Russia: "new life" for hundreds of T-62s
ADAM ŚWIERKOWSKI
10/12/2022 17:27
Russian repair plant No. 103 was tasked with overhaul and modernization of approximately 800 T-62 tanks for the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Does this mean that the deficiencies in the Russian tanks are so large that over 50-year-old tanks are being used?
"The company works in two shifts, it is ready to work in three, we need help with this, there is no other way, there is a lot of work. Today, the whole industry is mobilized, because the plant cannot operate alone - we need suppliers, components, spare parts, this comes from all over Russia, "said Andrei Guruliev, State Duma deputy from Transbaikalia, on his Telegram channel.
"The tanks are not only being repaired, but also modernized: the T-62 will be equipped with modern thermal imagers, night sights, enhanced protection, additional armor, protection against missile systems and grenade launchers," wrote Andrei Guruliev.
The 103rd armored plant near Chita is modernizing about 800 T-62 tanks over the course of three years.
This means that the tanks will be modernized to the minimum T-62M / MV variant, but it is possible that another modernization will be developed, as if combining both of the already mentioned with additional improvements. It is possible that additional changes will be applied during the works due to the lack of certain components or the improvement of the tank's parameters, such as firepower or mobility.
The fact of restoring operational vehicles, which are technologically very obsolete at the base, combined with data on huge reserves of Russian tanks such as the T-72 or T-80 creates a rather absurd picture of the situation. This probably means that the level of losses combined with the shortages in Russian warehouses (especially in the field of the T-72 and parts for them) make it necessary to reach for such old tanks.
Nevertheless, regardless of how old the tank is, if it has fuel and ammunition provided, it is able to serve, for example, as artillery, fighting targets with indirect fire. In the case of the T-62, due to its main armament, it can effectively destroy most Ukrainian tanks when hitting the side or rear zones.
The T-62 is a Soviet Main / Medium Tank developed in the late 1950s as the future successor to the mass-produced T-54/55. Its production began in the early 1960s, when the former USSR was led by
Nikita Khrushchev , and the first public presentation took place in 1965. The main armament is a 115 mm 2A20 (U-5T) smoothbore cannon that could use HEAT projectile penetrate 300 mm RHA at a distance of 1000 m.
The T-62M is its modernization from 1983, consisting in a significant improvement in the combat parameters of the vehicle, including firepower or crew protection level. Special armor was added to the front of the turret and the hull, the resistance of the bottom of the hull was improved, which increased the level of protection of the vehicle to the standard similar to the T-64A or T-72 Ural foreheads. The tank is equipped with RhKM tracks from the T-72 tank and two additional shock absorbers on the first pair of road wheels. The "Wołna" fire control system was improved by mounting the KTD-2 (or KTD-1) laser rangefinder in the armored box above the main armament. The mobility of the vehicle was also improved by implementing the new 620 hp W-55U engine.
The T-62MV is a modernization of the T-62M tank, assuming the replacement of the special armor used in the M version with the Kontakt-1 reactive armor cubes on the front and sides of the hull and turret. There are also versions of it assuming that the tank is equipped with a W-46-5M diesel engine. In addition to these changes, the tank, like the M version, was equipped with RhKM tracks from the T-72 tank and two additional shock absorbers in the first pair of road wheels.
We encourage you to familiarize yourself with this construction in the article below.
https://defence24.pl/przemysl/t-62-przejsciowy-czolg-na-wojnie-po-pol-wieku-analiza
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Viitatun artikkelin käännös:
T-62: "transitional" tank at war after half a century [ANALYSIS]
MAREK DĄBROWSKI
10/06/2022 07:27
The age-old T-62 once again "amazed" the world, appearing more than half a century after its premiere in the war in Ukraine. The tank, which was in fact a transitional export vehicle, poorly assessed by the crews, but appearing in almost every major conflict the end of the last century and the beginning of the present century, so it is worth presenting this structure and its history once again.
Production of the T-62 began in the early 1960s, and was officially demonstrated for the first time (as was the case with many other types of Soviet combat technology at the time) during the May 1, 1965 parade in Moscow. Initially, this car was treated as a successor to the well-known T-54/55 family, but the conclusions from its operation resulted in the end of its production in 1975 (in Czechoslovakia it lasted until 1978, and in North Korea it may continue to this day). approx. 20 thousand Interestingly, the production of the older T-55s in the USSR was continued for several more years.
The T-62 was the first tank in the world to be armed with a smoothbore, and its legend actually began during the wars waged in the Middle East, then Afghanistan and the surprising "return" of the age-old structure at the present stage of the fighting in Ukraine.
T-62 - the first Soviet vehicle, the so-called 2nd generation
The T-62 tank has a classic design with a steering compartment in the front (left side), a combat compartment in the middle with a turret and a propulsion compartment at the rear.The length of the hull is 6,630 mm (with the 9,335 mm gun), 3,300 mm wide without side shields, and 2,280 mm high to the turret roof. Clearance along the entire length of 430 mm.
