle
The tank commander has a similar situation: either an optical observation and target designation device with its replacement with a TKN-1 night light at night with the same image intensifier tube and illumination from his searchlight, or, depending on the modification of the vehicle, a combined day / night device TKN-3. So these vehicles are not worthy of the title of the most "sharp-sighted" tank, from the word at all. And the lack of any means of automating the preparation of a shot seriously limits the firing capabilities of the T-54/55.
Not fit at all?
What was said about the T-54 / 55 in the context of their armor, armament and sighting system is not ridicule in the style of “brought the old man to the front” and not belittling the combat qualities of those units in which these tanks will enter, if they arrive at all .
Everything written is just a statement of facts that will have to be reckoned with in the event of their combat use, building the appropriate tactics of use. And warning questions about what were the T-55M and its variations, which had an automatic fire control system, better protection through the use of "reactive armor" or armor plates like the T-62M, as well as other enhanced characteristics.
Tank T-55AM. One can see armor plates on the forehead of the turret and hull of the T-62M type, as well as the body of the laser rangefinder transceiver above the gun, and so on.
They were, yes, it seems, swam. Thanks to the policy of the past Minister of Defense, a lot of tanks were scrapped, including the now-mentioned modernized T-55s. Now these machines, which can be sent to the front without the deepest repair and refinement, simply by reopening, are not. Otherwise, such junk in the form of the T-54B and, possibly, the T-55 would not have been dragged from the storage bases. And the capacities of factories that could modernize these tanks are simply not enough - everyone is already loaded to capacity.
But will they really fight on the T-54/55, throwing them into an attack on a heavily armed enemy?
In our world, of course, anything can happen. But there are no objective prerequisites for this yet: in terms of combat capabilities, these tanks cannot even be compared with non-modernized T-62Ms. Not to mention those that have undergone revision - there, in the end, neither sights, nor guns with armor will allow you to fully fight.
In addition, we do not have a full-scale production of complete rounds (shells and charges) for tank 100-mm rifled guns. So all the “fifty-fours” and “fifty-fives” can be content with for now is the remaining ammunition in storage in warehouses, including naval ones, which tend to run out. Therefore, no one is clearly going to fill up all the fronts with these old men.
However, adding up a few introductory ones - Zaporozhye, the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and tanks - you can guess that the T-54/55 will be used in defense on this sector of the front. Of course, most likely, no one will bury them up the tower, although what just happens on the fronts of any hostilities. But the abundance of trenches for armored vehicles (according to open data) in echeloned defense lines very rudely and “boldly” hints that cars can still be quite active and qualitatively strengthen the defended areas, firing from these positions at the enemy and changing them in a timely manner.
In short, an ageless classic, within which the old T-54/55s fit perfectly and can hit enemy infantry and even light armored vehicles on the head with direct fire or within sight - an extra cannon barrel at a conditional strong point, and even covered with armor, always warms the soul. But for now, these are only guesses and not the ultimate truth - in general, as they say, we will see.
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