T-10

At the end of the 40s, a rather strange situation developed with heavy tanks in the Soviet Army. Three types were in service - IS-2, IS-3 and IS-4, each of which could not be considered as the main heavy machine in the future. In this regard, at the end of 1948, the GBTU issued a technical assignment for a new car. The main requirement was to limit the combat weight - no more than 50 tons. The design bureau of the Chelyabinsk plant of the USSR Ministry of Transport Engineering was determined by the developer. Zh. Ya. Kotin was appointed the chief designer responsible for object 730 (this designation was given to the project of a new tank). Officially, the car was named IS-8. In April 1949, a technical project was developed. It is no longer known who came up with this idea, but the 730 object became a direct development of the IS-3 tank line. The shape of the hull, especially the characteristic "pike nose", the cast streamlined turret evoked direct associations with the IS-3.

In May, a full-size wooden model was built to work out the main functional solutions, and then the production of the first prototype of the IS-8 began in the experimental workshop. After carrying out factory tests, it turned out that, in general, the vehicle met the technical requirements, and it was decided to release an initial batch of 10 tanks. They went through two more stages of factory testing in 1949, after which in April - May 1950, state tests took place at the NIBT training ground in Kubinka near Moscow.

Based on their results, the State Commission recommended that mass production of the IS-8 be started, but with modifications. In particular, the engine resource was recognized as insufficient. Therefore, in the summer of 1950, near the city of Mary in Turkmenistan, tests were carried out for a guaranteed engine life, and in the fall, military tests were carried out. However, not everything was good with the new vehicle: many improvements had to be made, as a result of which the tank went through a long cycle of repeated and control field and factory tests, which ended only by December 1952. At the same time, the project changed several times, as a result of which the car received first the IS-9 index, and then the IS-10.

In March 1953, I. V. Stalin died, after which the abbreviation "IS" sank into oblivion. At the end of the year, the tank was adopted by the Soviet Army under the designation T-10. Its welded body had a complex box-shaped shape with a frontal part in the form of a "pike nose". The sides are composite, from the upper inclined and lower bent parts. The upper aft hull sheet was made folding to provide access to the transmission units. The bottom of the case is stamped, trough-shaped. In the rear part (under the power train) the bottom is flat. The rigidity of the bottom was also enhanced by the brackets of the balancers welded into it. To service the units and mechanisms in the bottom there were hatches and holes closed with armored covers or threaded plugs. The driver's seat was in front along the axis of the car. For landing there was a hatch of a triangular shape, closed by a sliding lid. The driver-mechanic observed the terrain through three devices: one of them TPV-51 was installed in the hatch cover, the other two TYPEs were installed in the windows of the upper part of the frontal hull sheets. Tower cast, streamlined with variable wall angles and variable thickness from 250 mm in the bow to 40 mm on the cast roof. The turret was mounted on a ball bearing above the cutout of the turret roof sheet of the tank hull. The front part of the turret roof was cast integrally with the turret body, while the rear part was made of armor plate and welded into the roof. In this sheet, on the right, there was a loader's hatch, above which an anti-aircraft machine gun was mounted. On the left was a hatch, above which was placed the commander's cupola. In front of the tank commander's hatch there was a TPKU observation device, and seven observation devices along the circumference of the upper shoulder strap of the turret. In addition, there were three more TPB-51 devices in the turret: one for the gunner and two for the loader. The turret rotation mechanism is planetary, with self-braking worm gear, with manual and electric drives. A 122 mm D-25TA tank gun with a barrel length of 48 calibers and a 12.7 mm DShKM machine gun coaxial with it were installed in a cast mask. The gun had a two-chamber muzzle brake and a horizontal automatic wedge breech. The initial speed of the armor-piercing projectile was 795 m/s. The effective firing range with the help of the TSh2-27 telescopic sight was 5,000 m, and with the help of the side level, 15,000 m. Loading was facilitated by the use of a chambering mechanism. The rate of fire in this case was 3-4 rounds per minute, and when loaded manually, 2-3 rounds per minute.

An anti-aircraft 12.7 mm DShKM machine gun equipped with a K10-T collimator sight was mounted on the loader hatch turret. The ammunition load of the gun consisted of 30 rounds of separate loading, placed in collar and tray stacks. The machine gun ammunition consisted of 1000 rounds, 300 of them for the coaxial machine gun were packed in six standard cartridge boxes, and 150 for the anti-aircraft machine gun - in three special cartridge boxes, 550 ammunition cartridges were in zinc boxes.

V-12-5 12-cylinder, four-stroke, liquid-cooled V-12-5 diesel engine with a displacement of 38,880 cm3 and a maximum power (without air cleaner and exhaust backpressure) of 700 hp. With. at 2100 rpm, it was installed on a pedestal, which consisted of four brackets welded to the sides and interconnected by longitudinal angles. The V-12-5 engine belonged to diesels of the V-2 type. Its main features are: the installation of an AM-42 centrifugal air blower, which made it possible to increase its power; installation of two prompters on the upper crankcase of the engine; engine equipment with a Kimaf-3 combined oil filter; the presence of a double oil supply to the crankshaft; installation of an oil pump with an electric motor to provide the engine with lubrication at start-up; the presence of a drive for an electric tachometer; lack of exhaust manifolds. The fuel system of the tank included three internal tanks - two rear tanks with a capacity of 185 liters each and one front tank with 90 liters. All three tanks were interconnected by pipelines, and the front one was also connected to a fuel distribution valve. On the wings in the stern of the tank, one external fuel tank with a capacity of 150 liters each was installed. External tanks were connected to the fuel system of the tank. Thus, the total capacity of all tanks was 760 liters.

