page_title: T-54/T-55
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: T-54/T-55 / Description
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: UdSSR. Kampfpanzer T 54 A. Panzermuseum Thun. English: Ex-Polish T-54A main battle tank at tank museum in Thun, Switzerland.
context_page_description: The T-54 and T-55 tanks are a series of Soviet main battle tanks introduced in the years following the Second World War. The first T-54 prototype was completed at Nizhny Tagil by the end of 1945. Initial production ramp up settled for 1947 at Nizhny Tagil, and 1948 for Kharkiv were halted and curtailed as many problems were uncovered; the T-34-85 still accounted for 88 percent of production through the 1950s. The T-54 eventually became the main tank for armoured units of the Soviet Army, armies of the Warsaw Pact countries, and many others. T-54s and T-55s have been involved in many of the world's armed conflicts since the later part of the 20th century.
  The T-54/55 series eventually became the most-produced tank in military history. Estimated production numbers for the series range from 86,000 to 100,000. They were replaced by the T-62, T-64, T-72, T-80 and T-90 tanks in the Soviet and Russian armies, but remain in use by up to 50 other armies worldwide, some having received sophisticated retrofitting.
  During the Cold War, Soviet tanks never directly faced their NATO adversaries in combat in Europe.
context_section_description: The T-54 and T-55 have a cabin layout shared with many post-World War II tanks, with the fighting compartment in the front, engine compartment in the rear, and a dome-shaped turret in the center of the hull. The driver's hatch is on the front left of the hull roof. In the turret, the commander is seated on the left, with the gunner to his front and the loader on the right. The tank's suspension has the drive sprocket at the rear, and dead track. Engine exhaust is on the left fender. There is a prominent gap between the first and second road wheel pairs, a distinguishing feature from the T-62, which has progressively larger spaces between road wheels towards the rear.
  The T-54 and T-55 tanks are outwardly very similar and difficult to distinguish visually. Many T-54s were also updated to T-55 standards, so the distinction is often downplayed with the collective name T-54/55. Soviet tanks were factory-overhauled every 7,000 km and often given minor technology updates. Many states have added or modified the tank's equipment; India, for example, affixed fake fume extractors to its T-54s and T-55s so that its gunners would not confuse them with Pakistani Type 59s.
  The older T-54 can be distinguished from the T-55 by a dome-shaped ventilator on the front right of the turret and a driver-operated SGMT 7.62 mm machine gun mounted to fire through a tiny hole in the center of the hull's front. Early T-54s lacked a gun fume extractor, had an undercut at the turret's rear, and a distinctive "pig-snout" gun mantlet.
caption: A former Polish T-54 tank at the Panzermuseum Thun in Switzerland. The T-54 can be recognized apart from the highly-similar T-55 by the dome-shaped ventilator on the turret's roof and the tiny hole (for the vehicle's bow-mounted 7.62mm machine gun) in the centre of the tank's front glacis-plate.
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