U-5TS (115 mm)

Description

The 115 mm U-5TS is a Soviet tank cannon utilized for the T-62 tank series. The weapon is characterized as having a smoothbore barrel and a two-plane stabilizer. Upon its introduction with the T-62 in Update 1.61 "Road to Glory", the U-5TS was the first smoothbore barrel tank cannon put into the game.

Vehicles equipped with this weapon

• T-62
• Т-62 №545
• T-62M-1

General info

Tell us about the tactical and technical characteristics of the cannon or machine gun.

Available ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
3BK15M	HEATFS	500	500	500	500	500	500
3BM4	APFSDS	285	279	263	243	222	202
3OF27	HE	40	40	40	40	40	40
3BM3	APFSDS	350	347	322	300	283	270
9M117	ATGM	600	600	600	600	600	600
3BK4	HEATFS	440	440	440	440	440	440
3BM21	APFSDS	420	415	405	390	380	370
3OF11	HE	31	31	31	31	31	31
3BM28	APFSDS	386	384	377	369	361	352

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (kg)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
3BK15M	HEATFS	1,060	12.2	0.05	0.1	2.28	65°	72°	77°
3BM4	APFSDS	1,615	4	-	-	-	72°	76°	78°
3OF27	HE	800	17.82	0.3	0.1	4.82	79°	80°	81°
3BM3	APFSDS	1,615	4	-	-	-	76°	77°	80°
3BK4	HEATFS	950	12.97	0.05	0.1	1.85	65°	72°	77°
3BM21	APFSDS	1,600	4.55	-	-	-	76°	77°	80°
3OF11	HE	905	14.86	0.3	0.1	2.64	79°	80°	81°
3BM28	APFSDS	1,600	4.88	-	-	-	78°	80°	81°

Missile details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Range (m)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (kg)	Ricochet
								0%	50%	100%
9M117	ATGM	370	4,000	18.8	0.05	0.1	4.77	80°	82°	90°

Comparison with analogues

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Usage in battles

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Pros and cons

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Pros:

Cons:

History

In 1952, there were considerations among the Soviet tank development bureaus to begin developing a new tank to replace the T-54 in Soviet service. This was finalized in 09 September 1952 in Resolution No.4169-1631 for the development of the "New Medium Tank". The development focus lay in a new 100 mm D-54T gun developed by F.F. Petrov. Though attempts were made to fit the D-54T tank gun into the T-54 chassis, the gun's ammunition proved too large to be easily loaded within the turret.

The tank development project would be contested between Leonid N. Kartsev's project "Object 140" from Nizhny Tagil and Alexandr A Morozov's project "Object 430" from Kharkov. Kartsev's design would be cancelled in favor of Object 430, but continued development with a tank to use as many T-54/55 components and a larger turret culminated into the "Object 165". During this development, reports of a 100 mm T-12 smoothbore anti-tank gun showed the effectiveness of a smoothbore design. Kartsev consulted with F.F. Petrov on the feasibility of modifying the 100 mm D-54T into a smoothbore weapon. Upon finding the modification feasible without compromising the gun barrel's integrity, the 100 mm bored out into a 115 mm smoothbore gun. The weapon would be designated 115 mm U-5TS under the project name "Molot" for "Hammer".

The 115 mm U-5TS would have the accolade of being the first smoothbore tank gun in production in the world, which was then followed up with the first development of an armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding-sabot (APFSDS) round. The benefits of smoothbore over the rifled D-54T design was apparent with an increased muzzle velocity, and therefore armour penetration, using the same amount of propellent. Kartsev would install this in his Object 165 tank, which would become known as "Object 166" with the 115 mm gun installed. While the 115 mm continued to remained in testing as the Object 166 continued to be evaluated, the process was soon expedited upon the Soviet discovery of 105 mm tank guns in NATO inventory in 1961 (namely the L7 gun equipped in new American, German, and British tanks). The commander of the Soviet Grounds Forces, Vasily Ya. Chukov, was furious upon learning about this event and insisted the 115 mm must be put into service as soon as possible. As such, on 12 August 1961 with Resolution No. 729-305, the T-62 medium tank and attached 115 mm U-5TS (GAU designation 2A20) was accepted into Soviet service.

Media

The 9M117 ATGM fired by the U-5TS cannon (scale is approximate)

See also

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• reference to the article about the variant of the cannon/machine gun;
• references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.

External links

References

Citations

Bibliography

• Kinnear, Jim and Stephen L. Sewell. 2021. Soviet T-62 Main Battle Tank. Oxford: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Kindle.

China tank cannons
30 mm	ZPL02 · ZPZ02
73 mm	Type 86
76 mm	M32K1
85 mm	Type 56 · Type 63
100 mm	PTP86 · Type 59 · Type 69 · Type 69-II · ZPL04
105 mm	88B-105T · Type 83 · WMA301 · ZPL94 · ZPL98A
120 mm	122TM · PTZ89
125 mm	Type 88C · Type 99A · ZPT98
130 mm	PL59A Gai
152 mm	PL66 Gai
	Foreign:
20 mm	KwK30 (Germany)
37 mm	M6 (USA)
45 mm	20-K (USSR)
47 mm	Type 1 (Japan)
57 mm	Type 97 (Japan) · ZIS-2 (USSR)
75 mm	M2 Howitzer (USA) · M3 (USA) · M6 (USA)
76 mm	D-56T (USSR) · F-34 (USSR) · M1 (USA) · M7 (USA) · ZIS-3 (USSR)
85 mm	ZIS-S-53 (USSR)
90 mm	M3 (USA) · M41 (USA)
100 mm	D-10S (USSR)
105 mm	M68 (USA) · M68A1 (USA)
115 mm	U-5TS (USSR)
122 mm	A-19 (USSR) · D-25T (USSR)
152 mm	ML-20S (USSR)