OVERVIEW: The T-64 was a Soviet medium tank/main battle tank.

DETAILS: The T-64 MBT was introduced in the late 1960's. It has a three-man crew, a diesel engine, and mounts a 125mm smoothbore cannon along with a 7.62mm coaxially mounted machine gun and a 12.7mm machine gun on a flex mount on the commander's cupola. The original T-64 mounted the same 115mm gun as the T-62, but with the T-64A the 125mm smoothbore gun was introduced. The T-64 features several design changes from the T-62 such as an automatic loader which reduced crew size from four to three. The T-64 has better mobility with a more powerful engine and it also has better armor, using layers of steel and fiberglass and other non-metallic materials. With the T-64B, bolt-on reactive armor was introduced as was the ability to fire the AT-8 Songster ATGM through the main gun. The T-64 received other upgrades over the years such as passive IR sights and laser rangefinders. Unlike the T-55 and T-62, the T-64 was not exported abroad and was used almost exclusively by the tank regiments of tank divisions, with the T-55 and T-62 being used by the tank regiments and battalions in the motorized rifle divisions.

NOTES: The Soviet tank company consists of 10 tanks with three platoons of three tanks each and one tank for the company commander. The Soviet tank battalion consists of 31 tanks in three 10-tank companies and one tank for the battalion commander. Soviet tank battalions can be independent or are part of the tank regiment (three tank battalions). Each motorized rifle regiment also has an organic tank battalion and each motorized rifle division has an organic tank regiment. Until the mid to late 1980's when Soviet tank battalions were standardized across the board to 31 tanks each, the tank battalions in the motorized rifle division had four tanks in each platoon which gave the battalion a total of 40 tanks (13 x 3)+ 1.

SOURCES: FM 100-2-3. Washington D.C.: Headquarters, Department of the Army, 1991