This T-54 Might Be the Oldest Tank In Russia's War On Ukraine
The tank's add-on counter-drone armor didn't save it from Ukrainian attack
A Russian T-54 tank wearing bizarre add-on armor might be the oldest tank to fight, and get destroyed, in Russia’s 28-month wider war on Ukraine.
As tank losses mounted in early 2023, the Kremlin first dipped into its stocks of seven-decade-old T-54s and similar T-55s. Over the next 18 months, the Russians reactivated around a hundred T-54/55s out of around 300 in storage.
Some of the 40-ton, four-person T-54s—each armed with a minimally-stabilized 100-millimeter gun and protected by no more than 200 millimeters of armor—have fought from static positions. Tracked pillboxes, basically.
Others have fought as tanks, however—on the move in direct assaults on Ukrainian positions.
It should go without saying that, as tanks, T-54s are extremely vulnerable on a modern battlefield. The analysts at Oryx noted, in February and March, at least two destroyed T-54s plus several other wrecked tanks that might be T-54s.
And on Sunday, a Ukrainian drone-operator who goes by “Kriegsforscher” posted a capture from a drone feed depicting a T-54 that Ukrainian troops knocked out near Novomykhailivka, southwest of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, during a long Russian campaign targeting Novomykhailivka starting in October.
The Russians ultimately captured the town, but at the cost of 300 armored vehicles, according to Kriegsforscher. The T-54 the Russians lost near Novomykhailivka in March was one of the oldest, if not the oldest, tank in the wider war. Depending on the model, the tank may have been produced as long ago as 1952, if not earlier.
In the 28th month of the wider war, it’s not unusual to observe Russian tanks fitted with add-on counter-drone armor. With enough extra armor, a tank becomes an unwieldy “turtle tank.”
The T-54 Kreigsforscher pointed out was wearing one of the stranger counter-drone cages anyone has seen in Ukraine: it covered, and extended far to the rear of, the T-54’s turret.
Whatever the purpose of that armor design, it obviously didn’t save the tank from its ultimate fate. Four months after its immobilization, the T-54 still is moldering on the Novomykhailivka battlefield, Kreigsforscher claimed. It might not be worth recovering.
One analyst who keeps tabs on Russian tank stocks expects only a few more T-54s and T-55s to join the war, out of the 200 or so that are still available.
The Russians “likely have about 100 of them active and looking at the graph, the type has been relatively rare among the losses (less than four percent),” @highmarsed wrote. “In my opinion this likely won’t change in the future and they will probably continue to slowly take some tanks from storage.”
Newer T-62s from the 1960s are much more abundant—and could become some of the Russians’ main tanks.
Read more:
