Israeli “Achzarit” Armored Carrier Born from Soviet-Made T-55 Medium Tanks

(DEFENCE SECURITY ASIA) —  The Israeli military and industrial complex once undertook a remarkable endeavor, resulting in the substantial retrofitting of heavily armored personnel carriers, which were originally derived from the Soviet-made T-55 medium tanks captured by the Israel Defense Forces from Arab adversaries.

This extensive transformation has yielded combat vehicles that continue to serve a vital role within the arsenal of the Israel Defense Forces to the present day.

It is indeed remarkable that despite the Soviet and Russian armies having amassed nine years of experience from their combat operations in Afghanistan, followed by urban warfare engagements in Grozny, they did not conceive the notion of developing a substantial, heavy, tracked armored personnel carrier.

The circumstances were certainly propitious, with ample combat knowledge, industrial capabilities, and extensive stockpiles of T-54/55 and T-62 tanks in storage facilities.

This oversight can be attributed to a twofold rationale: Firstly, the judicious approach taken by Israel in deploying all available weaponry, and secondly, the unwavering commitment to safeguarding infantry from contemporary armaments. In Israel, the sanctity of the soldier’s life takes precedence over the preservation of military hardware.

Israel’s experience, including the 1982 Israel-Lebanon conflict, showed that the tanks that the Israeli army tried to use as armored personnel carriers proved very resistant to anti-tank cluster munitions.

Based on this, as early as the 1980s, Israel began to implement the concept of creating heavily armored personnel carriers based on various tanks. Thus, stocks of captured T-54/55 medium tanks appeared on the agenda.

From 1988 to 2011, about 500 tanks went through the conversion process into armored personnel carriers in Israel.

More than 100 of these armored personnel carriers, created based on the T-55, continue to remain in service, despite the appearance of specialized heavy armored personnel carriers, created based on the main battle tank Merkava.

Achzarit armored personnel carriers remain in service and are actively used in urban settings. They are most effective where M113 APCs are vulnerable due to the enemy’s heavy use of anti-tank grenade launchers.

Externally, all Achzarit APCs are T-54/55 tanks from which the turret has been removed. The engine and transmission have also been changed. The Mk.1 variants were fitted with a new, more compact General Motors diesel engine rated at 650 HP, and the Mk.2 engine was increased to 850 HP.

The installation of a new, more compact engine made it possible to free up space between the starboard side of the combat vehicle and the power plant. Behind, on the starboard side, a stern armored ramp appeared.

This door has a unique design that allows you to increase the opening [due to the mechanism for lifting part of the roof when the door is opened]. This allows the paratrooper to exit faster and back to get inside the combat vehicle without twisting into three deaths.

The hull of the tank itself was significantly re-equipped, placing a full-fledged military compartment for 7 people in it. Three more people make up the crew of the combat vehicle: a driver, a weapons operator, and a commander.

After removing the tower, the weight of the tanks reached 27 tons, but the weight of the Achzarit armored personnel carrier was 44 tons. Almost all of the weight increase was spent on additional armor for the armored personnel carrier, including the installation of combined armor and dynamic protection.

As Akhzarit weapons, turrets or remote-controlled turrets with machine guns were installed. It had both 7.62mm machine guns and a large caliber of 12.7mm. — DSA

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