How To Tell Soviet Tanks Apart

in the 1940s the Soviets developed a tank design formula that they quite liked as a result they kept using it until very very recently and what this means for us is that despite all their vehicles being quite different they all look the same which can be annoying especially as thousands of these tanks are being used by both sides of the Russo Ukraine war telling a t62 from a t64 or a T90 from a t72 is no easy task until now this video will take you through various methods that you can use to correctly identify Soviet tseries vehicles from the t-54 all the way up to the T14 by the end of this video you will be able to identify tanks from any angle even when they are covered with ra camouflaged or destroyed let's get into it we'll use multiple methods in this video but we'll start with the easiest let's assume you've got a nice sideon view and you can see the entire length of the vehicle you want to start with the wheels specifically the road wheels which support the weight of the tank if there are five road wheels you've already successfully narrowed it down to three it's either a t-54 t55 or a t62 these are the earliest three TS series vehicles and use these big steel road wheels with no return rollers so you'll notice the track sags in the middle if you see a prominent gap between the first and second Wheels it's a t-54 or a t-55 these are notoriously very difficult to tell apart and are usually just referred to as one item but there is a way to tell very early t-54s had this unique wedge turret but assuming it does have the more modern Dome turret the t-54 will have a small Rin vent on the right side of the turret roof the t-55 will not but again nobody will judge you too much if you just say t-54 55 anyway if the five Wheels look like this instead with The Gap appearing either side of the fourth road wheel from the front you're looking at a t62 if you can't see the wheels but suspect it's one of these older tanks the t62 has a shorter fatter looking turret when compared to the t-54 55 and has the fume extractor in the middle of the gun rather than at the end shockingly despite them being 60 to 70 years old all of these vehicles have been seen in Ukraine but anyway for these two you go Wheels then turret then gun but maybe the tank has more than five road wheels okay if there are seven it's a T14 this is the newest Russian tank and is quite different to the others with a distinctive unmanned turret and a large almost western style Hull it's usually seen sitting still being towed away or sort of cruising around not doing much of anything certainly hasn't seen any combat anyway so we'll say no more about it if there are six road wheels then it could be a little more difficult as this means it's either a t64 a t72 a t80 or a T90 and annoyingly these are the four most common T-Series tanks by a large margin let's start with the t64 which was developed as a high cost high performance vehicle for independent tank battalions it used composite armor had an autoloader and importantly for us used these strange little aluminium road wheels that were designed to be lightweight and less prone to getting caked in mud t64 road wheels are small have no external Rubber and are almost flat-faced with 10 shallow indentations around the rim the t64 notably also used an identical wheel for its idler another unique feature so if you can see six small flat road wheels it's a t64 in the late '70s the t64 was developed into the t80 which also has six road wheels the t8s wheels are larger though and have an external layer of rubber around them the wheels look almost Western in origin with 10 bolts arranged around a large Central Hub The Idler is different from the road wheels and has 10 thin spokes so if you see six wheels that look like this with decently sized gaps between each it's a t80 if the tank has six larger Wheels evenly spaced with almost no Gap it's a t72 or a T90 the wheels will have external Rubber and either six or eight spoked indentations with a bolt in the middle of each surrounding a central Hub The Idler wheels are again different smaller with five large thick spokes the t72 was initially developed as a cheaper simpler t64 to support mechanized divisions but a sense evolved into an arguably Superior vehicle T9 was essentially a modernization of t72 with an almost identical Hull so the road wheels and suspension systems are interchangeable and we'll need to use other tricks to tell them apart what a nice segue our second trick assumes you don't have a nice view of the side of the vehicle perhaps you can only see the back or top half of the tank have a look at the exhaust it'll be in one of only two places most will have the exhaust on the left side of the hole towards the back this is present on t-54 55s t-62s t-72s and t9s there are many different styles of exhaust here and it can be used to tell more modern variants from older ones but there's no cut and dry rules however if the exhaust is at the back of the tank you know for sure it's either a t64 or a t80 if it's relatively short high up and covers more than half the width of the vehicle this is a t64 its exhaust is split into two sort of halves with rectangular shaped gradings if it's a larger boxier exhaust which is angled downwards with lots of smaller grings it's a t80 this doesn't change no