Is it true that reactivated T-62s are sent to the special operation zone? Are they useless or not? Discuss
Table of contents
- T-62 is also the first
- T-62 for today
- T-62 upgrades in the 21st century
- T-62 in a special operation
T-62 tanks were outdated back in the 80s, but despitefor this, they were able to quite actively fight in Afghanistan, and also in both Chechen wars. For example, the 160th Guards Tank Regiment, which was commanded by the infamous Colonel Yuri Budanov in the Second Chechen War, fought on the T-62M.
Now, videos with echelons have become viral on the network,loaded with such machines, keeping the direction ... you know where (according to the sources publishing them). Of course, infa is not officially commented on in any way - there are versions that the tanks were removed from storage (they have been in this status since the early 2000s) to strengthen the grouping in Ukraine. Slightly more plausible versions sound that the new military formations of the people's militia in new territories will be equipped with old-fashioned equipment.
We decided to remind you what kind of tank it is, how it appeared, what it can and how effective it will be on the modern battlefield.
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T-62 is also the first
In essence, the 62 was a development of the Soviet T-54/T-55 series medium tanks.According to the Soviet classification, it is a medium tank, and according to NATO, it is already quite a first-generation main battle tank.Overall, the vehicle is quite unique because it fell into a generational rift — on the one hand, it was no longer post-war, and the development of the tank relied little on experienceOn the other hand, it is not as unique as the T-64, which revolutionized Soviet tank building.
And it is also the first in-house (well, almost) development of Uralvagonzavod in Nizhny Tagil (plant No. 183).The T-62 was a development of the Kharkov T-54, but much deeper than the T-55, which entered service three years earlier.
What was the point of looking for a new tank again? As usual, the arms race - the British deeply upgraded their Centurion tanks and re-equipped them with Royal Ordnance L7 guns.
L7 became the best gun at that time and, you cansay, the limit of the development of rifled guns - they quickly began to switch to it everywhere in NATO, and the Americans produced it under license for the new M60 tanks, which replaced the obsolete M48 Patton. The main thing is that it gave a significant advantage to NATO vehicles in the confrontation with the T-54/55, hitting their frontal armor from a distance, while the NATO tanks themselves remained relatively safe from the Soviet D-10T2S tank guns.
T-55, a large gap between the first and second rink - a characteristic sign of difference from the T-62. On the sixty-second it is not
Object 430 designed by Morozov to the Soviet armydid not suit due to the 100 mm D-54 rifled gun, albeit with a new cartridge case ejection mechanism (it greatly facilitated the work of the loader), and a Lightning stabilizer that was good at that time. I did not specifically arrange the muzzle brake, which led part of the powder gases directly into the ground. And this unmasked the tank and made it difficult to visually evaluate the result of the shooting due to the raised dust and litter.
Much more interested in the military machine "Object166" Kartseva. The new tank was not much different from the T-55 tanks (slightly different dimensions and slight differences in the chassis), with the exception of the new gun - U-5TS Molot (GRAU index 2A20). In fact, it was the old D-54, but recalibrated due to the rejection of rifling as such. The barrel became smooth, which increased the caliber to 115 mm.
Why was the bore made smooth?After all, at first glance, the idea is so-so - rifling has provided artillery with accuracy for almost a century. But no, this was not a return to the time of Bonaparte. Just a smooth barrel made it possible to use a new type of projectile - BOPS, an armor-piercing feathered sub-caliber projectile, which, due to a smooth barrel and reduced friction, became about 2 times faster than armor-piercing ones in the previous D-10 guns (1650 m / s versus 897 m / s )
BOPS
The accuracy was increased by the projectile stabilizers after leaving the barrel bore.Guided weapons of the 9M117 Knuckles type, a guided anti-tank missile, appeared in the nomenclature.Add to this the HEAT shells... and you get the widest range of weapons to fight the most modern ones at the time.enemy tanks.
A fly in the ointment was a decrease in accuracy for high-explosive fragmentation shells, but an increase in range to 4000 meters reassured the Soviet command - tolerably, it will do.
