TR-580 Romanian tier X (or IX) medium tank

The TR-580 is a second generation MBT. This tank is a variant of the soviet T-55 designed and built entirely in Romania. The romanian army built almost 400 of these tanks, of which 140 were exported.

The project
After the events of Prague Spring (Wikipedia: The Prague Spring (Czech: Prask jaro, Slovak: Prask jar) was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union

after World War II. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubek was elected First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and continued until 21 August when the Soviet Union and all members of the Warsaw Pact, with the notable exception of Romania, invaded the country to halt the reforms), Romania adopted a new defense doctrine, fearing a possible incursion of the Warsaw Pact troops. On May 13, 1974, a program of building their own tank begins in Romania. The vehicle specifications were demanded to be: Aproximative 40 tons, 100 mm gun and 800 hp engine. The easiest way to produce it was by modifying the existing T-55 design. The license to build T-55 was not obtained from the Soviet Union, so the engineers had to figure out how to build it from scratch. The 800 hp engine, similar to the Leopard 1 engine was not obtained either, so the romanians used a "homemade" version of the old T-55 V2 engine of 580 hp that was well known at that time. The first prototype is ready in 1974, and in october, same year, it undergoes trials. The trials last for 6 months and after several modifications, a second prototype goes to trials. Overall, there were no less than 11 prototypes! Because of this, the serial production started in 1977.

Description
The TR-580 used a modified T-55 chassis with six roadwheels (unlike the original T-55 that had only five). Between the first and the second roadwheels there was an empty space that was similar to the T-54/55 soviet vehicles. These modifications were made to allow a bigger engine (the 800 hp one) that never came. The gun of this tank was the 100 mm A308. This gun was a variant of the A407 100mm anti-tank gun M1977. The A407 100mm anti-tank gun was the first artillery piece designed in Romania after World War II. The first variant of the gun, the M1975 (M stands for Model) had a semi-automatic horizontal sliding wedge type breech lock. The second variant, M1977, had a more practical vertical sliding wedge breech block. This gun used more types of projectiles, of which, I will only remind three (because that's the max we can have in game): OF 412 - explosive / incendiary (HE) (similar to the UOF-412 round which carried the 15.6 kg F-412 high-explosive fragmentation shell) PBR 412B - armor-piercing with tracer (AP) BM 412Sg - subcaliber armor piercing (premium)

Some interesting facts from the production process: When Romania decided to build its own tank, the relations with the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact "allies" were cold so no help from them on "How to build a tank". So, we sent our engineers to another ally, on a different continent: Popular Republic of China. Those guys were already building their WZs and 111s and they were happy to teach us how to be a pain in the butt for the soviets. Hihihi. The biggest problems during the building process were the cast turrets. Their quality was low and the first pieces were cracking. The technology of casting the turrets had to be changed and the metalic composition as well. In the end it resulted a 320 mm of armor + 20 mm additional plates. Hell yeah! The gun had no bore evacuator... No termal protection for the gun... No laser telemetry...

Production period, export and other interesting stuff: The TR-580 was produced from 1974 till 1985 when the 800 hp engine was finally available and the new tank was called TR-800... go figure. Then, after several substantial modifications, the tank used a powerup and was called TR-85M1 and that's a monster that has no place in this game. TR-77 was the export variant which had small modifications. The main country where the vehicle was exported was Egypt (They may still have some of those killing

rebels or something). Some sources claim that Egipt bought 200 units, other sources say there were only 100. I'll go with 140 because that's the most known source.

IN WORLD OF TANKS Main Characteristics

Tier Hit Points Weight/Load Limit Price Crew 1. 2. 3. 4. X 2,000 HP 46.0 / 50.0 t 6,100,000 Commander (radio operator) Gunner Driver Loader

Mobility Engine Power Speed Limit Traverse Speed Turret Traverse Speed Armor Hull Armor (mm) 580 h.p. 50 km/h (it would never be able to reach that speed except downhill) 52 deg/sec 40 deg/sec

front 200 sides 90 rear 60 front 320 sides 160 rear 70

Turret Armor (mm)

Armament Gun Ammunition Damage Armor Penetration Rate of Fire 100 mm A308 50 pcs 300-410 HP 50-332 mm 6 rounds/min

View Range Signal Range

390 m 850 m

Configuration

Turrets
Tier Turret Armor (mm) Traverse Speed (deg/sec) View Range (m) Price (credits)

T-62A

front 320 sides 160 rear 70

40

390

68,000

uns
Tier Gun Damage () Penetration (mm) Rate of Fire (rounds/min) Price (credits)

100 mm A308

320/320/420

268/330/50

240,500

s
Tier Engine Power (h.p.) Chance of Fire (%) Price (credits)

V2 55 diesel

580

12

130,000

Suspensions
Tier Suspension Load Limit (t) Traverse Speed (deg/sec) Price (credits)

TR-580

50 t

52

80,000

Radios
Tier Radio Signal Range (m) Price (credits)

UTR-1

850

52,000

How will this tank act in game? A big and relatively slow medium tank with awesome armor (turret armor especially) and one of the best penetrations in game, average damage and slow reload time could be played as a sniper. This tank could also be a monster in city maps. That armor would ensure it a "Medium Maus" title. E-50M would be pissed :)

You noticed in the title that a possible position for this tank would be tier IX. I did that having the TR-800 in mind. The TR-800 has the exact specifications but it finally received its 800 hp engine. This one could be tier X but I fear it would become overpowered when having all: armor, high penetration, speed and the only downsides would be the long reload and the big profile.