"Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR
Decree dated December 30th, 1966
Moscow, Kremlin
On the acceptance of a new medium tank into service with the Soviet Army
The Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR decree to:
1. Agree with the proposal of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR and Ministry of Defense Industry to accept into service with the Soviet Army a new medium tank, equipped with the 5TDF engine, 115 mm smoothbore D-68 gun with HEAT, HE, and subcaliber armour piercing ammunition, a 2318 two-plane stabilizer, a TPD-43B rangefinder sight, and a PKT coaxial machinegun developed in accordance with CC CPSU and Council of Ministers decree #141-58 dated February 17th, 1961 and matching tactical-technical requirements given in attachment #1.
Name the aforementioned tank T-64."
"Comrade N.A. Kucherenko
Copy into the order.
V. Bakhirov
January 4th, 1967"
Did early T-64s have the 115 mm or was Russia just keeping it's new 125mm secret?
ReplyDelete...from who, *themselves*? Seems doubly unlikely given how high-level communique this seems to be...
DeleteWas under the impression the very first batches came off the assembly lines with the 115 mm as the 125 mm wasn't yet ready; FWIW teh Wiki pegs the number at ~600.
I believe at the time they began production the trials for the new gun were still going on, between the D-81 125mm, D-83 122mm, etc.
DeleteYes, the original T-64 had a 115 mm gun. The T-64A had a 125 mm gun. http://tankarchives.blogspot.com/2018/05/t-64as-birthday.html
DeleteOh, the T64 family. Specially the T64A, that was THE tank, never a tank has had such a clear superiority for such a log time. In other cases it was for less time but in the USA case the T64 family and derived gave clear superiority to the URSS for almost a quarter of century
DeleteAnd thus shitty Kharkovite tractor-64 was born
ReplyDelete