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T-64

Encyclopedia : T : T6 : T64 : T-64

T-64A tank on parade.

T-64A tank on parade

T-64BV
General characteristics
Crew 3 (commander, driver, gunner)
Length 6.54 m
Width 3.60 m
Height 2.17 m
Weight 42.4 tonnes
Armour and armament
Armour [secret]
Main armament 125mm/L53.5 smoothbore gun
Secondary armament 7.62mm PKMT coaxial machine gun, 12.7mm NSVT air-defence machine gun
Mobility
Power plant 5-cyl. multi-fuel diesel model 5DTF
700 hp (515 kW)
Suspension torsion bar
Road speed 60.5 km/h
Power/weight 16.2 hp/tonne
Range 500 km,
700 km with external tanks
The T-64, a Soviet main battle tank, was introduced in the late 1960s. It was designed in parallel to the T-72 series and is very similar in appearance. Unlike the T-72 it was only used by the Soviet Army and never exported. It was superior to the T-72 in most qualitative terms, until the introduction of the T-72B model in 1985. Both tanks armed elite and regular formations in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, the T-64A model being first deployed with East Germany's Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (GSFG) in 1976, and some time later in Hungary's Southern Group of Forces (SFG). By 1981 the T-64B began to be deployed in East Germany and later in Hungary. While it was believed that the T-64 was "only" reserved for elite units, it was also used by much lower "non-ready formations", for example, the Odessa Military District's 14th Army. The T-72 shared a similar destiny, being deployed on high readiness formation all across the Western Military District (Rogachev Guards Motorized Rifle Division in the Belarus MD and Iron Division's Motorized Rifle Division in the Carpathian MD) and Eastern Europe (Central Group of Forces in Czechoslovakia), but also on lower readiness formations on Transbaikal and Central-Asia MD since late 1980s.

Currently slightly more than 2,000 of the old Soviet inventory of T-64 tanks are in service with the military of Ukraine. The T-64 design has been further developed as the T-80 and T-84.

Contents

Development history

Project 430

Studies for the design of a new battle tank started as early as 1951. The KB-60M team was formed at the Kharkov Plant No. 75 by engineers coming back from Nizhnyi Tagil, with A. A. Morozov at its head. A project named object 430 gave birth to three prototypes which were tested in Kubinka in 1958. Those vehicles showed characteristics which were going to radically change the design of battle tanks on this side of the Iron Curtain. For the first time, an extremely compact opposed-cylinder engine was used : the 4TD, designed by the plant's engine design team. The transmission system comprised two lateral gears on each side of the engine. Those two innovations yield a very short engine compartment with the opening located beneath the turret. The engine compartment volume was almost half of the T-54's one. The cooling system was extracting and a new lightweight suspension was fitted, featuring hollow metallic wheels of a small diameter and caterpillar tracks with rubber joints.

The tank would keep a D-10TS 100 mm gun and a front 120 mm armour. As it did not present a clear superiority in terms of combat characteristics when compared to the T-55 which was entering active service, Morozov decided that production was not yet ready given the project's drawbacks. However, studies conducted on the object 430U, featuring a 122 mm gun and a 160 mm armour, demonstrated that the tank had to potential to fit the firepower and armour of a heavy tank on a medium tank chassis. A new project was consequently started, object 432.

Project 432

The gun fitted on this new tank was a powerful 115 mm D-68 (2A21). A potentially risky decision was taken, to replace the human loader by an electro-hydraulic automatic system, which had not been done before. The crew was reduced to three which allowed an important reduction in internal volume, and consequently in weight, from 36 tonnes (object 430) to 30.5 tonnes. The height dropped by 76 mm.

