Russian relic T‑54 tanks: Ancient threats on Ukraine's front lines
The Russian crew most likely attacked Ukrainians near the village of Robotyne using the oldest or perhaps one of the oldest tanks in service. This was the T-54B, which was introduced into service in the USSR in 1956. We explain what this 68-year-old relic was doing on the front line.
Jarosław Wolski, a defense analyst, published an intriguing photo on his X profile showing the T-54 tank. The photo most likely comes from the area around the village of Robotyne, where Russian tanks from the T-54/55 family were spotted. The tank in the image looks like a T-54B (characterized by an infrared illuminator next to the cannon), which was produced starting in 1956. It could also be an older T-54-3, later modernized to this standard.
T-54 tanks - useless hunks of iron vulnerable to virtually anything
The T-54 tanks and their development, the T-55, were created based on experiences gained during World War II. The goal of the Russians was to develop a modern medium tank, which evolved into the role of the main battle tank after abandoning the concept of heavy tanks.
Initially, the Russians tried to adapt the T-34 tank to accommodate a larger cannon, but this did not yield the expected results. The T-44 tank met a similar fate, preceding the prototypes of the T-54 tank, which were presented in 1946. Its serial production, after several modernizations, began in 1949.
Since then, several variants have been developed, differing in aspects like turret shape and armour thickness. The armour was made entirely of armoured steel and today it can be penetrated by virtually any handheld anti-tank weapon with a shaped charge warhead.
The armour only protects against machine gun fire and some automatic cannons. For instance, the CV90 fighting vehicle's cannon can penetrate even the hull's frontal armour and easily breach the weaker sides.
The only arguable advantage of T-54 tanks is their rifled D-10 100-millimetre (3.9-inch) cannon, which, although ineffective against the frontal armour of T-72 or T-64 tanks, suffices against fighting vehicles. Their primary use in this setting is as support vehicles, shelling an area with high-explosive fragmentation shells.
However, this will be challenging since the T-54 lacks a ballistic computer, and night vision was only introduced in the T-54B model and subsequent modernizations. This is a first-generation system requiring an infrared illuminator, which is as noticeable as a flashlight's beam to other night vision devices. It is a blind and steel four-man coffin on today's battlefield.
