T-55AM2

T-54AM2/T-55AM2

Tank T-55AM2 was created by modernizing the tank T-55A. T-54AM2 is a modernized version of tanks T-54M (T-54AM).

During the modernization, modernization elements and systems were used and built, which increase the overall combat value of the tank. The construction of the tank, except for the modernization elements, corresponds to the design of the original vehicles T-54M/T-55A. The most fundamental modifications include the use of the Hammer fire control system, the installation of the SDIO laser radiation detection and indication system and the installation of additional hull and turret armor. The cannon stabilizer was modernized, and the thermal protection of the barrel (TOH) is also new. Another modification is the installation of a new shooting infrared headlight L-4.

Some of the tanks were equipped with an anti-tank missile set 9K116 having five missiles 9M117. The distinguishing feature of these machines was the absence of aiming infrared telescope TKN-1M-22, in whose place (in front of the commander's turret) was installed laser target marker 1K13BOM. Of the total number of modernized tanks T-54AM2/T-55AM2 was complete 9K116 equipped with only 27 vehicles.

A smoke device Tuča and a filter ventilation device RADCHA 15/24 were also added. T-54AM2/T-55AM2 is not adapted for mounting bulldozer equipment BTZ-55. The increase in the weight of the modernized tank was reflected, among other things, in the installation of new torsion bars.

The additional armor of the front of the hull has a thickness of 150 mm, which increased the total strength of the front armor to 250 mm. On the sides of the hull are placed rubber shields 10 mm thick against cumulative ammunition. The passive protection of the tower was supplemented by two front removable additional armor, which are welded from armor sheets and filled with polyurethane. Each of the armor weighs 550 kg and is connected to the tower with two screws to the brackets welded to the tower.

The original power unit was modified to make the V-55AM2 (V-54AM2) with a higher power, which was achieved by changing the angle before fuel injection and adjusting the intake and exhaust pipes. Furthermore, a more efficient cooler was installed, the pressure in the cooling system was changed to 180 kPa. The engine was supplemented with a DIPOL diagnostic device, which optically and audibly signals the emergency condition of the coolant temperature, oil pressure, oil loss in the lubrication system and the amount of fuel.

The development of the Hammer fire control system took place between 1981 and 1983. The accuracy of interventions when firing from a place increased 6.4 times compared to non-modernized tanks and 3.6 times at short stops. The development of the T-54AM2/T-55AM2 tank took place between 1983 and 1986.

Tank modernization T-54M/ T-55A to the standard T-54AM2/T-55AM2 was started in VOP 025 Nový Jičín in 1985. Their introduction into the armament of ČSLA took place in 1987. In the 8th (1986 - 1990) and 9th (1991 - 1995) five-year aircraft was to be modernized to this standard 620 pieces T-55A and 630 pieces T-54M (T-54AM).



The increase in the total combat value of the T-54AM2/T-55AM2 tank consists in:
- increase in firepower
- increasing tank resistance and crew protection
- improving driving characteristics
- increase of other technical-tactical parameters


Increasing tank resistance and crew protection ensures:
- radiation detection and indication system
- additional tower protection
- additional body protection
- increase of bottom resistance
- side protection of the body against cumulative projectiles


Improving driving characteristics is ensured by:
- increase engine power
- improvement of driving characteristics - characteristics of the chassis
- track belt with metal rubber joint


The increase of other technical-tactical parameters ensures:
- protection against the effects of flammable substances of the NAPALM type
- smoke equipment
- communications: radio stations R-173, R-173P
- connection of additional drums to the fuel system

According to official data, as of December 31, 1997, the ACR had a total of 394 "modernized" T-54 and T-55 tanks. Their gradual elimination began at the turn of the millennium. All T-54 and T-55 tanks were to be withdrawn from the combat units to predetermined areas by 31 December 2002, where their sale or physical liquidation was to follow. Unlike other advanced technology, which was first moved to the base Logistics Headquarters, the tanks were T -54AM2 and T-55AM2 sold directly from combat units. They were subsequently delivered to African and Asian countries through dealers with military equipment.

