War and Military Atlas

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PT-76

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The PT-76 is a Soviet amphibious light tank introduced in the early 1950s and produced by the Volgograd Tractor Factory and the Kirov Factory, with around 12,000 built between 1951 and 1969 and the type remaining in service with numerous countries into the present day. Weighing 14.6 tonnes and armed with a 76.2mm D-56T rifled gun and a coaxial machine gun, it is powered by a 240 horsepower diesel engine that also drives waterjets, giving a road speed of 44 kilometers per hour and a swimming speed of just over 10 kilometers per hour. Designed as the standard reconnaissance tank of the Soviet Army and the wider Warsaw Pact, the PT-76 was exported widely to India, Indonesia, Iraq, Syria, North Korea and North Vietnam among others, and its chassis formed the basis for other Soviet armored vehicles including the BTR-50 armored personnel carrier and the ZSU-23-4 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun.

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