T-54 RUSSIAN MEDIUM TANK 1953

The T-54 is a Soviet Main Battle Tank from the Cold War period. The first prototypes of this vehicle were built in 1945-1946, and serial production in the USSR started in 1946 and lasted until 1958. In its course, about 35,000 vehicles of this type were created - only in the Soviet Union! The combat weight of the tank was up to 36 tons. The drive was provided by a single 520 HP W-54 engine. The main armament was the 100 mm D-10T wz.1944 tank gun, and the additional armament was two 7.62 mm SGMT machine guns and a 12.7 mm DSzK machine gun. Work on the T-54 actually started during the Second World War and dates back to the T-44 tank. When developing the T-54, the aim was, on the one hand, to maintain all the advantages of the T-34/85 (especially its good maneuverability), but also to use clearly stronger main armament and more effective armor. Finally, a vehicle was created that is probably the first to be called the Main Battle Tank (MBT). Without a doubt, it was a successful tank when it entered service. Several versions of this vehicle were created in the course of mass production, including the T-54 mod. 1946 (version with a turret similar in shape to the T-44), T-54 mod. 1949 (version with a changed shape of the turret) or the T-54A (version with a gun stabilizer on one level and night vision devices for the mechanic-driver). It is worth adding that the T-54 was licensed in, among others, Czechoslovakia and Poland.