T-10A - Upgrading the T-10

[kamikazi21358 998]

T-10A Heavy Tank

 

T-10A

 

 

 

Summary

 

Heavy tank that began production in 1952, and entered service in 1955, the T-10 heavy tank was the last and ultimate heavy tank series after the monstrosities that were known as the IS-2, IS-3, and IS-4; the T-10 features the similar pike nose of the IS-3 with heavy armour.  The T-10 is completely immune to 76 and 90mms, and it’s RHA would have been very highly resistant to 120mm AP ammunition of the M103 and Conqueror, and even resilient to APDS at longer ranges.  The turret would be nearly immune to the 120mm as well, with its shape and thickness, maybe even up to 390mm of protection.

Armour was not it’s only strong suite, the 122mm D-25TA/S main gun was one of the biggest gun of the 1950s, a testament to its original purpose — spare no expense to build a tank that would have the heaviest armour and most powerful firepower on any battlefield it enters.

Despite this, the tank still manage to option a 42km/h top speed, with a 700 HP engine.  Mobility was not supposed to be its strong suite, nor is it as new main battle tanks proved to be much more mobile, and is sited as a major drawback of this tank.  But having its powerful 122mm gun and heavy armour, having around 13 HP/t still gives it the mobility of a World War II medium tank.

The T-10A is the successor to the T-10, still lacking all the modernisations of the T-10M, but feature the D-25TS 122mm gun that was compatible with the “Hammer” 1-plane vertical stabiliser, new telescopic sights, and night vision for the driver.

T-10A

 

(IS-5, T-10 a prototype)

Armour and Protection

 

The armour of the T-10 should not be any different than the T-10M, the protection was not upgraded much.

In War Thunder, for reference, the T-10M has 120mm RHA plating on its hull, heavily angled, 80-120mm sides, and 120-250mm on the turret, which should be the same as the T-10.

What the T-10 does not have is NBC protection, which wasn’t added until the T-10M.  This does not apply currently in game, although with suggestions I have seen on the maps and missions suggestion section about potential Chernobyl maps and post-nuclear weapon detonation maps, of course this may or may not apply in the future.

 

Firepower

 

The T-10A uses an earlier gun than the T-10M, the 122mm D-25TS gun.  This was one of the biggest tank guns of the 1950s era, shooting 122mm projectiles at high velocity.  The T-10 used an earlier muzzle break, I found nothing on a difference of velocity between the D-25TA (T-10), D-25TS (T-10A and T-10B), and the M62T2 (T-10M).

The D-25TS gun is a D-25TA, but now features a bore excavator, and is comparable with stabilisers, for the T-10A’s case the 1-plane “Hammer” stabiliser.

Ammunition was stored as separate charge ammunition, the propellant and warhead were separate pieces in the tank.  This was because the 122mm shell was so big that loading as single piece ammunition was just not convenient.  Ammunition lined almost the entirety of the interior.

Considering the entire shells could weight up to 32kg, the T-10 featured an automatic rammer, allowing the hardest part of the loader’s work to be done for him.  This means while M103s and Conquerors would have a 3 rpm rate of fire, and the loaders would quickly tire over the course of the match, the T-10 could obtain a 5 rpm rate of fire (12s) and maintain that rate of fire throughout the course of the battle.

 

 

As well, the loader had a tray to ‘lap load’, where he can put a propellant on the tray while loading the correct shell, this helped increase rate of fire.

Although gunner’s don’t tire of have any complex reloading mechanics in War Thunder, it is worth mentioning this stuff in case more realistic loader and autoloader mechanics are ever added.  As for example, a lap loading suggestion can be found here:

 

Ammunition would consist of various AP shells and HE shells.  HEAT-FS and APDS is exclusive to the T-10M.

 

The T-10, T-10A, and T-10B did not use 14.5mm KPVs, but rather a coax and AA 12.7mm DShK M machine gun.

Mobility

 

In 1949, a rule was established that all new tanks were not to exceed 50 tonnes in the soviet army.  This was kept even until today, with tanks like the T-90M and T-14.  This tank pushed it, but the T-10 is an even 50 tonnes.

The engine used on the T-10, T-10A, and T-10B, is the 700 HP V-12-5 Diesel engine.  This is less powerful than the V-12-6 later mounted on the T-10M, represented in game, with 750 HP, which increase top speed to 50 km/h.

This might be advantageous though, with a lower top speed of 42km/h and a 14 HP/t (using 700HP/50.0t) instead of being nearer to a T-34 with the more powerful engine, this might be a way to get a more advantageous BR.

 

 

Potential Placement

 

As this tank is only a little better than the IS-3, with slightly increased armour, mobility, and firepower — but now a vertical stabiliser — I estimate this may be potentially an 8.0?

It’s placement in the tech tree I estimate would be at Rank VI after the T-10, as it is a T-10M predecessor.  Then it would either go to T-10M, or T-10B if added.

Sources

 

https://thesovietarmourblog.blogspot.com/2016/01/t-10-invader.html?m=1

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bronpancerna/16018442386

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-10_tank

https://books.google.com/books?id=Xc4vDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT21&lpg=PT21&dq=IS-5+tank&source=bl&ots=5qbCfHFN75&sig=ACfU3U3MMwrAtBT-pMmIw-L1Wuj1N-mWMg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwivrYry9MPkAhUO7qwKHWNQAQc4FBDoATAHegQIBRAB#v=onepage&q=IS-5 tank&f=false

Edited September 9, 2019 by kamikazi21358

[leroyonly 4,311]

Open for discussion. 

[Milocat 4,857]

+1 for more variants of the T-10 tank.  

[kleinerPanzer 648]

+1, as with your other T-10 suggestions

[FrobroSwagginz 339]

I support

[FrobroSwagginz 339]

Well it looks like this tank (t10a) is coming, most likely as the top ground reward for the winter crafting event

[leroyonly 4,311]

As the T-10A has been implemented with the 1st Battlepass season,

 

Moved to Implemented Suggestions.