Soviet MBT evolution from "Iosif Stalin" heavy tank series

guineapony

guineapony

Long story short, the Soviet army in 1960s recognized that the T-64 were too mechanically complex and unfriendly for its crews even for their standards, so they decided to further develop the "Iosif Stalin" heavy tanks with a focus on increased mobility to meet the main battle tank doctrine.

Illustrations below are mostly based on works by youROKer.
IS-10 mbts.png
 
ReconGuy02

ReconGuy02

Lololo XD . One quiz: what's you're smoking? T-10M was outdated even when it's entered service. This is impossible. Because of typical hull of Soviet heavies, there was no possibility to install combined armor in hull. It's weak as f**k
 

Richard V

Since isolation of main gun ammo was already a feature of the MBT-70 project, I wonder what would have happened had the Soviets adopted it. With their two part 125mm ammunition, it should be possible to store all propellant charges isolated in the bustle, with projectiles in armored boxes on the floor next to the loader. Would be a pretty safe design IMO.
 
guineapony

guineapony

Or just use a simple adapter for joining these two parts into one to make the loading process faster, even the 125mm APFSDS projectile part contains extra propellants to give them higher velocity.
 

Cryhavoc101

Russian tank development was on making their tanks lighter not heavier and the T64 development did lead to the T72 which did make the majority of NATO tanks (mostly then armed with the British L7 105mm gun) obsolete upon it introduction in the early 70s - although 105mm ammo did keep up for a while - shocking the Russians when 'Star of David' Sabot rounds where knocking out T72s across the frontal arc in the early 80s leading to the T72B and M variants.

So for me not pursuing the T64 route and developing it further would impact the creation of the T72!
 

Cryhavoc101

tomo pauk said:
(sorry for butchering your post)
Was that really so?
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Yep. Let me find a source but basically in 1982 Israeli M48s, Shots and Merkavas where knocking out T72s in the middle east with their L7s

The Russians went as far as to have at least 1 of the 8 knocked out M48 Magach tanks (battle of Sultan Yacoub) shipped back to Russia 'untouched' by their Arab allies in one case with the dead crew still inside and it is suspected though I don't think it was ever confirmed that 3 POWs (Zachary Baumel, Yehuda Katz and Zvi Feldman) where also sent to Russia for interrogation.

After a bit of a hunt around I could only find this relating to a Sep-Oct 2006 issue of ARMOR by Jim Warford titled “The Secret Testing of Israeli M111 “Hetz” Ammunition: A Model of Failed Commander’s Responsibility.” But it is readable.

I found it a bit of an eye opener when I read it as I had always thought the T72 immediately made the L7 obsolete upon its introduction - the Russians discovered that the Israeli 'Hetz' or 'Arrow' Sabot rounds went through the Upper Glacias (note: not the turret front) of the then T72 leaving a tidy 6 pronged 'Star of David' hole - much to the embarrassment of the Russians who had told their Syrian allies (and the rest of the world) that it was invulnerable across the frontal arc vs the 105mm armed Israeli tanks.

The Russians to their credit very quickly created a new laminate armour design that improved the ability of the upper Glacis to resist this new round and retrofitted the Iraqi and Syrian T72s as well as their own to this new standard and incorporated this improvement into all future T72s

This of course meant that the mass majority of L7 x 105mm Armed tanks namly the West German Army (who had a similar round) and Israeli armor could no longer defeat the T72!

The captured tank (which has now been returned to Israel) and its intact stock of ammunition was a massive intel coup for the USSR and instrumental in the Russians overcoming this weakness of the T72 and it is why NATO commanders today go to great lengths to destroy abandoned AFVs even in places like Afghanistan and Iraq - if you see a picture of a destroyed US Army M1 tank in the field it has very likely been destroyed by a US or Allied LGB or 2 to prevent anything vital from falling into the wrong hands like what happened at the Battle of Sultan Yacoub
 

Cryhavoc101

tomo pauk said:
Thank you.
It was glacis, not the frontal arc, that also includes front part of the turret.
Click to expand...

Yes not the Turret - that remained impenetrable - only the upper Glacis laminate armour proved to be the weak link

But the L7 was a very accurate hole puncher - I would not be surprised if a regular crew could not pick their shot so to speak!
 

tomo pauk

Cryhavoc101 said:
Yes not the Turret - that remained impenetrable - only the upper Glacis laminate armour proved to be the weak link

But the L7 was a very accurate hole puncher - I would not be surprised if a regular crew could not pick their shot so to speak!
Click to expand...

The L7 was a true icon of the Cold war, in company with AK-47, F-4 and similar evergreens.
 
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