On the right side of the driver there is a fuel tank. The driver has a hatch (in the fuselage ceiling) and two periscopes mounted in front of him. In night driving conditions, the left periscope can be replaced with the TWN-2 active night vision device (range up to 60 meters - 30 ° area).
The hull was made by welding from homogeneous armor plates (the front and the thickest ones are up to 102 mm thick and are sloped - the upper one is 60 degrees from the vertical and the lower one is 54 ° ). The forehead of the turret (made as a homogeneous cast) has an armor thickness of approx. 242 mm, and the rear - 97 mm. The thickness of the hull bottom plates is 20 mm and the roof thickness is over 30 mm.
The gunner is on the left side of the fighting compartment (in the front part) and the commander is a little higher in the rear. The loader has a seat on the right side and a single observation periscope. They have two hatches at their disposal, located in the ceiling of the tower.
The commander observes with the use of the TKN-3 device with a night vision reflector placed in front of the hatch. The magnification during the day is x5 and at night the viewing angle is narrowed to 8 ° with a maximum range of 400 meters. Additionally, the commander has at his disposal four periscopes mounted in a rotating turret. He can guide the turret to the place of his observation, which, however, requires a lot of physical strength to keep the turret in a given position while rotating.
The gunner has at his disposal a single periscope and a Tsz2B-41 telescopic sight with two observation ranges (optical). The first with x3.5 and 180 observation angle gain and the second (accurate) with x7 and 90 observation angle gain. The rangefinder scale for a height of 2700 mm is etched in the eyepiece. At night, however, he observes the TPN1-41-1 night vision device with a reflector coupled to a cannon and an observation range of up to 800 meters.
The main armament of the tank is a 115 mm 2A20 smoothbore cannon (U-5TS), stabilized in two planes and electrohydraulically guided. Manual (emergency) guidance devices are operated by a gunner. The unit of fire carried there is 40 pieces of combined ammunition. During loading, the cannon is brought to an elevation angle of 30 30 '(with simultaneous locking of the turret rotation). The casings are ejected through a window located at the rear of the tower. The achieved rate of fire is only 4 rounds / min and largely depends on the acquired skills and the loader's power. The gun is coupled with a 7.62 mm PKT machine gun with a supply of 2,500 rounds of ammunition.
The tank is powered by a V-12, W-55-5, liquid-cooled, spark-ignition engine W-55-5 with a power of 426 kW at 2,000 rpm. The unit power ratio is 10.7 kW / t and a range of 450 km (650 with additional tanks). The drive from it is transmitted through the input gear and the multi-plate dry main clutch to the gearbox. This, in turn, is mechanical, with gears with constant mesh, with an auxiliary drive take-off (ventilation, cooling system) - five forward gears and one reverse. From the main shaft of the gearbox, the drive enters two planetary steering mechanisms (left and right). They allow you to make a turn with two radii - 10 meters or equal to the distance of the track axis (it is also possible to turn with a transient radius). An integral part of these planetary mechanisms are belt brakes, also used to stop the tank or park it on a hill. Side gears are attached to the side plates of the fuselage - to slow down the rotation, increasing the torque. The driving wheels are mounted on their drive shafts.
The T-62 has ten double, rubberised load wheels made of light alloys. They are mounted on trailing wishbones. The suspension also includes torsion bars (set across the fuselage) and the rocker arms of the outer (first and fifth) wheels cooperate with hydraulic shock absorbers. The wheels and tensioning mechanisms (crankset with worm gear) are located at the front of the hull. Moving along the arc of the wheel causes the tension of the track to change. The track itself has 96 links connected by steel pins, but the lack of seals makes it wear out fairly quickly.
The maximum speed on the paved road is approx. 50 km / h, and the tank is able to overcome vertical obstacles 800 mm high and ditches 2850 mm wide.
The vehicle is equipped with an automatic fire-fighting system with sensors located in the driving and combat compartments. It is also manually triggered by the driver or commander.
The ABC protection system consists of the RBZ-1 detection unit and the filtering device. The vehicle also includes a thermal smoke generator, which allows you to set up a smoke screen with a length of 400 meters and a duration of up to 4 minutes (in no wind conditions and with the consumption of up to 10 liters of fuel per 1 minute of operation).
The T-62 is capable of negotiating without preparation of water obstacles with a depth of up to 1400 mm and, after preparation, up to 5000 mm (with the use of an air supply pipe carried on the tower).
Even a short period of operation has revealed many disadvantages of this car. Low maneuverability was the result of using an engine with too low power, and the low rate of fire - the lack of an automatic loading mechanism. In Russia, the last T-62s were officially decommissioned in 2013.
