PT-76-57

This page is about the Soviet light tank PT-76-57. For other versions, see PT-76 (Family).

PT-76-57

PT-76-57

USSR

V Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
7.7	8.3	8.3

Class:

PREMIUM

Light tank

Purchase:Bundle or Gift

Description

The PT-76-57 is a premium gift rank V Soviet light tank with a battle rating of 7.7 (AB) and 8.3 (RB/SB). It was introduced during Update "Direct Hit" as a reward for Battle Pass: Season V, "River Hunter".

Otherwise known as the PT-76E, the PT-76-57 possesses many significant upgrades, including night vision and a two-plane stabilizer. The main difference is the armament, a rapid firing AU-220 57 mm cannon fitted in a unique turret which, using the same BR-281 shells used in the ZSU-57-2, proves very effective when dealing with numerous enemies at once. Compared to the ZSU-57-2 due to the similar armament, the PT-76-57 makes up having only half the firepower by instead having a significantly faster rate of fire. On a relatively mobile and low-profile chassis, the PT-76-57 can be a true menace on the battlefield when flanking otherwise heavily-armoured foes or tearing through lightly-armoured IFVs and light tanks.

General info

Survivability and armour

Smoke grenades

Creation of a smoke screen in front of the vehicle

ESS

Creation of a smoke screen in the direction of movement of the vehicle

Armourfront / side / back

Hull13 / 10 / 6

Turret22 / 18 / 15

Crew3 people

Visibility94 %

Armor in this tank is pretty much non existing, the front of the tank being the only part that can resist high caliber machine gun rounds thanks to the armor layout, otherwise, anything else will pen the armor, however, thanks to the thin armor, most shells fuze will not activate, turning them into ap shells that with some luck, will overshoot and do minimal damage to the modules, this however should not be relied on, the crew and ammo is packed very closely to each other, so each and every shot aimed at this tank has a very high one shot potential.

Armour type:

Armour	Front (Slope angle)	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	10 mm (79°) Top 13 mm (56°) Bottom	13 mm Top 10 mm Bottom	6 mm	5 - 6 mm
Turret	22 mm Turret front 30 mm Gun mantlet	18 - 22 mm	15 mm	6 mm

Notes:

Mobility

Amphibious

The design allows you to swim and control movement in the water

Speedforward / back

AB67 / 20 km/h

RB and SB61 / 18 km/h

Number of gears8 forward

4 back

Weight15.0 t

Engine power

AB572 hp

RB and SB300 hp

Power-to-weight ratio

AB38.1 hp/t

RB and SB20.0 hp/t

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	67	20	15	465	572	31	38.13
Realistic	61	18		265	300	17.67	20

Modifications and economy

Repair cost

AB2 189

RB2 516

SB3 056

Crew training10 000

Experts440 000

Aces1 100

Research Aces1 340 000

Reward for battleAB / RB / SB

2 × 110 / 150 / 180 %

2 × 190 / 190 / 190 %

Modifications

Mobility	Protection	Firepower
Tracks Suspension Brake System Filters Transmission Engine	Improved Parts Improved FPE Crew Replenishment ESS	Horizontal Drive Adjustment of Fire Airstrike Elevation Mechanism Smoke grenade Artillery Support Laser rangefinder Improved optics

Armaments

Laser rangefinder

Reduces the error and increases the maximum measurable distance of the rangefinder

Main armament

57 mm AU-220 cannon

Two-plane stabilizer

Reduces the swing of the gun in two planes while moving

Autoloader

Automatically feeds projectiles into the breech. The speed does not depend on the skills of the loader

Ammunition100 rounds

First-order20 rounds

Reload0.5 s

Vertical guidance-5° / 35°

Give the reader information about the characteristics of the main gun. Assess its effectiveness in a battle based on the reloading speed, ballistics and the power of shells. Do not forget about the flexibility of the fire, that is how quickly the cannon can be aimed at the target, open fire on it and aim at another enemy. Add a link to the main article on the gun: {{main|Name of the weapon}}. Describe in general terms the ammunition available for the main gun. Give advice on how to use them and how to fill the ammunition storage.

57 mm AU-220						Turret rotation speed (°/s)					Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode	Capacity	Fire rate	Vertical	Horizontal	Stabilizer	Stock	Upgraded	Full	Expert	Aced	Stock	Full	Expert	Aced
Arcade	100	120	-5°/+35°	±180°	Two-plane						0.50	0.50	0.50	0.50
Realistic

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
BR-281	APCBC	151	147	132	114	100	87
OR-281U	HE*	5	5	5	5	5	5

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile Mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
BR-281	APCBC	1,000	2.8	1.2	9	20	48°	63°	71°
OR-281U	HE*	1,000	2.8	0	0.1	153	79°	80°	81°

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the PT-76-57

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	Visual discrepancy
100	21 (+79)	1 (+99)	No

Notes:

• As they are modeled by sets of 2, shells disappear from the rack only after you've fired both shells in the set.
• Rack 2 is a first stage ammo rack (autoloader magazine). It totals 20 shells.
  • This racks gets filled first when loading up the tank and is also emptied first.
  • As the PT-76-57 is equipped with an autoloader, manual reloading of the gun is not possible.
  • Once the autoloader magazine has been depleted, you can't shoot until the autoloader has been restocked with at least 1 shell. The restocking time is much longer than the normal reload time of the gun. Take this into account when playing.
  • Simply not firing when the gun is loaded will move ammo from rack 1 into rack 2. Firing will interrupt the restocking of the ready racks.
  • The depletion order at full capacity is: 2 - 1.

