Thread: T-55 tank upgrades?

Originally Posted by Grim Reaper

Yeah I guess you could buy some of the technology and just put it on it. The upgrades themselves will make it a pretty good tank for low budget military forces. The T-55 is not really a bad tank by any means, it's just outdated, with proper upgrades you could bring it up to or close to modern tank capabilities. If you look at doing this in big numbers, it could save alot of money than just buying brand new modern tanks.

LOL

I can remember when (the former) East Germany declined to accept the T-62, saying they were well satisfied with the T-55. That was a long time ago however. No matter what upgrades you applied to her today it would still be a 50 year old design that was at least 20 tons short of armour to compete with the young generation of MBTs.

The T-55 is definitely an obsolete vehicle especially when faced with modern MBTs. It could however be very effective against a light armor force or an opponent not possessing modern vehicles.

Back in the 80's there was a brisk market in T-55s and their upgrades. Upgrades included new engines and AC (American), French wiring harness, Ferranti range fingers and fire control, (west) German comms and a British L7 105mm gun. Total price with an Israeli reactive armor package was upwards of $350,000 not including the tank. Used T-55s could be had relatively cheap, ranging from $50,000 for a hulk to $300,000 for a "new" T-59.

There was at the time also a good market for old half tracks, rebuilt models going for upwards of $25,000. The price of a nonrunning halftrack went to almost $10,000. This sent people scurrying all over old battlefields as there were good finders fees for derelict halftracks (and T-55s)! Compared to the price for an APC a partially armored halftrack was a workable substitute in place of an unarmored truck or supply vehicle. The market for halftracks was so good that a company in the US started manufacturing replacement tracks for them.

Upgrades just from Russia were impressive tube launched atgm, laser ranger, appligue armor, better cooling system, beter engines etc from wiki

Modernization
T-55AM2B with turret brow armour, laser rangefinder over the main gun, rubber side skirts, and thicker front hull armour than the T-55A seen behind it (compare).
T-55AM2B with turret brow armour, laser rangefinder over the main gun, rubber side skirts, and thicker front hull armour than the T-55A seen behind it (compare).

* T-54M (mid-1960s) – Upgrade program to bring T-54s up to T-55 standard.
* T-54M (1977) – Additional upgrades, including OPVT snorkel and KTD-1 laser rangefinder.
* T-54AM (mid-1960s) – Further upgrades, including increased ammunition, new radios, new V-55 engine. Some received new RMSh track and drive sprocket developed for T-72 tank in late 1970s and early 1980s. Similar programs were carried out in other countries (T-54Z, T-54AZ, T-54AMZ for Zusatzausrustung, 'additional equipment' in East Germany, T-54AR Rieka, 'river', with fording snorkel in Czechoslovakia).

T-55 tanks received 12.7 mm DShKM loader's anti-aircraft machine guns starting in (Model 1970, or sometimes T-55AM), and older tanks were retrofitted starting in 1972. Laser rangefinders were added to older tanks starting 1974.

* T-55M/T-55AM - Modernization of T-55 and T-55A with and new Volna fire control system, improved gun stabilization, V-55U engine, improved suspension and RMSh track, increased armour, anti-mine, anti-napalm and improved anti-radiation protection, and optional Bastion ATGM launcher. Visual differences include laser range-finder, side skirts, smoke grenade launchers, turret brow armour and glacis appliqué, and rear RPG screens (only used rarely in Afghanistan).
* T-55M-1/T-55AM-1 – The "-1" suffix was applied to later modified tanks which were fitted with the T-72's V-46 engine.
* T-55AD/T-55AMD/T-55AD1/T-55AMD1 - "D" refers to tanks with Drozd ('thrush') APS. Soviet Naval Infantry saved money by installing Drozd on a small number of tanks instead of opting for appliqué armour, or acquiring newer T-72s. About 250 were kept in stores for secrecy, but later switched to simpler reactive armour.
* T-55MV/T-55AMV/T-55MV-1/T-55AMV-1 - "V" for vzryvnoi ('explosive') designated tanks which carried explosive reactive armour (ERA) instead of brow armour. This was adopted by Soviet Naval Infantry first, and by the Russian Army after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
* T-55AM2 - T-55AM with "brow armour" but no new ATGM and fire control.
* T-55AM2PB - mostly made in USSR for East Germany, reactive armour and ATGM, most sold back to Russia in 1992, other T-55 tanks in Russian army upgraded to T-55AM2PB standards during the period 1992 to 2000.

