All you tank heads may have noticed Russia's been pulling Cold War relic T 55s out of storage and sending them, apparently, to the front. Will they be upgraded with thermal sights and reactive armor? Who knows but we do know this.
The T55 is the most-produced tank in history, with >96,000 made, of which Russia has approximately 2,800. The tank features a 100 mm gun (rifled), as opposed to the 125 mm smoothbores employed on later tanks. According to the appalling Wikipedia:
The T-54/55 tanks are mechanically simple and robust. They are very simple to operate compared to Western tanks, and do not require a high level of training or education in their crewmen. 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 that allows river crossings.
All well and good, against Pattons or Centurions, but what about now? A German combat engineer fighting with the Ukrainians has this to say, (worth the click) in sum:
The Russians have changed their tactics and increasingly use tanks for indirect fire (out of line of sight), effectively turning their armor into assault guns/mechanized howitzers. And more tellingly, "In my opinion there is no obsolete weapon as long as you use them tactically."
For example, the trebuchet artillery system was maximal Medieval tech and it's so outdated now. But imagine a battery of those catapults raining down flaming hell on, say, Mexia when every modern, chip driven gun has been taken out along with GPS and satellites themselves. Fearsome prospect and perhaps a presage of things to come. Hi-tech ineluctably to lo-tech, sort of thing.
In the meanwhile, Russia has a fair few T55s and vast stores of Soviet era 100 mm. It'd be foolish, surely, for them to ignore such resource. Speaking of which, Europe has disarmed itself and has few tanks, old or new, much less ammo. But that's OK, 'coz America's their Army. Until it isn't.
Panzers roll,
LSP
I grew up in Joliet and remember the saying "There is great value having a gun in a knife fight"... May be obsolete, but what are they facing?
ReplyDeleteMocking Russia's Ukraine invasion seems to be quite popular in the West. What I see is the Russians keep coming using whatever they have on hand.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet more and more material and personnel have been pulled from Eastern Russia and Northwestern Russia to fill in piecemeal into the meatgrinder that is Eastern Ukraine.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Communist China has a tally somewhere and when the magic number is reached, their tanks and people will roll. Most likely up in Middle Russia and cut off Siberia et al from Mother Russia.
Yes, T-55s are obsolete. Yes, quantity has a quality of its own. But this does go to show that Russia's losses are rather severe. They may still win in Ukraine, but it will be a Pyrrhic victory.
Mexia?????? Really? Whatever did the good people of Mexia do to you? I can see Austin, for certain, I'd be happy to pull the lanyard on that den of iniquity my-own-self, but Mexia?????
ReplyDeletePaul, you make a point, and a good one.
ReplyDeleteIt's really weird, WSF, the useless Russkies were supposed to have been driven back to Moscow by now and yet they haven't.
ReplyDeleteWhen everyone else is out of ammo, the T-55 will be king, again...
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, I don't think that the Ukrainians want to go to Moscow. It would just be good if the Russians stopped shooting them in their own country.
ReplyDeleteThat's my thinking, NFO.
ReplyDeleteAn end to the war would definitely be good, LL. What hideous loss of life.
ReplyDelete