matter what variant you're looking at and can be a very easy way to identify these vehicles from the rear unfortunately this doesn't help you so much if you can just see the front of the vehicle or perhaps only even the turret which leads us onto our next set of Tricks but before then time for this video's paid partnership better help better help is a service that's very important to me because I use it myself most of my life I've struggled with some form of anxiety and at a few points I probably would have called myself depressed and that's where therapy really helped me I had a video call with my better help therapist around once a week 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Soviet era main battle tanks the turrets of these vehicles are almost always covered with ra bricks which can make it difficult to sell certain models apart but we can still do some identifying on top of all Soviet tanks will be a heavy machine gun for anti-aircraft and anti-infantry protection older vehicles like the t-54 55 and the t62 were equipped with a 12.7 MM d HK or duka but most T Series variants in combat today will have an nsvt or a more modern cord on the roof and we can use this to our advantage as it's a great way to identify a t72 see the t64 t80 and T90 all M their heavy machine guns conventionally facing forward but on t72 the machine gun is mounted on the Commander's Capa at the back on the opposite side to the Commander's main site so if you see a vehicle with a sight facing forwards while the HMG is facing backwards that's a t72 another handy tip if the machine gun looks like this rather futuristic and mounted at the rear of the turret behind the hatches you're looking at a T90 more specifically a t90m with its UDP remote weapon station but machine guns aren't always kept at factory standard especially during a conflict in fact they may have been removed from the destroyed or damaged Vehicles alt together so we need something else to tell these turrets apart Soviet tanks almost always had these distinctive circular infrared search lights on the front of the turret which were used to enhance the crew's ability to fight at night t-54 55s and t-62s will have the search light mounted high up on the front face of the turret on the starboard side to the right of the gun later Vehicles will have it mounted lower down almost in line with the gun barrel if it's mounted to the left of the Gun Barrel towards the port side of the tank you're looking at a t64 turret there is the small caveat this turret was used on very early t-72s and t8s but that is simply because those models were using t64 turrets themselves t72 and t80 turrets will have the search light on the opposite side to the right of the gun the T90 does not have an IR search light as it has integrated thermal SES for the crew T9 these do however have these distinctive little boxes on the front of the turret either side of the main gun these are St one dazzlers and are used to disrupt The Seekers on incoming missiles by blasting them with infrared light you may see them with their covers off glowing an ominous red color the dazzlers are not equipped on more modern variants and may have been removed from older t9s in service but if you do see them it's a T90 I will mention two small exceptions here first the t84 this is a post Soviet Ukrainian tank based on the chassis of the t80 and certain models do have a welded turret and or St dazzlers as well as quite a distinctive bustle on the back of the turret this is a much smaller hiccup than it seems however as the Ukrainian Army only operates about six of these so if you see a t80 hull with something that looks like a T90 turret you're looking at a t84 or you could be looking at something called the t u k a command variant of the T U that was fitted with shora dazzlers so it would have the regular cast turret of the t80 spotting one is somewhat unlikely though as analysts suggest just two were sent to Ukraine one was destroyed and one has been captured but identifying a t-s series tank is not always doable with the turret on due to the tendency of these vehicles to suffer for catastrophic ammunition explosions when hit sending the turret flying into a nearby Tree Line even on a decapitated t- series though we can do some frontal identifying even on Soviet tanks the driver needed somewhere to exist and somewhere to see out of and this can be used to help us identify things on a t-54 55 or a t62 the driver is offset to the left towards the port side of the vehicle on modern vehicles he sits in the center on the t64 t72 and T90 he has a single wide Periscope but on the t80 the driver has three smaller periscopes to give him better allround Vision but what if you're trying to identify the tank from the back or even the sides and don't have a nice view of the exhausts or the road wheels the Soviets were wise enough to assume that if they were going to have to use their tanks to smash through Europe they should probably design them to be able to cross shallow streams and rivers without breaking down so they needed to carry around these long pipes to allow the engine to breathe while a tank was underwater foring tubes lucky for us these are all different and are mounted in Clear View on the turret the t64 forting tube looks almost like a big truck exhaust it's relatively small in