T-64 Battle Tank: The Cold War's Most Secret Tank

by Steven J. Zaloga, Ian Palmer (Illustrator)

Overview

The T-64 tank was the most revolutionary design of the whole Cold War, designed to provide the firepower and armor protection of a heavy tank in a medium-weight design. It pioneered a host of sophisticated new technologies including laminate armor, stereoscopic tank rangefinders, opposed-piston engines, smooth-bore tank guns with discarding sabot ammunition, and gun-fired guided projectiles. These impressive features meant that the Russians were loath to part with the secrets of the design, and the T-64 was the only Soviet tank type of the Cold War that was never exported.

Written by an armor expert, this detailed technical history sheds light on the secrets behind the Cold War's most controversial tank, revealing how its highly advanced technologies proved to be both a blessing and a curse.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472806284
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	10/20/2015
Series:	New Vanguard , #223
Pages:	48
Product dimensions:	7.25(w) x 9.70(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Steven J. Zaloga received his BA in History from Union College and his MA from Columbia University. He has worked as an analyst in the aerospace industry for over two decades, covering missile systems and the international arms trade, and has served with the Institute for Defense Analyses, a federal think tank. He is the author of numerous books on military technology and military history, with an accent on the US Army in World War II as well as Russia and the former Soviet Union. The author lives in Abingdon, MD.

Table of Contents

Introduction 4

NST: New Medium Tank 5

Refining the Design: Obiekt 432 8

The Rocket Tank Distraction 14

T-64 Initial Production 17

The T-64A Tank (Obiekt 434) 20

Clan Wars Intensify

Improving Thet-64A

Thet-64B Sosna Missile Tank 31

T-64 Follow-On: Thet-74 PST 35

T-64 Command Tanks 35

T-64 Derivatives 36

T-64 Glossary 38

Final Traces of the T-64 38

T-64 Comparative Technical Data

Soviet Army T-64 Deployment 42

Ukrainian Modernization 43

T-64 Combat History 43

The T-64 in Retrospect 44

Comparative Military Technical Co-efficients

Further Reading 46

Index 48