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T-32 Medium Tank

The 'initiative tank' was developed at the design bureau as an alternative to the A-20 tank. The wheels were excluded from the design, this resulting in increase of reliability and combat characteristics. A prototype vehicle was built and subjected to trials along with the A-20 tank. The result of these trials was a recommendation that further development work should be done on the vehicle. The vehicle never went into production nor was accepted for service.

The management of this tank during testing was entrusted to an experienced test driver of Plant No. 183 V.V. Dyukanov. By July 2, 1939, the A-32 tank, within the framework of factory tests, for two runs, passed about 110 km. During the runs, a strong knockout of oil from the right oil tank (from the grid for communication with the atmosphere) and non-smooth (with jerks) turning on the main friction clutch with a running pneumatic control servo system (due to poor servo kinematics) were found. After the elimination of the detected defects, the tests of the tank A-32 were continued. In addition to running tests by the middle of July 1939, tank A-32, as well as tank A-20, passed a number of special tests, such as overcoming loose sand, sand dunes, slopes and anti-tank obstacles such as the "French grid". In total, during the factory tests, the A-32 tank passed 235 km, and the A-20 tank, 872 km, of which 217 km were on wheels and 655 km were on caterpillars. At the same time, the operation time of the diesel engine of the A-32 tank was 12 hours and 20 minutes, and the diesel engine of the A-20 tank worked 37 hours and 7 minutes.