T-46 (tank)

T-46
Type Light tank
Place of origin  Soviet Union
Service history
Used by Soviet Union
Production history
Designer OKMO team
Designed 1935
Manufacturer Zavod No.185
Produced 1936
Number built Very few
Variants T-46, T-46S
Specifications
Weight 10.3 tonns
Length 5.5 m (18 ft 1 in)
Width 2.33 m (7 ft 7.7 in)
Height 2.29 m (7 ft 6 in)
Crew 3
Armor 15 mm
Main
armament
 45 mm L/46
Secondary
armament
 7.62 mm MG
Engine GAZ T-26 8 cylinder petrol
Approximately 90 hp
Power/weight 8,74 hp/tonn
Suspension Christie
Operational
range
 500 km
Speed 60 km/h

T-46 is a Soviet fast light-tank developed in the 1935, as an improvement to T-26 tank. The design was later discarded by the government, after the prototypes were made, and tested. The project ended up being too expensive and poor-fitted, for being a light-tank at that time. The thin armor, big and bulky design and small main armament, put the crew in great danger, which made the tank poorly fitted for the use in the battlefield.

History

The Soviet T-46, began as an improvement to the T-26. The T46 served the same purpose as the T26, but it was quite different. It was a fast and lightly armored tank. It could reach speeds of up to 50 km/h with relative ease. The T-26 suspension consisted of eight small road wheels carried in pairs on small bogies. The bogies were supported in pairs by leaf springs. This was a much less effective system than the Christie suspension, which had a more advanced, yet more expensive system to maintain and produce. This is the reason why the OKMO team at Zavod No.185 was ordered by the Government of Soviet Union to produce an improved version of the fast light-tank, T-26. Yet the design of the T-46 has proved being too expensive, compared to the final performance of the vehicle to mass-produce. The thin armor, small main armament and the bulky, big design of tank, made the government of Soviet Union cancel the project, and rather create the T-26S and later T-46S, as the improved, mass-production capable tanks.

Yet some legacy left over by the T-46S, a later improved version of the T-46 lived on to see the battles in Finland, where The Soviet Union had a few humiliating setbacks.

References

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