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T-10A Heavy Tank

Heavy tank T-10A was a modernized version of the T-10 tank and had the designation "Object 731". It was put into service by order of the USSR Minister of Defense of June 11, 1956. Its serial production was organized in 1957 in Chelyabinsk. The upgraded tank was distinguished by the installation of a D-25TS cannon with a modified muzzle brake and an ejection purge of the bore (the smooth bulge on the midsection of the barrel), this later innovation being the most obvious external change. A bore evacuator or fume extractor is a device on the gun barrel of an armored fighting vehicle which helps prevent toxic propellant gases from venting back into the vehicle's fighting compartment when the gun breech is opened to load another round. The bore evacuator is connected to the barrel's interior via a series of evacuator holes. The bore evacuator collects high pressure gas as the projectile passes by the holes, and then vents that same gas once the pressure inside the barrel has subsided. The venting of this gas evacuates fumes and gases out the muzzle end of the barrel. This protects crews inside the vehicle's cab from potentially dangerous levels of gases left behind from a projectile's firing.

The T-10A also featured the use of a PUOT vertical gun (Hurricane) stabilizer, a GF-48 gyro semi-compass and an IR device for a driver's TVN-1. Instead of the TS-2-27 sight, the TPS-1 periscope sight and the TUP duplicating telescopic sight were installed.

Heavy tank T-10B was a modernized tank T-10A and differed from it by installing a two-plane weapon stabilizer and a new gunner sight T2S-29. It was adopted by order of the USSR Minister of Defense in 1957. In the same year, the T-10BK commander tank was created, which differed from the line tank by the presence of an additional radio station and a charging unit.

In the B-12-6 engine, changes were made in the design of the crankcase, crankshaft, pistons, cylinders, etc., compared with B-12-5. The engine power was 750 hp at 2100 rpm The machine was equipped with a radio station R-113 and an intercom P-120. The tank was produced for almost 5 years, and it was only in 1962 that the production of the T-10M tank on the basis of object 272 was organized at both plants.