Russian BT-5 Case Study

Introduction The Russian BT-5 was the second tank in the BT series and was a substantial improvement from the previous model, the BT-2. It was the main light tank along with the BT-7 of the Red Army, also very useful battle tank for the Red Army and is still considered one of the fastest tank in WW2. It saw dozens of combat missions and was very useful for its ability to have many different variants and modifications. It was manufactured in 1932 to 1941. The plans of the tank were designed J. Walter Christie , an American who tried to sell his design to the U.S. government but it was declined. The Russians decided to import the two prototype tanks to Russian by removing the guns and passing them off as old tractors to get them out of the

The BT-2 was essentially the same as the BT-5 with minor changes to the BT-2 model, it would become the BT-5.They were equipped with a 35mm gun and due to the shortage of 35mm guns, three machine guns would be mounted paving the way for machine guns to be used on future tanks. The gas tank of the BT-2 held more than the BT-5 but that made it slower and less maneuverable.

The feature was designed by J. Walter Christie to reduce the ware of the tracks. The tracks were removed and the crew used chain tracks to travel at high speeds but on a country with few paved roads, it saw limited use. It was later removed seen as obsolete. The tank was equipped with 45mm (1.77in) gun, the same Mikulin M5 engine as the BT-2. Loaded 115 standard Soviet AT rounds, it was also equipped with a radio, a DT-5 coaxial machine gun with a sight, and a fuel tank of 360 liters (95 gallons) instead of the 400 liters (100 gallons) tank. This also gave the engine a 35hp/ton ratio. This was all sacrificed for greatly improved firepower. The tank itself weighs 11.5 tons, carries a crew of 3, has 6-13mm armor,400 hp, and a top speed 0f 72 km/h(45