T-62

T-62

T-55AMD-1

T-62M-1

T-62

T-55AMD-1

T-62M-1

USSR

VI Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
8.7	8.7	8.7

Class:

Medium tank

Research:160 000

Purchase:450 000

Show in game

Description

The T-62 is a rank VI Russian medium tank with a battle rating of 8.7 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.61 "Road to Glory". The T-62 is a further development of the T-54 series and was made to fight the newer NATO tanks. It features a 115 mm U-5TS smoothbore gun, which makes the T-62 the first tank in-game and in real life to use a smoothbore gun. The gun also was the first to introduce the Armour-Piercing Discarding-Sabot Fin-Stabilized (APDS-FS) into the game.

In the 1950s, with the introduction of the 105 mm L7 tank gun on many NATO tanks such as the Centurion, Leopard, and M60, the Soviets realised that the 100 mm D-10 on the T-54/T-55 series of medium tanks was becoming obsolete. To maintain parity with the new NATO tanks, a new 115 mm smoothbore gun was developed along with a new medium tank based on the T-55. This tank entered service in 1961 as the T-62 and was the first tank in the world to begin service with a smoothbore gun.

As in real life, the T-62 is the first Soviet tank in the tech tree to be equipped with a smoothbore gun and is also the first Soviet medium tank in the tech tree capable of firing APFSDS rounds. While there is little improvement in terms of mobility or protection over the previous T-54, the T-62 has substantially improved firepower. It is capable of frontally penetrating nearly any tank it is likely to see in-game at most combat ranges. It is also the first Soviet medium tank to have a gun stabiliser, allowing it to fire on the move with reasonable accuracy.

General info

Survivability and armour

The armour protection of the T-62 is very similar to that of the T-54. Unfortunately, the T-62 tends to face more powerful guns at its BR, so its armour is not nearly as effective for its BR as the T-54's is. The well-rounded turret and sloped hull can ricochet poorly aimed rounds when angled, but should not be relied upon to protect the T-62.

Like most Soviet tanks, the T-62 has a very compact layout, meaning that a single penetrating hit is will most likely cripple or outright destroy the tank. Of particular note of concern is the front hull ammunition rack inside the fuel tank situated next to the driver. This rack is the ready rack of the T-62 and cannot be emptied by reducing the number of rounds carried. A penetrating hit there is likely to result in an ammunition cook-off that will instantly destroy the tank.

Mobility

The T-62's mobility is somewhat similar to that of the T-54 medium tank, although the heavier weight makes it a little bit more sluggish. It can reach a respectable 50 km/h forward, and the maximum reverse speed is 8 km/h. Because the T-62 is longer than the T-54 and does not have neutral steering, its turning performance is noticeably worse, especially on rough terrain.

Armaments

Main armament

The 115 mm 2A20 smoothbore gun is a potent gun capable of firing APFSDS, HE-FS, and HEAT-FS ammunition. It is stabilised, allowing for accurate firing on the move. The turret traverse is also significantly improved over that of the T-54, and the turret also provides more gun depression, allowing for some use of hull-down tactics. It should be noted that the gun has limited depression when the gun passes over the hull fuel tanks (at roughly 45 degrees to each side). Due to the large size of the 115 mm ammunition and cramped space of the T-62, the reload is much slower than that of comparable NATO tanks (~10–12 s depending on crew skill level and training).

While the APFSDS ammunition is not as lethal as the APHE ammunition used on previous Soviet medium tanks and requires some degree of careful aim, it is still capable of one-shotting tanks, especially with frontal penetrations. There are two types of APFSDS ammunition: 3BM3 and 3BM4. The stock 3BM4 round has a pure steel rod penetrator while the unlockable 3BM3 penetrator is a steel rod with a tungsten slug inside the penetrator. The latter has substantially more vertical penetration and somewhat better post-penetration lethality, but its performance against highly sloped armour is significantly worse. Both rounds have outstanding muzzle velocities of over 1,600 m/s, allowing long-range shots to be made without much lead.

