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Object 432 Heavy tank

Tank "Object 432" was developed in May 1961 in the design bureau (department 60) of the plant Malyshev (Kharkov) under the leadership of chief designer A.A. Morozov on the basis of the resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 141-58 of February 17, 1961. The revision of the technical design and the manufacture of prototypes of the machine were carried out in accordance with the decision of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 957-407 of October 24, 1961. The running model of the tank without a tower with weapons assembled in March 1962. After installing the turret with weapons in June 1962, it passed factory tests, which ended on August 15, 1962. The first full-fledged sample of the Tank 432 tank was manufactured in September-October 1962. In total, until the end of December 1962. plant them. V.A. Malysheva released three prototypes. One of them (the second) is a reconstructed undercarriage layout of a tank with weapons, released in March 1962.

In February 1961, a crisis developed in the Soviet Ground Forces when the first details of the US Army's M60A1 became evident to the top leadership. A crash program was undertaken to adopt the new U5-T 115mm gun on the T-55, resulting in the T-62. A similar effort was undertaken on the Obiekt 430 in late 1961. However, this was a more complicated procedure than on the T-62 because the fighting compartment was extremely limited in volume. The rearmed Obiekt 430 was designated Obiekt 432.

The new gun was the 115mm D-68 (2A21) developed by the Petrov bureau in Sverdlovsk. To solve the crew compartment problem, the Morozov design bureau decided to adopt an autoloader; this had the obvious advantage of eliminating a single crewman. The configuration of the autoloader was ingenious. Instead of the magazine style used in the French AMX-13 (or the later Swedish S-Tank), the autoloader was incorporated into the revolving turret basket. The ammunition was stowed in two parts (projectile and propellant casing) in a configuration nicknamed the korzhina (wicker basket); the autoloader held 30 of the tank's 45 rounds. The disadvantage of this approach is that it required a new family of 115mm ammunition from the type carried on the T-62. The ammunition family used the same types of projectiles as the T-62's U5-T 115mm gun, but a new case had to be designed for the split ammunition. After the gun fired, the spent casing was returned into the autoloader tray.

The new Obiekt 432 was completed in 1963. It was otherwise very similar to the Obiekt 430 with a few other modest improvements. For example, it used the uprated 5TDF engine, which provided 700 horsepower compared with 600 horsepower on the Obiekt 430, thereby increasing the road speed to 65 kilometers per hour. The running gear was modernized, and the number of road wheels rose from five to six per side. Yet the suspension remained very lightweight, only about 15 percent of total vehicle weight.

The Obiekt 432 did not entirely end the armament question. In 1962, a meeting of the tank technical council of the VPK6 was held, attended by the main tank designers. Leonid Kartsev, who was finalizing the uparmed T-62 of the time, was critical of the decision to arm the Obiekt 432 with only the 115mm gun, arguing that by the time it entered service, it would already be approaching obsolesence. The technical council agreed that work should begin on a new gun (the 125mm 2A26), but approval was received to proceed with the 115mm D68-T gun on the Obiekt 432.

The Obiekt 432 enjoyed two major firepower advantages over the T-62 in spite of similar gun ballistics. The Obiekt 432 used an autoloader, giving it a theoretical rate of fire of 10 rounds per minute, versus 4 rounds per minute for the T-62. Secondly, the Obiekt 432 was fitted with a TPD-43B coincidence rangefinder, giving it superior accuracy at longer ranges. Compared with the T-62, the effective range while moving was 1.1 kilometers verses 0.9 kilometers with APFSDS kinetic energy projectiles, while for HEAT shaped charge projectiles it was 900 verses 600 meters.

The rivalry between Kharkov and Nizhni Tagil continued. In October 1962, at a demonstration of new tank technology for Khrushchev at Kubinka, Kartsev attempted to convince him that the modernized T-62 with new suspension, the Obiekt 167, would be a more prudent choice for the new tank than the "raw" Obiekt 432. Kartsev indicated that the Obiekt 167 could be built at Nizhni Tagil and other plants without any major new capital investments. Kartsev's position was supported by the commander of the Soviet Ground Forces, Marshal Chuikov, but it was vigorously resisted by the GBTU, which sought a more sophisticated new tank.

Trials of the Obiekt 432 in 1963 made it very clear that the design was far from mature, but the program continued to have strong support in the GBTU. One of the most significant advantages of the Obiekt 432 was its armor. The "Combination K" mixed steel-ceramic armor offered superior protection against HEAT shaped charge projectiles, which at the time were the preferred type of ammunition used by NATO tanks. The T-62's angled steel armor offered the equivalent of 200 millimeters of steel against APFSDS and HEAT; the T-64 armor was equivalent to 410mm of steel against APFSDS and 450 millimeters of steel against HEAT warheads.

Another unusual innovation in the design was the incorporation of folding armor panels over the suspension, which were sprung outward during combat to reduce the effectiveness of HEAT projectiles when fired against the suspension area.

