T-59 design has limitations for modern combat now. There are three major points regrading this:
1. Ammunition storage capacity. Modern tanks have bigger hulls and bigger turrets.
2. Speed, related to engine up gradation. 50-55km/hr on road speed is less, offroad would be lesser.
3. Armor, related to engine up gradation. More armor will improve protection but further reduce speed.
If its used as a reserve or reinforcement tank, it will only fill in numbers to bring a battered armour regiment to its full strength during war but imagine using T-59 alongside AZ, AK and T-80. Dont you think it will be more of a burden on the regiment's role and capability?
AK and T-80 are used in the desert. They have the best available engines in the MBT inventory of PA. Speed is necessary in desert not for competitive racing with enemy tanks, but constant flanking on enemy sides, rear and weak points. Desert terrain gives flexibility of movement just like ships in the sea. Flanking requires covering extra distance and this distance sometimes needs to be covered in shortest duration possible to get all units aligned for an attack. If the commander waits and postpones the attack for the flank manoeuvring regiment to get into position, he may lose excellent opportunities.
Suppose, an AK regiment loses 22 AK's in 4 days of combat. Reinforcements are 12 T-59 II's from the reserves and 10 AK's either from Division reserve or acquired from reserves of any other formation. First, the CO will have a headache of asking QM and ordnance units for 105mm ammo.Then his Ops planning will suffer as how to deploy a slow and a fast tank. Getting a trained crew wont be a problem as almost every armour soldier is trained on T-59 and sometimes crew comes with the tank from other regiments. In defensive position, it will be fine. Let the enemy come close and flank the enemy from side or take enemy head on. The problem comes in offensive posture for which his regiment has been training with AK's. His offensive punch will still be the remaining AK's. The T-59 II's will not be able to keep up.
Oplot, Type-99 .....any modern MBT that can compliment AK and T-80 in desert is welcome.
There is another problem that IA regiments most probably are larger in quantity of tanks. Pakistan has 44 tanks, India has 59 tanks in a regiment. Maybe an indian member can confirm this. IA Armoured divisions have more regiments probably 7 whereas Pakistan has 5. Quality of PA tanks maybe better but quantity is a big issue. Hoping on tactics and operational command to make up for such short comings.
With AZ regiments, the T-59 II may fare better as a reinforcement for Armour Division to continue its operations. Terrain in upper punjab, lower Kashmir regions has limitations in manoeuvring, road networks are in place, lots of fields, population and houses, bridges etc. Ammunition type maybe a problem but operational capability of the regiment will remain.
There are minimum 16-17 Infantry divisions in PA that have one armour regiment atleast. That Minimum 750 tanks, probably around 900 if mechanised divisions are taken into account. That is where the T-59 and T-69 reside. They can keep pace with the slowly moving infantry advance and give awesome firepower with HE ammo. Enemy T-72 will be countered by PA infantry ATGM teams.
Using T-59 as a reserve tank, new formations can be raised e.g. in war time, raise a new Armoured brigade.
90 x T-59 MBT (2 Regiments)
Motorised infantry (Infantry in vehicles if M-113 and Talha are not in sufficient numbers)
Artillery (reserve 105mm guns)
AD Regiment.
FC is deployed on the eastern border. I am not sure how many T-59 are given to them but im hoping atleast one regiment worth of tanks to FC KPK and Baluchistan each.
Its upto PA to decide where to use T-59 II in combat in case of war:
1. A newly formed armoured brigade
2. Bring FC in combat with heavy weapons
3. Send it as reinforcements to depleted units.
@Ulla
