The T-54 and T-55 tanks were a series of main battle tanks designed in the Soviet Union. The first T-54 prototype appeared in March 1945, just before the end of the Second World War. The T-54 entered full production in 1947 and became the main tank for armored units of the Soviet Army, armies of the Warsaw Pact countries, and others. T-54s and T-55s were involved in many of the world's armed conflicts during the late 20th century.
The T-54/55 series eventually became the most-produced tank in history. Estimated production numbers for the series range from 86,000 to 100,000.
T-54/55 tanks were replaced by the T-62, T-64, T 72 and T-80 in the Soviet and Russian Armies, but many remain in use by up to 50 other armies worldwide, some having received sophisticated retrofitting.
Soviet tanks never directly faced their NATO Cold War adversaries in Europe. However, the T-54/55's first appearance in the west in 1960 spurred the United States to develop the M60 Patton.| T-54/55 | |
|---|---|
| Type | Main battle tank |
| Place of origin |  Soviet Union |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1950–present |
| Production history | |
| Designer | Morozov (T-54), OKB-520 (T-54A and later) |
| Designed | 1945 |
| Manufacturer | KhPZ, UVZ (USSR), Bumar-Łabędy (Pol.), ZTS Martin (Czech.) |
| Produced | 1946–81 (USSR) 1956–79 (Pol.) 1957–83 (Czech.) |
| Number built | 86,000–110,000 est. |
| Specifications (T-55) | |
| Weight | 36 tonnes (39.7 ST) |
| Length | 6.45 m |
| Width | 3.37 m |
| Height | 2.40 m |
| Crew | 4 |
| | |
| Armour | 203 mm turret, 99 mm hull or 120mm (the 120mm variant went only 33mph), LOS = ~200 mm |
| Main armament | D-10T 100 mm rifled gun |
| Secondary armament | 2×7.62 mm SGMT machine gun, (12.7 mm DShK heavy machine gun) |
| Engine | Model V-55 12-cyl. 38.88-l diesel 581 hp (433 kW) |
| Power/weight | 14.6 hp/tonne |
| Suspension | Torsion bar |
| Ground clearance | 0.425 m |
| Fuel capacity | 961 l (254 gal) |
| Operational range | 501 km (311 mi), 600 km (373 mi) with extra tanks |
| Speed | 56 km/h (34.8 mph) cross country speed= 16 mph (25 km/h) |
Like many post-World War II tanks, the T-54 and T-55 have a conventional layout with fighting compartment in the front, engine compartment in the rear, and a dome-shaped turret in the centre of the hull. The driver's hatch is on the front left of the hull roof. The commander is seated on the left, with the gunner to his front and the loader on the right. The tank's suspension has the drive sprocket at the rear, and dead track. Engine exhaust is on the left fender. There is a prominent gap between the first and second road wheel pairs, a distinguishing feature from the T-62, which has progressively larger spaces between road wheels towards the rear.
The T-54 and T-55 tanks are outwardly very similar and difficult to distinguish visually. Many T-54s were also updated to T-55 standards, so the distinction is often downplayed with the collective name T-54/55. Soviet tanks were factory-overhauled every 7,000 km and often given minor technology updates. Many states have added or modified the tank's equipment; India, for example, affixed fake fume extractors to its T-54s and T-55s so that its gunners wouldn't confuse them with Pakistani Type 59s.
The older T-54 can be distinguished from the T-55 by a dome-shaped ventilator on the front right of the turret and a driver-operated SGMT 7.62 mm machine gun mounted to fire through a tiny hole in the centre of the hull's front. Early T-54s lacked a gun fume extractor, had an undercut at the turret's rear, and a distinctive "pig-snout" gun mantlet.
The T-54/55 tanks are mechanically simple and robust. They are very simple to operate compared to Western tanks, and don't require a high level of training or education in their crew members. The T-54/55 is a relatively small main battle tank, presenting a smaller target for its opponents to hit. The tanks have good mobility thanks to their relatively light weight (which permits easy transport by rail or flatbed truck, and allows crossing of lighter bridges), wide tracks (which give lower ground pressure and hence good mobility on soft ground), a good cold-weather start-up system, and a snorkel which allows river crossings. The T-54/55 tanks have together been manufactured in the tens of thousands, and many still remain in reserve, or even in front-line use among lower-technology fighting forces. Abundance and age together make these tanks cheap and easy to purchase. While the T-54/55 is not a match for a modern main battle tank, armour and ammunition upgrades can dramatically improve the old vehicle's performance to the point that it cannot be dismissed on the battlefield.
Nevertheless, T-54/55 tanks have many serious defects. Small size is achieved at the expense of interior space and crew comforts. This causes practical difficulties, as it constrains the physical movements of the crew and slows operation of controls and equipment (in Finnish army crew of a T-55 was often called "four left-handed midgets".) Israelis who crewed T-54/55s captured during the 1967 and 1973 wars constantly complained about this, and it remains a problem that cannot be remedied by any upgrades. However, height limits were set for any recruit joining the tankers in the Soviet Army, hence the low average height of Soviet tankers. This is believed to completely solve the low silhouette issue, whereas other armies may not include crew member height limits as standards. The low turret profile of the tanks prevents them from depressing their main guns by more than 5° (the average for Western tanks is 10°), which limits the ability to cover terrain by fire from a hull-down position on a reverse slope. While both tanks have stabilized guns, in practice they can only fire accurately when the vehicles are at rest (this problem may have been solved with more recent upgrades). The 100 mm gun is less effective than newer tank guns of 105, 120 and 125 mm calibre, and only has a chance at being effective against some heavily armoured tanks when firing special ammunition (such as missiles) or hitting them at weaker areas such as the rear. Its main disadvantage is its light armor. While it had very strong armor that could withstand frontal hits from bazooka, PIAT, RPG-2 and most tank guns of that era, its armor became obsolete within 20 years of its introduction. Because it was designed for "traditional warfare", its side and rear armor was two or three times thinner than on the front. In Vietnam, its side armor proved very vulnerable to LAW rockets and the M41 Walker Bulldog light tank with 76mm gun. Like in most tanks of that generation, the internal ammunition supply is not shielded, increasing the odds that any enemy penetration of the fighting compartment could cause a catastrophic secondary explosion. And while the T-54/55 tanks can be upgraded, the stunning losses suffered by upgraded Iraqi T-55's against coalition tanks during Operation Desert Storm showed the inescapable limitations of the design. The original T-54/55 tanks are unlikely to be successful against modern opponents without the benefit of upgrades.
The T-54 is especially defective: It lacks NBC protection, a revolving turret floor (which complicated the crew's operations), and early models lacked gun stabilization. All of these problems were corrected in the T-55 tank, which is otherwise largely identical to the T-54.
