Vietnam can upgrade T-62 to be stronger than T-72

Vietnam's main battle tank T-62, if upgraded in defense and firepower, will become a powerful assistant to the T-90.

Recently, Russia has been actively "cleaning out its warehouse" to hand over to the Syrian Government Army its last T-62s, which are the T-62M variant with an upgraded fire control system with a laser rangefinder mounted right at the base of the main gun and additional armor around the turret.

The T-62M still performs very well on the modern battlefield. There have even been comments that this is the best T-62 variant in the world, not much inferior to the T-72 and is a model for Vietnam to learn from if it intends to modernize its T-62s.

T-62M tanks are aided by Russia to the Syrian Army

The above suggestion is worth considering, but it must be recognized that if Vietnam wants to upgrade, it is fully capable of creating a unique T-62 variant with technical and tactical features superior to the T-72, which means it will far surpass the Russian T-62M.

Based on the experience gained from the T-54/55 modernization process, the achievements can of course be applied to another tank line, specifically the T-62.

If Vietnam's T-62 is equipped with explosive reactive armor plates and box armor around the turret, along with a T-55M3-style track guard, it will certainly be much better at resisting bullet penetration than the T-62M and even surpass the first generation T-72.

Besides, other equipment on the T-55M3 such as the MAWS6056B meteorological sensor, the gun barrel insulation cover, the state-of-the-art Israeli fire control computer... can all be brought to the T-62, at this time the T-62 is not even inferior to the slightly upgraded T-72.

Vietnam's upgraded T-55M3 tank

The final factor that makes the upgraded T-62 stronger than the T-72 is the power of the main gun. Replacing the 125mm gun is very expensive, so it is best to equip this tank with high-tech ammunition.

French corporation Nexter recently introduced the 115mm M1150 kinetic energy penetrator round compatible with the main gun of the T-62 tank.

This bullet is 1,110 mm long; weighs 25 kg; in which the Tungsten alloy core weighs 6.5 kg with Titanium Dioxide anti-wear additive, propelled by 8.5 kg of gunpowder, giving a muzzle velocity of up to 1,635 m/s, penetrating 500 mm of homogeneous armor (RHA) from a distance of 2,000 m at a 60 degree angle.

M1150 115mm kinetic energy piercing bullet made in France.

Compared to the kinetic energy penetrator round on the T-72's first generation 125mm 2A46 gun which could only penetrate 400mm of RHA when fired at 2,000m, or the Israeli penetrator round fired from the 105mm L7 gun which penetrated 490mm of RHA at 1,000m, the new penetrator round of the 100mm D-10T2S gun made in the Czech Republic penetrated 400mm of rolled steel at 1,000m, it is clear that the M1150 round is far superior.

If upgraded to the configuration applied on the T-55M3, along with being equipped with high-tech armor-piercing ammunition like the French M1150, the power of the T-62 version modernized by Vietnam will far surpass both the T-62M and the first generation T-72.

At that time, the upgraded T-62 will go better together with the upcoming T-90S/SK to create a strong combat squad.

According to Baodatviet