Starting in June 1955, internal rear fuel tanks with a capacity of 270 liters each were installed. As a result, the total capacity of the tanks increased to 930 liters. The tank had combined inertial type air cleaners. The cooling system is liquid, closed, ejection. The engine was started by an ST-700 electric starter or compressed air. The rear drive wheels had removable rims with 14 teeth. On each side there were 7 cast twin road wheels with a metal rim and three support rollers. The suspension is independent, with a beam torsion bar and an elastic stop. Beam torsion bars had 7 rods with hexagonal heads. The caterpillar is melkozvenchataya, lantern gearing. Each track consists of 88 tracks 720 mm wide with a 160 mm pitch. A radio station 10RT-26E and an internal intercom TPU-47-2 for four subscribers were installed on the tank. In 1955, two experimental machines were created - object 267 sp.1 with a guidance stabilizer in the vertical plane and object 267 sp.2 with a two-plane stabilizer. A year later, these innovations were introduced on a new modification of the T-10A (object 730A). The gun with a stabilizer in the vertical plane PUOT-1 "Hurricane" received the designation D-25TS. On the T-10A, instead of the TSh-2-27 sight, a TPS-1 periscopic optical-gyroscopic sight and a duplicating TUP telescopic sight were installed. The driver received an active night vision device TVN-1 and a gyro-semi-compass GPK-48 for orientation. As a result of the installation of a gun with modified drives, as well as to improve armor protection, the turret and mantlet of the gun were modernized.

To reduce the gas contamination of the fighting compartment, an ejector was installed on the gun barrel. Additionally, a mechanism was introduced for sending the projectile and charge, a new lifting mechanism with a donating link and a galvanic impact device in the gate. In 1957, a new modification of the T-10B tank (object 730B) was put into service. Its main difference is the use of the already two-plane stabilizer PUOT-2 "Thunder" and the T2S-29-14 sight. The rest of the tank was similar to the T-10A. More serious modernization soon followed. The design bureau of the Perm plant No. 172 created a new 122-mm gun M-62-T2 (2A17) with improved ballistic characteristics. The initial speed of the armor-piercing projectile was 950 m / s. The gun was equipped with a 2E12 "Rain" two-plane stabilizer and a T2S-29-14 sight. (In 1955, a prototype of this gun was installed at an experimental facility 264, and a little later, a gun with improved accuracy characteristics was tested at facility 265). Instead of DShK machine guns, as on previous models, a 14.5-mm KPVT was installed - coaxial with a gun and anti-aircraft. The new tank - object 272 - was also equipped with a full set of night instruments: a commander's TKN-1T, a gunner TPN-1-29-14 ("Luna II") and a TVN-2T driver. The coaxial machine gun was aimed using the T2S-29 sight, which had a special scale for this. The anti-aircraft machine gun was equipped with a VK-4 collimator sight, and for firing at ground targets - with a PU-1 optical sight. The ammunition load consisted of 30 shots with a high-explosive fragmentation grenade and an armor-piercing tracer and 744 rounds for KPVT machine guns.

1. front cast part of the roof;

2. welded roof sheet;

3. manhole cover loader;

4. cap fan;

5. hole for the gun frame fastening rod;

6. commander's hatch cover;

7. glass antenna gadfly;

8. slit for observation device;

9. handrail;

10. eye;

11. sight window;

12. fingers for attaching the gun frame; 13. rain shield; 14. window for DShK machine gun; 15. reflector.

In the V-12-6 engine, compared to the V-12-5, changes were made to the design of the crankcase, crankshaft, pistons, cylinders, etc. The engine power was 750 hp. With. at 2100 rpm. The car was equipped with a R-113 radio station and an R-120 intercom. The tank was produced for almost 5 years, and only in 1962 was the production of the T-10M tank based on object 272 organized at both plants. The design of the T-10M has been repeatedly modified. Since 1959, for example, only every fifth tank was equipped with anti-aircraft machine guns. In the 60s, the 8-speed gearbox was replaced with a simpler 6-speed one. Since 1963, the T-10M was equipped with an OPVT system, which made it possible to overcome obstacles up to 5 m deep along the bottom. Since 1967, rounds with armor-piercing sub-caliber and cumulative shells began to be included in the ammunition load. Tanks T-10 initially entered service with heavy tank-self-propelled regiments. Since 1947, one such regiment was part of the staff of a tank and mechanized division. As more and more T-10 tanks, and then T-10A, T-10B and T-10M tanks, began to form heavy tank divisions. Each such division had two regiments of heavy and one regiment of medium tanks.