{UAH} Uganda confirmed as T-90, Type 85-IIM operator

LAND WARFARE

Uganda confirmed as T-90, Type 85-IIM operator

01st August 2017 - 11:00by Erwan de Cherisey in Paris 

While the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) is known to operate a sizeable fleet of T-55 MBTs, photos recently posted online have confirmed that Uganda also fields Russian-made T-90Sand Chinese-manufactured Type 85-IIMs.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni posted a photo on his official Twitter account on July 23 purporting 

T-54/T-55

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"T-54" redirects here. For an American tank prototype from the same era, see T54 (American tank). For other uses, see T54 (disambiguation).

"T-55" redirects here. For the American utility carrier prototype, see M50 Ontos. For the turbine engine, see Lycoming T55.

The T-54 and T-55 tanks are a series of Soviet main battle tanks introduced just as the Second World War ended. The first T-54 prototype was completed at Nizhny Tagil by the end of 1945.^[2] Initial production ramp up settled for 1947 at Nizhny Tagil, and 1948 for Kharkov were halted and curtailed as many problems were uncovered; the T-34-85 still accounted for 88 percent of production through the 50's.^[2] The T-54 eventually became the main tank for armoured units of the Soviet Army, armies of the Warsaw Pact countries, and many others. T-54s and T-55s have been involved in many of the world's armed conflicts since the later part of the 20th century.

The T-54/55 series eventually became the most-produced tank in military history. Estimated production numbers for the series range from 86,000 to 100,000. They were replaced by the T-62, T-64, T-72, T-80 and T-90 tanks in the Soviet and Russian armies, but remain in use by up to 50 other armies worldwide, some having received sophisticated retrofitting.

During the Cold War, Soviet tanks never directly faced their NATO adversaries in combat in Europe. However, the T-54/55's first appearance in the West around the period of the 1950s (then the beginning of the Cold War) spurred the United Kingdom to develop a new tank gun, the Royal Ordnance L7, and the United States to develop the M60 Patton.^[3]

Predecessors: T-34 and T-44[edit]

Main articles: T-34 and T-44

The Soviet T-34 medium tank of the 1940s is considered to have the best balance of firepower (F-34 tank gun76.2 mm gun), protection and mobility for its cost of any tank of its time in the world.^[4] Its development never stopped throughout the Second World War and it continued to perform well; however, the designers could not incorporate the latest technologies or major developments as vital tank production could not be interrupted during wartime.

In 1943, the Morozov Design Bureau resurrected the pre-war T-34M development project and created the T-44 tank. Thanks to a space-efficient torsion-bar suspension, a novel transverse engine mount, and the removal of the hull machine-gunner's crew position, the T-44 had cross country performance at least as good as the T-34, but with substantially superior armour and a much more powerful 85 mm gun.

By the time the T-44 was ready for production, the T-34 had also been modified to fit the same gun. Although the T-44 was superior in most other ways, by this time T-34 production was in full swing and the massive numbers of T-34s being built offset any advantage to smaller numbers of a superior design. The T-44 was produced in only small numbers, around 2,000 being completed during the war. Instead, the designers continued to use the design as the basis for further improved guns, experimenting with a 122 mm design, but later deciding a 100 mm gun was a better alternative.

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

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