Sources:
1) GTC 025
2) www.vojenstvi.cz

Export of T-54AM2 / T-55AM2 tanks from Czech Republic and Slovakia

Sources:
1) Foss, Ch. (ed.): Jane's Armour And Artillery 2005-2006, Coulsdon, 2005
2) Korba, M.: Nezávislá správa o exporte zbraní z Slovenska, Bratislava, undated
3) www.deagel.com
4) http://disarmament.un.org
5) http://www.transparency.cz/index.php?lan=cz&id=757
6) http://zbrane.ecn.cz/cz/monitoring2.html

T-55AM2 and Georgia

In the middle of the 3. October 2000 took over the Georgian army the first ten tanks of the T-55AM2 derived originally from the ARMY surplus (the tanks were manufactured in the seventies as a T-55A and then, in the eighties upgraded to the standard T-55AM2). These machines were subsequently included in the armament of 11. the brigade deployed in the crew Koda distant about 30 km from the metropolis of Tbilisi. The remaining 110 specimens of Georgia arrived in the course of the following year. Price per piece were supposed to be (in the then prices) 67 000 Czk. Part of the contract in the total amount of 300 000 USD was also a supply of spare parts..

While browsing and sorting through a somewhat disorganized archive of old ATM clippings, I came across the attached images of a T-55AM2 with additional dynamic armor from IDET 1993.
Unfortunately the article wasn't complete (the opposite page is missing), but at least there is some data:


The kit consists of light and heavy dynamic protection, turret ceiling armor protection and fasteners.
The light DO is placed on the sides of the hull, the blocks have dimensions 460x153x23 mm and weight 4,3 kg, the plate active element
The heavy DO is located on the hull face and the tower face and sides and consists of blocks with dimensions 360x153x23 mm and weight 8,3 kg and 440x153x23 mm and 8,9 kg, plate active element
The ceiling of the tower is made up of blocks with a cross-shaped active element.


It is an ATM 12/268, probably vintage 93 or 94 (I'll have to check with the library).


EDIT: On further digging I found another picture, this time of ATM 17/395 (December 1995). Attached.

T-54AM2 ("white 401"), the Military technical museum, Lešany, 2004..

T-55AM2 removed from the armament of the ARMY (photo ©Radek Havelka).

T-55AM2, VHM Piešťany, 16.6.2007





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T-55AM2 without additional armour.

Přelouč, own photo

T-55AM2 of the arms of the yemeni army at the military parade in the capital of the Sana'a in 2009..

Tanks T-55AM2 have been used by the sri lankan army in the fighting with the tamil tigers (LTTE) during the civil war on the island of Sri Lanka took place between the years 1983 to 2009. The tanks in the photos roughly from the end of the year 2008 comes from the armament of 4. an armored regiment (4th Armoured Regiment), which was at this time the only tank unit of the sri lankan army..

Tanks T-55AM2 sri lankan army at the military parade in the capital city of Colombo held on the date of the independence of the Sri Lanka, 4. February 2009..

In 2001 received the Latvia in the form of military aid from the CZECH republic five tanks T-55AM2 (of which 2 probably only as a source of spare parts), which were (are ?) latvian army used only for training purposes..

the east German T-55AM2


On the basis of the Warrant 80/86 issued by the east German ministry of defence should be in the range of the years 1986 to 1989 for the needs of the east German army (NVA) modernized 291 of the tanks, a series of T-55AM / T-55AM(P) produced in Czechoslovakia and Poland (the letter P in parentheses in the east German nomenclature meant that the tank was made in the PLR) on the standard T-55AM2 / T-55AM2(P). Of the total, 50 tanks (marked T-55AM2B / T-55AM2B(P)) is further equipped protitankovým rocket complex 9K116. The very modernisation ensures east German repair plant RWN Neubrandenburg and its range was the same as in the case of the czechoslovak T-55AM2 (a more powerful engine for the east German "T's" carried the designation W-55U). The cost of upgrading one tank totaled approximately $ 1.4 million of the east German mark (T-55AM2), and almost 2 million in the case of the type of T-55AM2B. In 1985, he was in the NDR was delivered from the USSR the first sample piece of the T-55AM2, and a year later was followed by a further sample T-55AM2, which was subsequently modified on the implementation of the T-55AM2B.


