Need a Tiran Expert to Set Me Straight on Stabilization

Machinery of War Discussion Ground Vehicle
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Basically have 3 questions.

  1. Should the Tiran 4 have one plane stabilization?

As best as I could tell, the two countries that used the T-54 in the 6 days war in 1967 were Egypt and Syria. The Egyptians had 350 T-54s that were bought from Czechoslovakia (most likely) in 1961, and the Syrians had 150 T-54’s bought from the Soviet Union in 1956. At the time that these tanks were bought from the countries they were bought from, they were making T-54A’s, which had a one plane stabilizer. So unless I am wrong in what tanks were being manufactured when, or if there were derated export models that were issued without stabilizers, I think that the Tiran 4 should have that stabilizer as well, right?

  1. Did the Tiran 4S keep any stabilization when they switched the gun? assuming my previous point is correct, would the stabilization feature have remained when regunning the tanks or would it go with the old gun.

  2. did the post '73 Tiran 4’s and 5’s get any sort of stabilization if they did not have any before?

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I’m not a big Tiran expert so take my answers with some salt.

  1. T54 and T54A tanks were both present in Arab armies. Both types got captured and were pressed into IDF service. Considering some things about the in-game models they have the older spoked roadwheels and the 4S lacks an MG mount on the loaders cupola. It’s probably Gaijins intent for these Tirans to be based off the unstabilized T54 tanks.

Though with the Tirans being captured vehicles its practically guaranteed that they are combined into functioning vehicles from working elements of multiple different tanks.

  1. The 105mm Tirans use D10 series guns converted into the 105mm caliber. The 100mm to 105mm conversion requires minimal modification to the existing breach, its mostly just mating a 105mm barrel onto the D10T breach. So if the stab was functional then it should be present even on the 105mm Tirans.

  2. I dont think the IDF Tirans got any new stabilizers fitted to them. By the 80s they were phased out of frontline service due to the amount on Magachs being sufficient and Merkava around the corner.

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  1. Makes sense. I found out that you can visually tell between a T-54-3 and T-54A using the fume extractor and it looks like both Syria and Egypt had T-54-3’s in service.

  2. Didn’t know they kept the breech. Wonder if they had to remove stabilization from tanks that initially had it due to different barrel weights?

  3. Gonna have to look into this more.

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  1. ZTZ59D1 has a 105mm D10 conversion that retains the original T54A stab. So if the stabs were functional I dont see why Israelis couldnt have retained them on the 105mm models. D10 into 105mm conversions are pretty common I know that Israel, China, Iraq and probably Iran have all carried it out. So it appears to be quite compatible with pre-existing functionality.

  2. As far as I can tell the last possible upgrade the IDF made to the Tirans might have been fitting Blazer to Tiran 5S or Sh tanks. Cant find any photos in IDF livery but the Uruguayan Tiran 5Sh tanks all seem to be running around with blazer mounts for some reason. Other then some experimental modifications carried out I just dont see why the IDF would have bothered fitting new stabilizers to reserve tanks that were on the way out.