The 3BK4 fin-stabilised HEAT round has more penetration than either APFSDS round and retains its penetration at long ranges, but has a much slower muzzle velocity that makes aiming at long ranges significantly more difficult. It is more effective than APFSDS against lightly armoured targets since it can reliably hull-break them if it detonates.

The 3UOF11 fin-stabilised HE round is rather unremarkable and is only really useful against soft targets.

Machine guns

The T-62 is armed with a single coaxial 7.62mm SGMT machine gun with a single 2500 ammo belt.

Usage in battles

The T-62 is the first entry in the new stage of Soviet MBTs that most Soviet Tankers will research. As usual with soviet MBTs, only the turret has armor to speak of. Do not let this put you off as the T-62's 115mm U-5TS is able to preform exceptionally even with 10.0 BR tanks. In fact, the U-5TS has more penetration than what comes after the it, the T-55A, making a lot of players fall back to it (not to mention you lose the cool shell dump animation!). This comes at the cost of slightly slower reload time of 12.0s (9.2s if maxed crew), which is a little below average for it's BR. All in all, the T-62 will give Soviet Tankers a general idea of how to play upcoming MBTs, as the play style doesn't change much.

It is best to find visual cover as soon as possible, if an enemy plane was spotted, since the tank does not have a top machine gun to protect itself from aircraft.

General Playstyle

It is recommended to play Arcade through the stock grind of the T-62, because your mobility is automatically improved, and the aiming reticle in Arcade will help you penetrate vehicles with the poorer stock round. However, this tank does excel in Realistic, because it can make use of its lower silhouette and very accurate gun (long range encounters are much easier, because there is very little bullet drop).

Arcade Battles

The T-62 performs rather well in Arcade, due to a very good gun and a mobile platform. Its armour does help you survive from time to time, especially when you are hidden behind bushes or buildings, and the enemies have to go off of your red silhouette to aim (ricochets are plenty in this scenario, because of the circular turret), however you shouldn't rely on the armour. The biggest downside of playing Arcade is the fact that you have to face Soviet vehicles, which have the most armour around Battle Rating 8.3, and can be annoying to fight.

In Arcade, it's advised to go to sniping positions at the beginning of the match, and later move closer to the objectives to aid your team with clean-up or with a counter-push to secure objectives. Now, due to the small sizes of maps in Arcade, it sometimes works to drive straight into the open and try to hit an enemy exiting their spawn (something that is easy to do with the stabilizer, and is a great way to get the "First Blow!" award). If not possible, then it's advised to go to one side of the map and occupy a sniping position (e.g. the hills on Middle East, South spawn; or the rocks overlooking the sands of El Alamein, either spawn; or rocks around Alaska, either spawn; etc.).

Important Note: If more than half of your team is sniping, as often happens on disliked maps such as Middle East, be a better man and go for the objectives. For details on city combat read-on.

The T-62 can fight in close quarters in Arcade very well. However, caution needs to be taken, because the reload is sub-par, and it generally doesn't allow you to push further than the objectives, because you get overrun with enemies just spawning in. So, if you find yourself in close quarters, decide if your team can cover you from the sides: if they look like they can, then focus forwards - take a strategic position where you overlook a passage to the objective and wait for enemies to pass through and shoot them; if your team can't cover you from the sides, then be very careful about your actions - it's best to find some cover in-front of your tank, and look around your sides, because when enemies don't encounter enemies, they will push up and show you their sides.

However, this doesn't mean that you should always rely on your team, or you should always stick to a single location. Arcade allows you to move around and to succeed, you must move around, because it is difficult for opponents to know where exactly you can shoot them from if you constantly change your angles. So you should find a piece of cover, snipe a couple tanks, then move forwards or sideways across the map to another position and surprise other enemies.