Machine guns

7.62 mm PKT machine gun (coaxial)

Ammunition2 000 rounds

Belt capacity250 rounds

Reload8.0 s

Fire rate700 shots/min

Thanks to the high elevation angles of the main gun and turret turning speed, this coaxial 7.62 machine gun can actually be used against airplanes, however, the low caliber proves to have difficulty damaging planes at this BR, and would be more effective to use you main cannon instead, this mg can be used against very low armored IFVs and open topped vehicles with their crew exposed.

7.62 mm PKT
Mount	Capacity (Belt)	Fire rate	Vertical	Horizontal
Coaxial	2,000 (250)	700	N/A	N/A

Usage in battles

This tank is a flanker through and through, as most tanks in this BR will have no difficulty pening and destroying this tank, so it's recommended to use your speed and maneuverablility to flank your enemies and show them how efective your gun is at taking them out through their sides.

Downtier

When dealing with tanks from BRs between 6.3-7.3, the user can have a more cheeki atitude when playing this tank, taking full advantage of your fully stablized gun, you can turn a corner at full speed surprising your enemies, and taking one or two of them out with your rapid firing gun, turning this tank into a glorified M18, this strategy proves effective against non stabilized enemies like the american tanks, However, this tactic shouldn't be used against stabilized enemies like the british with their centurions, as they can simply shoot at you with ease on the move.

Another tactic as mentioned above, is to use this tank as a better m18, just be wary that you are significantly bigger, and less armoured, and has a slightly worse mobility, this tactic is especially useful when dealing with big open maps, use the hills, houses, everything that can conceal your tank while you are on the move and ambush your enemies.

Uptier

This is where this tank struggles, the stabilizers start to become common sight around this Br and will prove almost impossible to surprise your enemies using the previous tactic, so this tank should be used mainly as an ambusher when in an uptier, use your speed to get into a position that has good view of a enemie common path early in the round, and wait for them, wait for most of them to pass so you can take as many of them out with your quick firing gun.

if you manage to get on top of hill that can see distant enemies, use your laser rangefinder, this will give full precision when shooting at enemies with a distance of 1km+, proving this tank is quite an effective sniper as long as you can hit their sides.

Pros and cons

Summarise and briefly evaluate the vehicle in terms of its characteristics and combat effectiveness. Mark its pros and cons in a bulleted list. Try not to use more than 6 points for each of the characteristics. Avoid using categorical definitions such as "bad", "good" and the like - use substitutions with softer forms such as "inadequate" and "effective".

Pros:

• Rapid firing 57 mm autocannon can deal huge damage in a short amount of time
• Two-plane stabiliser grants it the ability to fire first, compared to most opponents which lack stabilizers
• 5-14x gunsight zoom is great for both short range and long range engagements
• Fast -17 km/h reverse allows it to pull out dangerous situations in time
• ~150 mm penetration plus 20 g TNT filler is deadly for sideshots
• Has both smoke grenade launchers (2 salvos) and ESS
• Is amphibious

Cons:

• Inherits the PT-76 hull, meaning extremely poor armour
• ~150 mm penetration will struggle against late/cold war heavy tanks like M103, Conqueror, Maus, etc.
• Ammunition carousel layout increases detonation risk in the event of a centre-mass penetration.
• Limited -5° gun depression restricts the tank's capacity in mountainous environment

History

In the early 2000’s, the issue of increasing the combat effectiveness of the numerous, but outdated PT-76’s was proposed to be solved in a very non-trivial way. Engineers of the Nizhny Novgorod design bureau "Burevestnik" combined the 57mm automatic gun developed in the USSR at the end of the 70’s with a mechanized ammunition rack, combining this in a combat module for a specially created turret for light tanks of the PT-76 series. While considering possible ways to re-equip old amphibious tanks with a new weapon, the small-caliber automatic cannon, although it was inferior to other variants of larger calibers in terms of armor penetration, gained a lot in terms of the burst weight to time ratio, as well as in possible applications - from destroying armored vehicles (including a modern MBT when hit to the side) to fighting helicopters.

The AU-220 module itself, built on the basis of the Soviet S-60 anti-aircraft gun, has already been proposed for the fleet in the form of a remotely controlled shipborne mounting. For use on armored vehicles, the module was equipped with a modern fire control system with night vision devices and a laser rangefinder. The prototype PT-76 with a 57mm gun, remained at a stage as a working prototype, however, the AU-220M module continues to exist as a promising solution for the latest vehicles in the Russian army.

- From Devblog

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the PT-76-57 from live.warthunder.com.

Videos

The Shooting Range #280 - Metal Beasts section at 00:27 discusses the PT-76-57.

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the vehicles;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

• [Devblog] Battle Pass vehicles: PT-76-57