The progress of the supply tanks for the needs of the NVA was the following:



A few "Hammers" from the above table has been completed as a command of the machine in sub-versions (K1) - the vehicle of the commander of the company, (K2) - the vehicle of the commander of the battalion; and (K3) - the vehicle of the commander of the regiment.


The first anti-tank missiles 9M117 were in the armament of the Tank regiment 4 (Panzerregiment 4, under the authority of the 4. motostřelecké division) and the Tank regiment 8 (Panzerregiment 8, under the authority of the 8. motostřelecké division) introduced in November 1989. Due to political changes, however, were immediately in the following month returned to the USSR.


In 1987 she was one of the old east German T-54 affixed to an auxiliary tank version of the AM2 so that subsequently served as the target for shelling from a tank T-55 and T-72. During the tests, the resistance of the additional armor turned out, that against podkaliberní ammo is practically worthless.



[source]Sources
1) NVA Forum[/sources]



the Displayed T-55AM2B in the colours of the Nationale Volksarmee is today exhibited in the Panzermuseum Munster, summer 2009 (photo ©Radek Havelka).
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East German T-55AM2B "cut" as a learning model in a military museum. These learning models have been produced a total of four. One of them ended up at the beginning of the nineties in the hands of the Dutch army..

T-55AM2 ("127") from the collections of the Military Museum on the Demarcation Line, Military Hideout Brdy, Mud 2015, June 2015.

by Josef Holek

The remaining three Latvian T-55s ended up in the "nettles". The photos are from 2018.

I would like to add that, after a short preparation, consisting in zaizolování příklopů (carried out with vazelinou),the deployment of the rubber sleeves on the gun,the view of the finder and střílnu coupled machine gun and mounted brodicího of the chimney with a diameter of 10 cm on the navigating příklop (this hole is seen in figure 18, bottom right from the clip) and the sealing of the flap on the exhaust, is the tank able to overcome a water barrier to a depth of 5m. Maintaining the direction of travel under water were conducted by the driver using the gyroscope.
When deep wading was a crew equipped with a pressure bottles attached to a gas mask with a supply of air at about 20 minutes..

Hammer is, of course, had been assembled and the T-54 (see T-54 AM2 ), governed more or less on the standard T-55, the Hammer of the T-54 is easily identified by zavařeného the hole for the fan on the ceiling of the tower before the right of the hatch. The leshan giant in the pictures is really a T-54 AM2, I was looking at him, but I can see it from the pictures here, gentlemen....

Well I have to disagree, because this wading chimney has been fitted instead of the observation device charger. On the commander's hatch has been fitted chimney only at T-72. There is for him an opening. Please carefully look at the hole in the commander's hatch. This served only to shot a flare gun ( it's too small for the chimney) and from the outside has nothing on the mounting( holes for screws and the like).

Prvykrat som of the hammer seen in the Janoviciach in the year 86. Armada in that case este moreover, said had to upgr.the new strelivo - podkaliberne strely, vo vsetkych starych T54 and T55 sa menil optically variable element - the deliberate deštička in the so-called"teeškach" - dennych zameriavačoch, lebo strela mala inu balistiku. Bol som older infraoptik, a graduate of the PŠ in Opave, zvyšok PROTE Klatovy..

What about using ZUBK10-1 (9K116-1 Bastion) ammunition on the T-55AM2? Could this ammunition be used in all T-55AM2, or did these tanks still have to be equipped with something (so was the Hammer provided the irradiation of the target for guiding the missile, or served only as a rangefinder?)

Bastions could not be used with all our tanks, only some were modified for that, from the outside it can be recognized by another hut on the tower, Bastion "knows" for example AM2, which they have in Rokycany, in Lešany I think they are all "without".