Important Note: Try to keep an eye on the minimap and have a general idea where large groups of enemies are - you don't want to run into 3 leopards in a city by accident. Keeping general enemy locations in mind will help you with your advancement plans - you shouldn't rush around the map only hoping that you won't get shot.

Realistic Battles

The T-62 enjoys Realistic Battles, because its low silhouette can surprise enemies. It can hide behind a small bush, and hold an ambush position overlooking an open area around an objective (e.g. around the city in Alaska, or in the forests on European Province). The low silhouette and the amazing gun should be used together to ambush enemies at any range, one-shot them and then change position so that any call-outs on the enemy team are wrong information by the time they are noticed. It can be rather annoying playing Realistic in this tank, however, due to German and Italian tanks being able to get half-way across the map and set-up ambushes before you are able to leave your spawn (this is negated in Arcade, because it's always mixed battles and faster tanks get killed first by faster enemy tanks).

In Realistic, long-range encounters are plenty, and they do favour the T-62, unless in a rather hilly environment, where the gun depression isn't enough. It is recommended to get into some sniping position at the start of the match, but after 3-5 shots to attempt to move forwards, closer to the objectives. At that point, all of the Leopards and Centauros should be moving forwards to your spawn, and while they are doing so, you can usually pick them off one-by-one (the is very effective if you've managed to move close to the objectives, because you will be in the enemy's rear as they move past the objectives).

Side-Note: If you see a teammate pushing in the same direction you are, then follow them, but stay some distance behind. Chances are, if there are enemy ambushes, they are going to fire at your teammate and you will be able to kill the ambushers.

There is less close quarters encounters in Realistic Battles, however many objectives are placed inside towns or cities. In those cases, when playing the T-62 it's important to surprise the enemy, so it's advised to go on a big flank. If you know where the enemies are, approximately, you may get away with simply rushing them, because they won't expect it, however this poses a big risk and should only be done in dire situations. If you do find yourself in a stand-off with another tank, you can try baiting a shot by showing them your front plate while angling it (but not showing the side), by using a corner of a building as cover. You can also abandon the encounter, retreat, find an ambush and wait, although a smart enemy will be cautious, some might fall into your trap.

Important Note: Soviet vehicles such as the Object 906 or the BMP-2 are better equipped for close-quarters, so if you're planning on fighting in cities, they are the better choice.

The Stock Grind

Personally, I advise completing the first part of the stock grind in Arcade Battles, notably researching Parts and FPE and perhaps Adjustment of Fire. Arcade is better in my opinion, because the maps are smaller and you are almost guaranteed to get one kill. Moreover, you can activate 3-5 spare universal back-ups and spawn twice in the T-62 in the next 3-5 battles.

However you decide to complete the stock grind, these are some general tips:

• Stay further back and play passive - your reload will be your death as soon as you find yourself too far infront of your team.
  • As a part of this strategy, you can bait teammates by letting them go first and see where they are shot from, then shooting those enemies.
  • You can also just snipe, because your rounds are insanely fast from the beginning, and it's easy to hit long shots.
• Play the objectives, because it increases the chances of your team winning, and also gives you research points.
  • Moreover, enemies converge on objectives, especially light tanks, which are easy to take out.
• It's always a good idea to stick close to your squadmate, or a light tank, because they are able to repair you even if you can't.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Ability to fire high-velocity APFSDS rounds
• Better gun depression in comparison to most Soviet tanks
• Faster turret traverse than the T-54
• Larger ammunition capacity than the T-54, with a generous hull ready rack

Cons:

• No anti-aircraft heavy machine gun
• Slow reload compared to NATO 105 mm L7-armed main battle tanks
• No APHE ammunition
• Cramped layout prone to vulnerable crippling hits or ammunition detonation when penetrated

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ground vehicle in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/ History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

See also

• T-62M-1: Improved variant with a more powerful engine, added-on composite armour, and missile-launch capability for the gun
• IT-1: Missile-launcher variant of the T-62

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• encyclopedia page on the tank;
• other literature.