T-62 for today
But we are talking about the 60s - those events are alreadyturned 60 years old, and even the last 30 years have led to a number of serious technological breakthroughs in tank building. Tanks of the M60 type today remain in service with the armies of the countries, to put it mildly, of the "3rd division", and even then, more often in the second line. Although in some places, for example, in Turkey, they are being modernized for local conflicts. The armament of the T-62 does not give it any advantages against T-64/72/80/90 level vehicles. Especially if we talk about their later modifications.
T-62MV in the body kit of dynamic protection
Vitaly Kuzmin
For 2018, information slipped thatsome of the most efficient T-62s in storage will be improved, including by installing a new gun. It was understood that these machines would go into service with the Syrian army, loyal to Assad, and the formations of General Haftar in Libya. There, these vehicles are actively used in battles, there are many tankers in the country who know how to fight on them ... and they are not so sorry.
But for modern conflicts, these tanks have a number of serious drawbacks, although it is more correct to speak of obsolescence.
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the 2A20 gun is unsuitable for the use of the modern range of ammunitionfor the 2A46 cannons (the main gun of Russian tanks), which are relevant to modern tasks - one, and actively produced and stored in large quantities - two
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tank armor is unsatisfactory in durabilityeven for ammunition for the RPG-7, because it was supposed to counteract the more traditional means in the 1950-1970s - towed anti-tank artillery and tank guns of that time
T-62 with enhanced passive armor
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weak defense in general. Several upgrades took place in the 1980sincreasing armor and installing dynamic protection (and even Drozd active systems, but very few). This mainly concerns vehicles of the T-62M level and younger, but they were actively used in recent conflicts and were sold / transferred to allies and partners later
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lack of a modern fire control system. The last upgrade concerned the OMS Wave:appeared laser rangefinder KDT-2, semi-automatic ballistic computer BV-62. This made it possible to breathe sense into the use of the machine on the battlefield, but, again, we are talking about the standards of the 1980s.
Thermal imagers were not installed on such tanks, theythere are no modern means of observation for the commander and the driver is especially deprived. Running capabilities are also far behind - after installing the V-46-5m diesel engine, the specific power varied by about 16 horses per ton, so the maneuverability of the T-62 is very so-so for a modern battlefield, where 23-24 and more horses per ton are considered the norm.
T-62 upgrades in the 21st century
One of the latest modifications of the T-62
Hellfire555
While working on the article, I found quite a lotinformation on the modernization of the T-62 after the collapse of the USSR. In fact, they did not forget about the tank - the same American M60s with their licensed local versions are being modernized quite actively today.
From 2018 there was information about the installation evena modern (well, relatively modern) thermal imager in a new sighting system with modern gun stabilization. Installed dynamic armor Kontakt-5 (previously, Kontakt-1 was installed in the T-62M +). Only now, nothing but announcements followed this - the modernized T-62s were either made for demonstrations singly, or sold to third countries.
In general, the declared visibility range of the teplakfor the T-62 at night - 2000 meters. This is less than that of the T-72B3, which, according to various sources, is suitable for 3-5 km, but even this is far from modern standards of 7-8 km. Contact-5 - protection, after all, is of little relevance in the conditions of battles in Ukraine and in the realities of modern anti-tank weapons, not to mention the fact that the storage bases are mostly "bare" tanks in terms of equipment.
In general, as you can see, there has been aa new trend in the creation of tanks for local, or, as they say today, asymmetric conflicts. The T-62 and M60 are extremely cheap vehicles to operate, so using them against opponents without modern anti-tank weapons makes sense. They can be handed over to allies in regional showdowns, as already mentioned above - the tanks are cheap, so it’s useful for an ally and not expensive for yourself.
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T-62 in the wars
T-62 in a special operation
That the scale of the conflict grows and requiresinvolving large funds is understandable and logical. But even the T-62 of later modifications, albeit with recent upgrades, is too dubious a weapon for the modern battlefield. First of all, the problem is the low survivability of the vehicle (on the frames of the "leaked" videos with the echelons, absolutely "naked" 62s are driving, not even similar to the T-62M).
But for the armament of auxiliary formations, onin which the Armed Forces of Ukraine do not have a high concentration of tank formations and NATO artillery, and there are almost no Javelins and NLAW, such tanks will be able to perform standard tasks of combined arms combat. And it is quite possible that it is quite good to perform - they will come in handy in secondary sectors, in active defense in the second and third lines. Another question is who can be put in these tanks today.