diameter with one end having an even smaller diameter L-shaped curved tube and the other end having a metal plug sometimes with a rubber or canvas cover on the top of that this foring tube is mounted high up on the back of the turret behind the Commander's Capa and mounted on top of the sheet metal box that is unique to the t64 the t80 has a massive foring tube on the back of its turret larger in diameter than that of the t64 and with no curved bend on one end it'll either have two metal plugs or one boxy right angled adapter and be mounted away from the back of the turret on big brackets on some t8s you'll also see this large unique looking air intake adapter which can be used as an air filter or for snorkeling the t72 and t904 tues in contrast are much smaller than that of the t64 or t80 and look almost like a large handheld anti-tank weapon early t-72s mounted this on the rear left of the turret but later vehicles and the T90 have it mounted at the back of the turret on the rear face of the rear storage bin in a lot of Ukrainian war footage though it is from the perspective of a drone these tend to be flying above the tank which is an angle we have not really covered yet but have no fear even from above the tank it can be easy to get positive idas on what t-s series vehicle you're looking at by casting your eyes to the engine deck we can use the arrangement of the fans and vents to determine the tank if the vehicle has two distinct horizontal sections of vents at the rear it's one of the older tanks a t-54 55 or a t62 the t62 as it is a lot longer than the t-54 55 will have a much larger gap between the turret and the first horizontal vent if it has a single horizontal vent at the very rear of the engine deck it's either a t72 or a T90 similarly if it has a single or split horizontal section at the front of the engine deck just behind the turret it's a t80 with this vent servicing its gas turbine engine the t64 is a bit unique it has a large t8s vent just behind the turret but also has this thin vertical vent running down the port side of the deck in addition the t64 has a downward slope on the other side of the deck towards the mudguards whereas on all other vehicles the back decks are completely flat now I know that was a lot of information so I'll do a quick recap for you with some real life examples while we're here though please do like the video If You' enjoyed it leave a comment or even subscribe for more content I incredibly grateful if you consider supporting me on patreon it really does help a lot anyway what's this this is a t80 remember it is the only tseries vehicle with three Vision ports for the driver the t80 also has six road wheels that look like this the search light is on the right side of the gun the foring tube is a large diameter tube mounted off the back of the turret the exhaust is Big boxy and at the rear and the engine deck has a single horizontal vent just behind the turret while this is a t-54 55 they have five large steel road wheels with a gap between the first and the second with no return rollers two sets of horizontal vents at the rear of the engine deck the exhaust is on the back left and the IR search light is high up on the right of the gun the lack of vent on the top of the turret tells us this is a t-55 rather than a t-54 and this is a t62 if you can tell the difference between the taller more spherical turret of the t-55 when compared to the t62 remember to look at the gun the t62 has the fume extractor in the middle other unique features of the t62 are the five large road wheels with gaps either side of the fourth wheel a longer hole than t55 and a larger space between the back of the turret and the rear vent and this we can identify immediately as a t64 the IR search light is on the left side of the gun other key t64 features are the six small aluminium road wheels The Identical Idler Wheel the smaller fording tube with a curved end the engine Deck with one horizontal strip and one vertical and the wide thin exhaust mounted high on the rear of the vehicle this contrasts almost entirely with this vehicle which is a t72 it along with the T90 has six large road wheels the search light is on the right side of the gun the machine gun faces backwards and like the T90 it is an exhaust on the back left of the tank with a small shorter 4ing tube and a single horizontal vent on the engine deck the T90 while similar to the t72 in many ways has its own unique set of identifiers any TS series tank with a welded hexagonal turret a remote weapon station on the roof or store at dazzlers you can be almost sure it's a T90 but as always practice makes perfect do your best to identify the next T-Series tank you see without cheating and let me know how it goes and obviously despite this being a relatively long video I have barely scratched the surface each vehicle has many different variants each with different identifiers and operators unique ra layouts etc etc and maybe I'll cover those if there's interest until then please do like and subscribe if you enjoyed thank you so much to those who already support me on patreon and I'll see you all in the next one

Channel: Red Wrench Films

Views: 174,922

Keywords: T-54, T-55, Soviet tank, russian tank, T-62, T-64, T-80, T-72, T-90

Id: MKiS6WN9vyo

Length: 18min 30sec (1110 seconds)

Published: Fri May 17 2024