The Soviets are well know for their sheer quantity of tanks, and today we are going to look at what is commonly described as the last tank of its kind, The T-10 Heavy tank, thank you all for achieving the like goal I set up at my latest video, because we reached it, I held up my end of the bargain, so here is the video. If we can reach the 90 likes on this video I will release a new video on Thursday 1 P.M CET, that video will be about the Panzer IV/70 also known as the Jagdpanzer IV, now let’s get things going and enjoy the ride
Through out history there have been tank designs and prototypes build which had never seen any action and today we are going to look at a tank which had not seen any action, in our newest series, a Failure or Un-used Potential?
The T-10 otherwise known as the Objekt 730 was a tank developed by the Soviets, which was the last Soviet heavy tank ever being developed which, if war broke out between Nato and the Warsaw pact, it had to take on heavy weights like the Conqueror, Centurions, M48’s and the M103. The T-10 was also the last tank of its Family tree, the Josef Stalin line, which entered service for the first time in 1943, the T-10 was accepted into production back in 1952, representing somewhat of a comeback for the Classic Soviet heavy tanks, weighing in at about 52 tonnes heavy, Armed with a 122mm main armament, Having a 4 man crew and having a low profile. These are all things soviet heavy Tanks are known for, The Objekt 730 was initially meant to replace the Is-3 and Is-4 with the first intention being to have it be named the IS-5 but it was subjected to prolonged Testing and rework, so it would be re-designated to the IS-8 but it entered service as the T-10 Partly due to the passing of Josef Stalin. The Prototype now on screen was a model out of September 1949 fotographed at the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant.
we first are gonna talk about its weight, one of the main contributors of weight is of course its Armor. It was very well armored, to explain it simply, the tank at its weakest point which is the lower glasis also named by some people the lower plate, has a effective Armor thickness of 186mm, to compare this, the King Tigers best Armoured part of the tank is behind the main armament and that is 185mm, and that is what the T-10 Heavy has all over the front of the tank. With the thickest part being effectively 273mm thick, this is the upper glasis.
Of course without a engine you wouldn’t be going anywhere, you would just be a sitting duck. So the T-10 was outfitted with a 12 cylinder V-2 IS Engine which produced up to 700 horse powers. During the trails in September 1949, where they covered about 1000 kilometers, it was found that a cruising speed for this tank would be about 27 kilometers an hour to 31 kilometers an hour on a road, this was about 50% of the testing, the rest of the testing was done on open terrain, and as you can expect, this showed a lot of defects of the tank. After various modifications, there were again tests conducted in late 1949, and then again and again until 1952 they were tested, this only ended in late 1952 after various prototypes were being subject to constant testing rework and modification.
I already brievely mentioned that the T-10 was outfitted with the iconic 122mm D-25TA gun, it had the APHEBC and APHE shells, able to penetrate up to 150mm at a distance of 500 meters which honestly isn’t really that impressive, because these were penetration levels achieved by tanks 10 years prior to the T-10 entering service. As any other tank the T-10 did have secondary armaments, these were in the name of two 12.7 DShK machine guns, this is to deal with nearby infantry or lightly armoured vehicles.
The T-10M was a updated version which of the T-10 tank which allowed the tank to stay into service until the 1980s, and it was officially retired in 1997, so the T-10 outlived the Soviet Union, The T-10m had the 122mm M-62-T2 gun, which arguably is the more iconic look of the T-10’s main armament. It was also given a two plane stabilizer and one machine gun on the roof was replaced with the 14.5 mm KPVT machine gun. other features included infrared night vision, NBC liner inside for collective protection, and a intergraded automatic over pressure system. The tank also became a bit longer and lastly the turret was also slightly up armed.
Due to the newer developments, the T-10 became outdated quickly, developments like the Anti tank Guided Missiles and the T-10’s main armament was also made obsolete after the introduction of the T-64 MBT with a new main armament and ammunition types, this also made the heavy tanks in general redundant, also instead of relying on brute armour thickness tanks began relying more on reactive armour for added protection.
To the disappointment of the western allies the T-10 remain shrouded in mystery, so the official number of times produced remains a mystery but it is estimated that (Word limit)
