Super upgraded or Super Duper Upgrayedd-Ed?…
It takes 10 Ladas to make a t-55 ,LOL
Tanks are old school. They’re impressive but there are enough weapons these days to make them rolling coffins.
Is this supposed to be good news, or bad?
It’s a tank from the 1950s that was “Super-upgraded” almost 25 years ago.
The M-55s is the grandson and nephew of the T-54 and the T-55, respectively. All three of them were (and are) pretty good platforms. With upgrades the M-55s could be formidable, as it’s all about the gun.
Wish them luck to defeat Putin.
Ukraine may get some Leopard-2 tanks before long, and maybe even some M1s.
T-55s? Really?
65 year old armor against modern anti tank weapons. I’m betting they will be destroyed as quickly as they are fielded. It’s a tracked coffin.
In pictures: Inside Ukraine's tank graveyard
Outisde the Ukrainian city of Kharkov lies a Soviet-era tank graveyard, crammed with row upon row of dormant rusted relics.
T-55s, no matter how many upgrades, are Instant Death Traps.
In the late 1990s, the Slovenian army paid Israeli firm Elbit and STO RAVNE in Slovenia to modify 30 T-55s. The companies delivered the last example in 1999.The M-55S has a stabilized, British-made L7 105-millimeter main gun in place of the original Soviet 100-millimeter gun. The British gun is compatible with a wide range of modern ammunition, including armor-piercing sabot rounds that can penetrate the armor of a modern-ish T-72.
To point the gun, Elbit installed a new fire-control computer that allows the M-55S to shoot while moving. A T-55 normally stops before firing.
A T-55 has four crew—a commander, gunner, loader and driver. Only the gunner can aim the gun. The M-55S adds an independent sight for the commander so they can aim the gun, too.
For protection, the M-55S adds a laser-warning system that alerts the crew and deploys smoke grenades when an anti-tank missile is incoming. The Slovenian tank also has a new armor mix—explosive reactive blocks on top of passive armor.
Finally, a new engine with 600 horsepower, giving the 36-ton tank roughly the same mobility as a T-72. All that is to say, the M-55S isn’t really a T-55. It’s the bones of a T-55 with a new brain, new muscles and new skin.
And it should be a match for many of the Russian tanks in Ukraine—especially older T-72s as well as the T-62s the Kremlin pulled out of storage this summer to try to make good some of its losses.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2022/09/19/slovenia-is-giving-ukraine-some-very-old-tanks-but-age-can-be-deceiving/?sh=1c4b13d47b3f
It was Khadaffi's Libyan T-55s that lost to Chadian Toyota pickups with French-provided antitank missile launchers mounted in the bed in a war in the dessert.
I wonder if you still have use a hand-crank to traverse the turret?