* T-55M5 - T-55M5 introduce in 1990, This Modernization Kit Add Explosive reactive armour “Kontakt-5", the new style fire control equipment which equips the efficiency improvement V-55U engine and a main gun stabilization system - shooter TVK-3 and TKN-1SM sites - is the tank where the modification kit which equips the same thing is applied Omsk company presents. The main gun the duck is maintaining 100mm D-10T2S guns like that it will pass like that.

* T-55M6 - T-55M6 with the T-55M5 expanded applies the package. added one wheel new chassis and completely new turret and automatic Loader equipment are added 2A46M 125mm Main gun

Originally Posted by Orange_Julius

hi guys!

i am just curious as to whether or not there are still T-55 tank upgrades that are available in the market today. there are lots and lots of surplus T-55s that are lying around in various parts of the world, thus i believe that countries with meager defense budgets such as the Philippines could possibly get some of these old but still reliable Russian-made war machines and have them upgrade to be, somewhat, at par with some of the world's modern MBTs.

what do you guys think?

Why would anyone want to upgrade a T-55? IMO upgrading a Vickers will be more benificial

Originally Posted by lemontree

Why would anyone want to upgrade a T-55? IMO upgrading a Vickers will be more benificial

only if you have a Vickers, if all you have is 55's and you can't afford new builds or even hand me down mbts......

Originally Posted by zraver

only if you have a Vickers, if all you have is 55's and you can't afford new builds or even hand me down mbts......

Ofcourse that is true. One can upgrade any armd vehicle.

There's no way an upgraded T-55 can match any of the modern MBTs. However, not many nations possess modern MBTs in great numbers. If your opponent doesn't have those, then an upgraded T-55 might just be enough to compete.

I once entertained the thought of this for our own military (Irish Defense forces), but i'd sooner have them throw our budget at some 2nd-hand Leo's (ideally i'd have a range of Merk IV's, but hey). As someone has stated, the upgrade package would probably cost several times the price of the actual tank. It depends i guess, i can't claim to be up to speed on the Phillipines geograhical status/threats let alone military history, but for example how many T-55's would be required to face say 3 Abrams - then how many to face a 2nd hand Cheiftan?

It would come down to quantity where the T-55 is concerned, otherwise they'd be nothing more than a novelty purchase - either that or converted for recovery or the like. The Israeli army still employs T-55's as such.

Finland has some nice stock (Their populace and budget is near identical to our own) including uprated T-72's and over a hundred Leo 2A4's.

Actually, the Phillipino GDP is probably more than Ireland and Finland combined. I'd be looking at something more up market than T-55's. I stand open to correction - but IIRC, Germany roll out the 2A6 at around 6 Million Euro a pop, that comes with training, Trucks, recovery, upgrades etc. You can't go wrong with a Leopard II, probably the best tank in the World.

Hungary also have hundreds of T-72's laying in warehouses which would go for next to nothing.

Jordan,
The type of enemy the Phillipino faces will determine the type of armd vehicle required. Irrespective of the superiority of the Leo over the T-72; the enemy's armd capabilities will determine what your army buys.

Originally Posted by lemontree

Jordan,
The type of enemy the Phillipino faces will determine the type of armd vehicle required. Irrespective of the superiority of the Leo over the T-72; the enemy's armd capabilities will determine what your army buys.

As i alluded to it is indeed relevant, and that i'm not entirely up to speed on their past/future threats (When was their last conflict?). Which is why i feel the Leo II is a good recommendation as an all-round MBT.

Though having even weaker still neighbours wouldn't immediately demand the like, he did ask if they could be 'on-par' with modern MBT's, in which case a Country which can afford actual modern MBT's has no need to seek such tanks in the hope that they'll be on par with modern MBT's when they can just buy one of the big 3.

Originally Posted by Jordan88

As i alluded to it is indeed relevant, and that i'm not entirely up to speed on their past/future threats (When was their last conflict?). Which is why i feel the Leo II is a good recommendation as an all-round MBT.

Though having even weaker still neighbours wouldn't immediately demand the like, he did ask if they could be 'on-par' with modern MBT's, in which case a Country which can afford actual modern MBT's has no need to seek such tanks in the hope that they'll be on par with modern MBT's when they can just buy one of the big 3.

6 million Euro per tank (even with everything) is still a pretty penny, especially for a country that really fights mostly on jungle islands against internal Islamist revolutionaries.