In accordance with the decision of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 395-141 of March 28, 1963, the Plant named after V.A. Malyshev set about assembling the installation batch for conducting military tests, as well as preparing for the production of the Object 432 tank according to the drawing and technical documentation of the chief designer. Simultaneously with the release of the installation batch in the period from November 1963 to July 1964, two previously manufactured factory samples passed the third stage of forced tests. The first ten machines of the installation batch were ready by the beginning of March 1964, of which three tanks from May to June 1964 were subjected to control tests, which showed unsatisfactory results.

The Tank "Object 432" had a classic layout with a transverse engine and a crew of three. A feature of the layout was its high density, as well as the minimum overall performance of the tank, especially in height (2.17 m), which provided him with the smallest reserved volume of all domestic medium tanks. This was achieved due to the exclusion of the charging crew and the use of a loading mechanism, a specially designed low-level engine and the presence of a stamp in the bottom of the hull to accommodate the driver's seat.

Removal of powder gases from the tank during firing, as well as blowing the crew with fresh air in the hot season, was provided by the ventilation system of the habitable compartments. This system included a manually operated supercharger for opening and closing valves, an easily removable electric fan (in front of the driver), an air draw of the tower (on the aft roof sheet of the tower), an air supply of the body (on the zygomatic leaf of the roof to the left of the driver) and an exhaust fan.

The main weapon of the tank was the 115-mm smooth-bore D-68 tank gun stabilized in two planes of separate-sleeve loading with a wedge semi-automatic horizontal movement gate and an ejection mechanism for cleaning the barrel bore of powder gases after firing. The cannon shutter was equipped with a re-cocking mechanism of the striker and mechanisms that protect against mechanical self-release when the tank is moving with a loaded gun and from a shot when the shutter is not fully closed. On the right on the cradle of the gun in a special bracket installed paired 7.62-mm PKT machine gun.

The tank turret was a shaped casting of armored steel with a powerful frontal part, the stamped roof and the body of the base tube of the range-finder were welded to the upper part, the bottom sheet in the underside of the lower part. In the right and left halves of the frontal part of the tower there were special cavities filled with aluminum alloy inserts. In front of the tower was an embrasure with a closed perimeter for the installation of the gun. Arc cheeks were welded to the side faces of the embrasure, which were designed to protect the internal case from the lead spray of the inner case, sealing the embrasure of the gun, and lowering the pressure of the transmitted shock wave acting on the case. In the upper part of the loophole to the welded strips attached upper protective shield.

To protect the crew from radioactive dust when the tank overtook areas of radioactively contaminated terrain, supercharged air was supplied to the fighting compartment and air pressure was generated inside the habitable compartments (backwater) that prevented dust from penetrating through the hull and tower of the vehicle.

The basis of the power plant of the tank was a two-stroke high-speed diesel 5TDF with a power of 515 kW (700 hp) at a rotational speed of crankshafts 3000 min-1. The engine was fastened at three points with the help of two rigidly mounted pins and one pivot bearing. Installing the engine did not require alignment and adjustment relative to the transmission units. The engine was started using a SG-10 starter-generator with a power of 10 kW (main method) or using compressed air from two five-liter air cylinders (standby method). The cylinders were charged from an AK-150S compressor, which was driven by an engine. If necessary, the engine could be started by a combined method (simultaneously starter-generator and air-inlet) or from the tug.

In June 1961 the technical design of the tank, which received the designation “Object 432”, developed by the plant was reviewed at the session of Section 7 of the HTC GKOT and at the plenum of the Scientific and Technical Conference of the State Technical University. In March 1962. Factory tests of the first prototype tank were started. In May 1962 the plant produced a second prototype tank for factory and field tests. In February 1963, taking into account the results of factory testing the first two prototypes it was made the third prototype tank "Object 432" for military trials. February-March 1963 in the troops of the Kiev VO in the area of ??the city of Chuguiv, tests of a third prototype tank were conducted.

According to the results of ground and troop tests of three prototypes on March 28 1963. The Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and CM of the USSR "On the preparation for serial production of a new medium tank / object 432 / and weapons to it." The first 10 tanks "Object 432" installation batch from Malyshev were collected by March 4 1964, and by the end of the year the number of manufactured tanks reached 90 units. In 1965, according to the drawings of the chief designer, the plant manufactured 163 "Object 432" tanks. Held in August-September 1965, factory tests of the “Object 432” showed that the measures implemented to design the tank to improve the reliability of the engine, the mechanism of loading the gun and the weapon stabilizer did not ensure faultless operation within the warranty run in the amount of 3000 km. During 1966 the plant carried out constructive and industrial refinement of the tank "Object 432" taking into account the control factory tests and pilot military operation of over 150 tanks. In total to 1966 the plant manufactured 294 tanks "Object 432".

By Decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the USSR CM on December 30 1966, the medium tank "Object 432" was adopted by the Soviet Army and was given the name "Tank T-64". Series production of this tank was organized in Kharkov in 1966-1968.