Vietnam Army Considers to Upgrade T-62 Tank
T-62 tank of the Vietnamese Army (photo : Soha)
For decades, the Soviet Union and Russia primarily focused on developing variants of the 125 mm 2A46 smoothbore gun and 125mm ammunition for the tanks such as the T-64+. This led to the U-5TS 2A20 cannon and 115mm ammunition for the T-62 being discontinued.
The T-62 and it's U-5TS cannon were considered redundant anyway after better ammunition for the D-10T 100mm cannon was developed. For countries that use the T-62 including Vietnam, ammunition has been rarer each year, each country saving whatever rounds they have rather than firing them off and ending up having to worry about a source of purchase due to lack of manufactures that still produce 115mm rounds.
M1150 armour-piercing munition (photo : armscom)
After the Vostok 2018 military exercises however, Russian tank manufacturer Uralvagonzavod announced they would restart production of the 2A20 cannon for the T-62M, accompanied by the development of some new types of ammunition. French weapons manufacturer Nexter Systems also recently developed the M1150 armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot round compatible with the main gun of the T-62 tank.
According to Nexter, the French ammunition has a muzzle velocity of 1635m/s and is capable of 500mm RHA penetration from a distance of 2,000m - just as capable as the Russian 125mm 3BM32 round or American 120mm M829 round.
These would be good considerations should the People's Army of Vietnam choose to upgrade their T-62s in a similar manner to the T-54M. At the very least the tank's 115mm cannon doesn't need to be changed and can be just as effective as the newer/larger caliber guns.
VietDefense
