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Tank destroyer From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Object 120 SU-152 "Taran" (Russian: СУ-152 «Таран») was a fully enclosed Soviet tank destroyer built in 1965, which never progressed past the experimental stage.
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Object 120 SU-152 "Taran" | |
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![]() The only prototype of the Object 120 at the Kubinka Tank Museum. | |
Type | Tank destroyer |
Place of origin | Soviet Union |
Production history | |
Produced | 1965 |
No. built | 1 |
Specifications | |
Mass | 27 metric tons |
Length | 6.87 m (22 ft 6 in) (hull) |
Width | 3.12 m (10 ft 3 in) |
Height | 2.82 m (9 ft 3 in) |
Crew | 4 |
Armour | 30 mm (hull front, turret front) |
Main armament | 152.4 mm M-69 "Taran" rifled gun (9.45m long barrel) |
Engine | V-54-105 diesel engine 353 kW (473 hp) |
Transmission | Mechanical |
Operational range | 280 km (173 mi) |
Maximum speed | 63 km/h (39 mph) |
In the early 1960s, the Soviet military concluded that the armor-piercing ammunition used by the T-55 medium tank, and the T-10 heavy tank was unable to penetrate the frontal armor of the newest American M60 and British Chieftain main battle tanks. The Soviets, therefore, began parallel research on several different anti-tank weapon systems, such as the development of new armour-piercing discarding sabot and shaped charge ammunition for existing tank guns, new rifled and smoothbore tank guns with calibers ranging from 115 mm to 130 mm with anti-tank missiles.
One of these projects became the SU-152 "Taran". The factory designation was Object 120 (Объект 120). In terms of firepower and mobility, it surpassed all foreign tank destroyers. The main reason the SU-152 "Taran" wasn't adopted was due to the development and adoption of more effective 125 mm smoothbore tank gun and anti-tank missiles.
The SU-152 "Taran" was armed with the 152.4 mm M-69 "Taran" rifled gun, with a barrel length of 9,045 mm, fitted with a powerful muzzle brake. With an overall length of about 10 meters, it is the longest gun of any type ever installed in a fully enclosed armoured fighting vehicle. The gun had a maximum direct fire range of 2,050 meters. The SU-152 "Taran" carried 22 rounds of APDS and high-explosive ammunition. The gun had a semi-automatic breech block, with a rate of fire of 3–5 rounds/min. The high-explosive ammunition had a 43.5 kg shell and a maximum charge of 10.7 kg. Firing the 12.5 kg APDS shell with a maximum charge (10.7 kg), which gave it a muzzle velocity of 1,720 m/s, the M-69 "Taran" had an armor penetration of 290 mm of RHA at 90° at a range of 2,000 meters.[1]
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