However, the arrival of the British 105 mm L7 gun and the US M-68 variant of it, fitted respectively to the Centurion and M60 tanks, forced the team to undertake another audacious première, with the adoption of a composite armour. The recently created process was called K combination by Western armies : this protection consisted of an aluminium alloy layer between two high strength steel layers. As a consequence, the weight of the prototype rose eventually to 34 tonnes. But as the engine was now a 700 ch (515 kW) 5TDF (also locally designed), its mobility remained excellent, far superior to the active T-62. The object 432 was ready in September 1962 and the production started in October 1963 in Kharkov plant. On December 30, 1966, it entered its service as the T-64.

Evolution

T-64A

As early as the beginning of the production, the design team started to work on a new version which would allow it to keep firepower superiority, named object 434. To do so, the brand new powerful 125 mm D-81T gun, from the Perm weapons factory, was adapted. This led to subsequent modifications: the loader became a EZ10 with 28 rounds and a fire rate of 8 shots per minute; the stabiliser, a 2E23, was coupled to the new TPD-2-1 sight. Night driving was also adapted with the new TPN-1-43A periscope which would benefit from the illumination of a powerful infrared L2G projector, fitted on the left side of the gun. The shielding was improved, with fibreglass replacing the aluminium alloy in the armour, and small spring-mounted plates fitted along the mudguards (known as the Gill skirt), to cover the top of the suspension and the side tanks. They were however extremely fragile and were often removed. Some small storage spaces were created along the turet, with a compartment on the right and three boxes on the front left. Schnorkels were mounted on the rear of the turret. A NBC protection system was fitted and the hatches were widened.

Prototypes were tested in 1966 and 1967 and, as production began after the six hundredth T-64, it entered service in the Soviet Army under the T-64A designation. The chief engineer Morozov was awarded the Lenin Prize for this model's success. Designed for elite troops, the T-64A was constantly updated as available equipment was improved. After only three years in service, a first modernisation occurred, regarding :

A derived version appeared at the same time, designed for the commanding officer, and named T-64AK. It comprised a R-130M radio with a 10 m telescopic antenna which could be used only in a static position as it required shrouds, an artillery PAB-2AM periscope and TNA-3 navigation station, all of those could be supplied by an auxiliary gasoline-fired generator.

In 1976, the weapons system was improved by mounting a D-81TM (2A46-1), stabilised by a 2A28M2, supplied by an automatic 6AZ10M. The night sight is replaced by a TNPA-65 and the engine can accept different fuels, including diesel fuel, kerosene or gasoline. The production, first carried on the B variant, stops in 1980.

But the majority of T-64A's were still modernised after 1981, by mounting a six smoke grenade-launcher 82 mm 902A on each side of the gun, and by replacing the gill plates by a rubber skirt for a longer life. Some of them seem to have been fitted after 1985 with reactive bricks (as the T-64BV), or even with laser TPD-K1 telemeters instead of the TPD-2-49 (1981). Almost all T-64's were modernised into T-64R, between 1977 and 1981, by reorganising external storage and snorkels, similar to the T-64A.

T-64B

The design team was carrying on its work on new versions. Problems with the setup of the 5TDF engine occurred as the local production capacity was proven to be insufficient against a production done in three factories (Malyshev in Kharkov, Kirov in Leningrad and Uralvagonzavod).

From 1961, and alternative to the object 432 was studied, with 12 V-cylinder V-45 engine : the object 436; three prototypes were tested in 1966 in the Chelyabinsk factory. The order to develop a model derived from the 434 with the same engine gave the object 438, later renamed as object 439. Four tanks of this type were built and tested in 1969, which showed the same mobility as the production version, but mass production was not started. They served however as a basis for the design of the T-72 engine compartment.

In the beginning of the 70's, the design team was trying to improve the tank further. The T-64A-2M study in 1973, with its more powerful engine and its reinforced turret, served as a basis for two projects :

For the latter, the order was given to start its production under the name T-64B, as well as a derived version (which shared 95% of its components), the object 437, without the missile guidance system for cost reasons. The latter was almost twice as much produced under the designation T-64B1. On September 3, 1976, the T-64B and the T-64B1 were declared good for the service, featuring the improved D-81Tm gun (2A46-2) with a 2E26M stabiliser, a 6EZ40 loader and a 1A33 fore control, including: Its ford capacity reaches 1.8 m without equipment. The T-64B had the ability to fire the new 9K112 "Kobra" radio-guided missile (NATO code "AT-8 Songster"). The vehicle then carries 8 missiles and 28 shells. The missile control system is mounted in front of the tank leader small turret and sas many changes. The T-64B1 carries only 37 shells and has 2,000 7.62 mm shots, against 1,250 for the T-64B.

They were modernised in 1981 by the replacement of the gun by a 2A46M1, the stabiliser by a 2E42, and the mounting of a 902A "Tutscha-1" smoke grenade launcher in two groups of four, on each side of the gun. Two command versions are realised, very similar to the T-64AK: the T-64BK and the T-64B1K.

The decision, in October 1979, to start the production of the 6TD Engine, and its great similarity with the 5TDF engine, allowed after some study to fit it in versions B and B1, but also A and AK, yielding the new models T-64AM, T-64AKM, T-64BM and T-64BAM, entering service in 1983.

The production ended in 1987 for all versions. The total production has reached almost 13,000.

Modernisations in Ukraine

After the dissolution of the USSR, Ukraine carried on the development of T-64 modernisations, as the original and main factory was in this country.

Two programmes ended in 1999:

The two variants are also protected by Kontact-5 reactive bricks, able to resist to kinetic energy projectiles, as opposed to the first models which were efficient only against chemical energy attacks (hollow shells). Those two variants could also be remotorised with the 6TDF 1000 cv (735 kW) engine.

Service life

The tank remained secret for a long time, the West often confusing it with the T-72 tank, less evolved. The T-64 was never exported, and has seen only limited combat experience—in the campaigns against Chechen separatists.

The USSR deployed it with its high-readiness units, independent tank regiments, and divisions based in the GDR and Hungary, and also in many lower-readiness units. In case of conflict with Western Europe in the 1970s or '80s, it would have been a great threat to Western tanks. Modernized, it remains very efficient, like the Ukrainian T-64U. It is reasonable to assume that it is as dangerous as the T-80 or the T-84.

The T-64 did not share many drawbacks with the T-72, even if it is often confused with it :

It suffers however from two usual drawbacks on Soviet tanks:

Production history

The T-64 first entered production in 1967, shortly before the T-72. The T-64 was KMDB's high-technology offering, intended to replace the IS-3 and T-10 heavy tanks in independent tank battalions. Meanwhile, the T-72 was intended to supersede the T-55 and T-62 in equipping the bulk of Soviet tank and mechanized forces, and for export partners and east-bloc satellite states.

It introduced a new autoloader, which is still used on all T-64s currently in service, as well as all variants of the T-80 except the Ukrainian T-84-120. The T-64 prototypes had the same 115 mm smoothbore gun as the T-62, the ones put in full-scale production had the 125 mm gun.

While the T-64 was the superior tank, it was more expensive and physically complex, and was produced in smaller numbers. The T-72 is mechanically simpler and easier to service in the field, while it is not as well protected, and its manufacturing process is correspondingly simpler.

The T-64 was never common in Soviet service, except with those units stationed in East Germany. Only a few thousand T-64s were built, and none were exported. Many T-64s ended up in Ukrainian service after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Variants

Modernisations

T-64BV technical information

Dimensions

Crew

Three men:

Propulsion

Developing 700 cv (515 kW) at 2,800 rpm, consumption of 170 to 200 litres per 100km.

Performance

Armament

  • coaxial PKT 7.62 mm machine gun with 1250 shots.
  • AA NSVT 12.7 mm machine gun with 300 shots, which can be used from the inside.
  • 6 902B "Tutscha-2" smoke mortars on the left of the turret.
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    Equipment
    






    Protection
    

    



    See also
    

    


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