T-62 Series Tanks - Design
The T-62 tank is a Soviet medium tank, the first in the world with a smoothbore gun in production. It was developed in 1957-1959. In 1962 - adopted by the Soviet Army under the designation T-62A "Object 165". The T-62 is a further step in the line of development begun with the T-54/55 series, entering production in 1961 and remaining in production until 1975. It became the standard main battle tank in Soviet tank and motorized rifle units, gradually replacing the T-54 and T-55. The T-62A variant first appeared in 1970. The upgraded version of the T-62 tank with the Sheksna guided weapons system was designated the T-62M. And the upgraded version of this tank with installed dynamic protection and without additional armored protection of the tower and hull was designated T-62MV. By the 1980s it was replaced by the new generation T-64/T-72/T-80 tanks as the first-line Soviet main battle tank.
The T-62 was manufactured in three gigantic plants at Nizhny Tagil, Omsk and Kharkov.
The T-62 medium tank has a fully tracked, five-road wheeled chassis with close spaces between the three front road wheels and large gaps separating the third, fourth, and fifth road wheels. The drive sprocket is at the rear and the idler at the front, and there are no track return rollers. The rounded turret, mounted over the third road wheel, is more smoothly cast and more nearly egg-shaped than that of the T-54/55 series. The commander's cupola on the left is cast with the turret and not bolted on as in the case of the T-54/55. The loader's hatch on the right is also located farther forward.
The 115-mm smoothbore main gun has a longer and thinner tube than the 100-mm gun of the T-54/55, and its bore evacuator is located about two-thirds of the way up the gun tube from the turret. There is also a 7.62-mm coaxial machine gun, and model T-62A also mounts a 12.7-mm antiaircraft machine gun at the loader's hatch position.
A gunner's IR searchlight is mounted on the right above the main gun, and a smaller IR searchlight is mounted on the commander's cupola. The driver's hatch is located in front of the turret on the left side of the flat, low-silhouetted hull.
CAPABILITIES:
Like the T-55, the T-62 has a 580 hp V-12 water-cooled diesel engine, which gives it a cruising range of 320 km cross-country or 450 km on paved roads with integral fuel cells and 450 km cross-country or 650 km on paved roads with two 200-liter auxiliary fuel tanks. It also shares the snorkeling and smokescreen generating capabilities of the T-54/55 series and has the same PAZ radiation detection system as the T-55. Some T-62s may have been retrofitted with full NBC collective protection systems (air filtration and overpressure). Most models have the same IR night sight and driving equipment and the same fire control equipment as the T-54/55, although some T-62s have been retrofitted with a passive night sight replacing the gunner's active IR sight, and a laser rangefinder is believed to have been developed to replace the stadiametric reticule rangefinder.
The most significant improvement over the T-54/55 tanks, however, is the 115-mm smoothbore main gun which fires a hypervelocity, armor-piercing, fin-stabilized, discarding sabot (HVAPFSDS) round with a muzzle velocity of 1,61 5 meters per second. The penetrator flies in a very flat trajectory and is therefore extremely accurate out to a maximum effective range of 1,600 meters. Although the specific number of each type of round varies with the anticipated tactical situation, the 40-round basic load typically includes 12 HVAPFSDS rounds, 6 HEAT rounds, and 22 HE rounds. The T-62 also has an automatic shell ejector system which is activated by the recoil of the main gun and ejects spent casings through a port in the rear of the turret.
Available improvements include a hull bottom reinforced against mines, rubber track pads, and a thermal sleeve for the gun. There are thermal sights available for installation which permit night launch of ATGMs. The 1K13 sight is both night sight and ATGM launcher sight; however, it cannot be used for both functions simultaneously. Optional sights and fire control systems include the Israeli El-Op Red Tiger and Matador FCS, Swedish NobelTech T-series sight, and German Atlas MOLF. The British Marconi Digital FCS, South African Tiger, and Belgian SABCA Titan offer upgraded function. One of the best is the Slovenian EFCS-3 integrated FCS. A variety of thermal sights is available. They include the Russian Agava, French SAGEM-produced ALIS and Namut sight from Peleng.
LIMITATIONS:
The T-62 has all the limitations of the T-55: cramped crew compartment, thin armor, crude gun control equipment (on most models), limited depression of main gun, and vulnerable fuel and ammunition storage areas. The automatic spent-cartridge ejection system can cause dangerous accumulations of carbon monoxide and possibly actual physical injury to the crew from cartridge cases projected against the edge of a poorly aligned ejection port and rebounding into the crew compartment. Opening the ejection port under NBC conditions would also expose the crew to contamination.
Each time the gun is fired, the tube must go into detente for cartridge ejection, and the power traverse of the turret is inoperable during ejection and reloading operations. Since manual elevation and traverse are rather slow and not effective for tracking a moving target, rapid fire and second-hit capabilities are limited. The turret also cannot be traversed with the driver's hatch open. Although the tank commander may override the gunner and traverse the turret, he cannot fire the main gun from his position. He is unable to override the gunner in elevation of the main gun, causing target acquisition problems.
To fire the 12.7-mm antiaircraft machinegun, the loader must be partially exposed, making him vulnerable to suppressive fires, and he must also leave his main gun loading duties unattended.
Some of the "shortcomings" of the T-62 can simply be considered far-fetched. So, for example, insufficient machine-gun armament belongs to their number. In itself, this is true, until 1970, the T-62 was supplied only with a coaxial machine gun of 7.62 mm caliber. But here it is permissible to ask: did the rest of the Soviet tanks fare better? Not at all! After the elimination of large-caliber anti-aircraft machine guns, all Soviet tanks had only one coaxial 7.62 mm SGMT or PKT machine gun. The presence on the T-55 tank, for example, of a course machine gun did little to improve the situation, since its practical value was close to zero. Well, in the T-55A it was completely eliminated.
However, from the insufficient machine-gun armament of the T-62 tank, for some reason, it is concluded that it has limited capabilities to combat ATGM crews at long ranges, 2–3 km, taking into account the greater dispersion of projectiles characteristic of smoothbore guns.
All this is somehow unconvincing. Firstly, insufficient machine-gun armament is a vice of the entire national school of tank building. In the West, for example, not only did they never abandon large-caliber machine guns, which were intended not so much for air defense tasks as for self-defense, but they also equipped tanks with additional conventional-caliber machine guns. Modern NATO tanks usually have two of these machine guns on the turret, one at each hatch. Secondly, all calculations from anti-tank systems are important for a later period. In the early 1960s, there were few anti-tank systems capable of effectively firing at a distance of 3 km. Thirdly, the range of a direct shot on the Central European theater of operations, as you know, does not exceed 1800 m. It is not clear where they could shoot at Soviet tanks en masse from a range of 3 km. And finally, fourthly. The fight against ATGM crews is not part of the task of tanks.
In the early 1960s, of course, this was not obvious, but now we know that this is the range of tasks solved by infantry fighting vehicles and infantry. To combat anti-tank systems, Uralvagonzavod generally gave birth to a special combat vehicle - the notorious "Terminator". True, in the presence of an infantry fighting vehicle, the need for it is not indisputable.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
