T-54

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The T-54 is a Soviet medium tank that appeared in 1946 and was manufactured until 1959 after six successive improvements. Drawing lessons from the Great Patriotic War, the T-54 was in its early days a remarkable balance between firepower, protection and mobility. It was produced abundantly in many countries and had a multitude of derivatives.

Name
Two systems coexist to designate the different versions, the first characterizing them by order number and the second by year of commissioning. The T-54-1 corresponds to the T-54 , the T-54-2 to the T-54-3 to the T-54-3 . The following versions have the same name in both systems, T-54A and T-54B. The first method, however, has the disadvantage of not distinguishing the first two sets of prototypes, called and in the second method It should be noted, however, that, since the Soviets regularly upgrade their equipment, the differences between two models are true only at the time of production. It is thus difficult to distinguish a reconstructed T-54-3 from a T-54B. On the other hand, the Soviet soldiers themselves do not have the use of distinguishing variants and simply call them T-54 in their nomenclature.

In addition, vehicles also have an industrial designation, or article number, which consists of the term , literally "object", followed by a number. The T-54 and earlier versions are thus designated , the T-54A and the T-54B . Each prototype and derived vehicle are also named in this way, whether or not they have entered service. For example, it corresponds to the SU-122-52 while it is an unrealized project to install a more powerful cannon.

History

Background
The origin of the T-54 dates back to T-34: during the Second World War, Soviet engineer Aleksander Morozov sought to exceed certain limits specific to the design of the latter. He thus conceived the T-43, which solved in particular the problems posed by the obsolete Christie suspension of the T-34 by replacing it with twist bars. However, although the turret is redesigned, armament remains the same, which leads Stalin to consider that the low performance gain offered by the T-43 does not deserve to upset the production chain. Thus only a few copies were produced and fought in autumn 1943.

Continuing his efforts, Morozov developed the T-44, with the objective of making a tank of the same size and mass as the T-34, but able to withstand the shots of the German Panther. To do this, it is necessary to save maximum weight and space for shielding, which it accomplishes by taking back the T-43 twist bar suspension and reducing the size of the body, at the cost of one less crew member. The new tank entered service in 1944 and has similar performance to that of the tank