Apart from the USSR, these tanks were (or still are) in service with the armies of Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Cuba, Egypt, East Germany, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Yemen, North Korea, Syria and Vietnam.
In Russia, large numbers of T-62 tanks are stored in the bases for storing and repairing weapons and technology, or in mobilization depots. They are probably in different technical condition, but in most cases, after minor inspections, they can be easily brought to the state of full operation. Large amounts of ammunition and spare parts for these machines are also stored in Russia.
Upgrades and special models
In the modified T-62M, the sight hatch was replaced and a 12.7 mm DszK MG was added to the rotating mount (500 fire unit). Over time, it was also adapted to launch the laser-guided 9M117 Bastion missiles using the 9K116-1 Szeksna complex. This is the first tank in the USSR, next to the T-55M, to receive such capabilities. From 1975, the KTD-1 laser rangefinder was mounted on the T-62 tanks.
The T-62K is a version of the sub-unit commander (commander) with extensive means of communication (additional radio R-112) and the TNA-2 field navigation system. A TO-62 flamethrower with a firing range of up to 100 meters and a technical evacuation vehicle were also built.
under the influence of operations in Afghanistan, a version of the T-62M1 was created with added plates (covers) in the front part of the hull and turret (30 mm front plate supported by four 5 mm slanted plates) and additional (rubber-metal) side aprons. In addition, the anti-mine shield was reinforced, anti-radiation linings, tracks from the T-72 tank, the W-55U engine were introduced, and the SKO was modernized (including the BM-62 ballistic computer, KTD-2 laser rangefinder and M1 stabilizer). The ASOP Drozd was mounted on the vehicle designated T-62D.
It is worth noting that the 115 mm caliber barrels for the Egyptian T-62s were supplied by the British and the Austrians offered to replace their guns with the 105 mm L7. In turn, the French, with the users of this vehicle in mind, have prepared a package to replace the original cannons for 120 mm, coming from the AMX-40 tank.
The last, quite surprising, proposal to modernize the "age-old" T-62M had its premiere during the 7th International Military and Technical Forum Armija-2021. As part of it, the installation of the 1PN-96MT-02 multi-channel infrared sighting device with a MGOES optoelectronic head stabilized on a high mast (up to 5 meters) was installed. Elements of the Kontakt-1 reactive armor and batten armor are mounted on the sides of the car. It is also possible to replace the W-55 engine with the more powerful W-46-5.
Combat use
The T-62 was first used in combat during the border incident between the USSR and China on the Ussuri River in March 1969. One of the copies was then immobilized and seized by the Chinese. The world knew this type earlier, because in 1968 these tanks were part of the Soviet units sent to Czechoslovakia.
The greatest fame for these machines was brought by the struggle between the Arab states and Israel, as well as the I and II wars in Iraq.
During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, 115mm ammunition easily penetrated the armor of the Israeli Patton, Centurion and Super Sherman tanks. The results of the clashes, however, were determined by the advantage of the Israeli long-range artillery, aviation, better tactics and training of armored crews.
In the Battle of Chinese Farm, the 25th Panzer Brigade of the Egyptian Army was surrounded on three sides by Centurion Sh'ot tanks. As a result of the fighting, only 10 out of 96 examples of the T-62 were left in it, which only managed to destroy four Israeli tanks. In turn, Syria sent five T-62 brigades to attack the Golan Heights, but to the fire of an Israeli tank company quickly lost 36 vehicles, while Israel only lost three Centurions. As Israeli forces counterattacked, the Syrian 47th T-62 Brigade was defeated by M51 Sherman tanks. At the same time, two Syrian T-62 brigades helped stabilize the defense lines south of Damascus.
The Israelis concluded that the T-62 had better side armor than the Western tanks of the time, and its smoothbore guns had excellent penetration at ranges of up to 2,500 meters. But criticism was given to the small stock of transported ammunition (40 pcs.), the smaller range of the cannon movement and the tight turret.
During the USSR's intervention in Afghanistan, nearly 400 of these tanks were destroyed by the Taliban using mines, grenade launchers and recoilless rifles. Taking into account non-combat losses, the Russians lost up to 1,340 tanks there.
Back in 2008, Moscow used T-62M tanks during the Russo-Georgian war.
Relatively recently, the T-62M batch was received from Russia by the Syrian army of Assad (which had around 1,000 such machines in service and in reserve before the conflict began).Theoretically, there is still a whole system of operation and training for these vehicles in this country (in theory, because the long war has significantly reduced the possibilities in this regard).
T-62M and T-62MV vehicles from Russia's mobilization reserves have recently been deployed in Ukraine. Some of them have been equipped with characteristic improvised bar shields against projectiles with HEAT warheads. They are treated there as mobile firearms rather than "full-fledged" tanks.