Originally Posted by
Dragonman
Your information is incorrect, and the tanks are not museum pieces.
What Slovenia is donating to Ukraine are M-55S tanks, a modernized version of the Soviet T-55. The tanks have new guns - 105 mm Royal Ordnance L7 with a thermal insulation jacket, one of the most successful tank guns of all time. The tower and hull have been covered with additional reactive armor, which has changed the silhouette of the tanks to bringing it closer to modern ones. The M-55S have received a digital ballistic computer and gun stabilization, a Fotona SGS-55 sight with a laser rangefinder, as well as a LIRD-1A laser radiation detector linked to the smoke grenade launcher IS-6.
In terms of mobility, the M-55S has been motorized with a new 600 hp Diesel engine, which replaces the V-12 water-cooled diesel developing 580 hp of the original T-55. To improve the cross-country mobility of the tank, the suspension has been replaced and now each side consists of five rubber-tired road wheels, with a drive sprocket at the rear, an idler at the front, and four return rollers. The new 580 mm wide track has been fitted with replaceable rubber pads and to reduce driver fatigue a hydraulic steering system has been installed.
The armament is an 105 mm L7 gun (36 rounds), a 7.62 mm machine gun (2800 rounds), and 12 mm machine gun (250 rounds). The L7 tank gun is compatible with a wide array of ammunition types, including High Explosive Anti-Tank-Tracer and High Explosive Squash Head-Tracer rounds.
This is part of the so-called chain swap, which Germany uses to supply arms to Ukraine. Slovenia will send 28 M55s tanks to Ukraine and receive 40 German military trucks.