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Hello !
Today, I’d like to suggest the addition of a minor upgrade of the T-54B that’s still not in the Soviet tree despite its significance in Soviet tank history. This upgrade would be the T-54BM, a tank that would incorporate features later serially introduced on the T-55.
History
Spoiler
First of all, I won’t dive into the history of the T-54B as this would be worthy of its own post considering how comprehensive its history is.
While work on the improved T-54A officially started in 1955 at Factory 183 under the name 137G2, work was started as well on a modernized version of said modernized tank. This tank would receive the index 137G2M.
Two tanks (serial number 5709V137 and 5709V166) were built and prepared by september 1957. From the 10th of November to the 12th of January, 1958, the tanks went through both the warranty (1,000 km) and endurance (5,000 km) trials. By early January, the goal was for the engines to reach 600 h of operation, which led to the tanks being used for hours every single day. Considering the tanks were using the brand new V-55 (A-137-6B) engines, many defects were identified and they spent a lot of time out for repairs.
As such, trials were halted on January 20, 1959.
However, as I’ve mentioned, the T-54BM ended up using plenty of technologies that would end up in the 155 not long after because the 155 was mostly developed in parallel to the 137G2M !
The T-54BM introduced the fuel tanks/ammoracks and ended up carrying 43 shells instead of 34 as on earlier T-54s. The tank introduced as well the brand new 580 hp V-55 (A-137-6B) engine instead of the 520 hp V-54. It would feature an exhaust smoke system on top of that.
More importantly, the new engine was combined with new reduction gears making the transmission overall more efficient. The suspension featured better vertical travel (142 → 165 mm).
It might also be noted that the tanks were equipped with a 14.5 mm KPVT AA gun.
Specifications
Crew : 4
- Driver
- Commander
- Gunner
- Loader
Armament
- One 100 mm gun D-10T2S
- One 7.62 mm MG SGMT
- One 14.5 mm HMG KPVT
Sights : TSh2A-22 / TPN-1
Elevation : +18°/-5°
Dimensions
- Weight : 36.2 t
- Length : 6.2 m
- Width : 3.27 m
- Height : 2.21 m
Mobility
- Engine : V-55 (A-137-6B) (580 hp)
- Top speed : 50 km/h / -7.5 km/h
- Transmission : 5 forward / 1 reverse
Armor
Spoiler
It should be noted that the T-54BM did not have the same armor layout as the T-54B. In fact, even the two T-54BMs did not exactly have the same armor. The main difference lies in the rear armor which is thinner on the T-54BM. On one of the T-54BMs, the entire floor was 16 mm.
Sources
- Отечественные бронированные машины 1945-1965гг. M.V. and I.V. Pavlov (p. 583, 584, 586, 629)
- Танк Т-54
- Soviet T-54 Main Battle Tank, J. Kinnear, S. Sewell (p. 141)