T57 Heavy Tank

T57_58 (Stock)

Totals

6100000 Price

2250 Hit Points

54.27 / 58 kgWeight

Crew

1. Commander

Armor

203/50.8/38.1Hull Armor(front/sides/rear, mm)

127/137/50.8Turret Armor(front/sides/rear, mm)

Maneuver

810 h.p.Engine Power

35.4 km/hSpeed Limit

30 deg/secTraverse Speed

Firepower

400 Standard Shell Damage

258 mmStandard Shell Penetration

25 Time for Complete Loading

36 deg/secTurret Traverse Speed

Communication

400 mView Range

745 mSignal Range

T54E1

T57 Heavy Tank

X

6100000

A project of a heavy tank with an oscillating turret and automatic loading. Developed from 1951. Experimental turrets for 120 mm and 155 mm guns were manufactured by 1957. However, the project was deemed unsuccessful and the development was discontinued.

The T57 Heavy Tank is a tier X heavy tank in the American tech tree. Unlike the T110E5, the T57 is armed with a 4 round auto loader. Apart from that and the slow aim time, the T57's gun is nearly the same as the T110E5's one. Its armor isn't as good as that of the T110E5, but it can bounce shots if angled correctly. The reload on this tank is really outstanding, only needing about 22 seconds to load the magazine and about a 2 second delay between shots, giving the gun amazing burst and DPM potential. Use the quick clip reload to your advantage and help your team deal massive damage to the enemy and this tank will be a force to be reckoned with.

T57 Heavy

Stock

	Level	Turret	Weight (t)	Turret Armor (front/sides/rear, mm)	Gun Traverse Speed (deg/s)	View Range (m)
	X	T169	14500	127/137/50.8	36	400

	Level	Gun	Weight (t)	Average Penetration (mm)		Rate of Fire	Dispersion at 100 m	Aiming Time
	X	120 mm Gun T179	2849	258/340/60	400/400/515	7.74	0.35	2.9

	Level	Engine	Weight (t)	Engine Power (h.p.)	Chance of Fire on Impact
	X	Continental AV-1790-5C	1159	810	20

	Level	Suspension	Weight (t)	Load Limit	Traverse Speed (deg/s)
	X	T97	11000	58	30

	Level	Radio	Weight (t)	Signal Range (m)
	X	AN/VRC-3	0	745

Compatible Equipment

Compatible Consumables

Player Opinion

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• High burst damage that is quickly output.
• Surprisingly quick magazine reload.
• Highest DPM of all tier 10 heavy tanks.

Cons:

• Protection is generally poor outside of the highly angled pseudo-mantlet and upper glacis.
• Module damage: ammo rack can be damaged through lower glacis; turret ring is very exposed and frequently gets jammed/damaged.
• Draws more attention than anything other than WTE-100; you WILL be the focus of enemy fire if you give them the chance.

Performance

With all the right crew skills, modules and consumables, your T57 will reload the clip in about 22 seconds, which is quite impressive. The time to load between the 4 rounds held in the clip is a mere 2 seconds. The armor, while it is not stellar, is still capable and will bounce if you angle well - something that this tank seems to do a good job of. This tank has somewhat acceptable gun depression, being better than most autoloaders.

This tank is an offensive powerhouse, if somewhat fragile. When supporting a tougher tank in close-quarters combat, the opportunity to unload 1600 burst damage for free into distracted tanks can be devastating. The T57 is less effective on its own, because it can be rushed while on reload. However, if you can dictate range or corner fighting, you can trade 3- or 4-for-1. While it's not quite as good as unreturned damage, it's still quite good. If you can preserve your HP into the lategame, the T57 is one of the best finishers in the game - clipping down half-health or multiple one-shot tanks in return for only a fraction of your health can swing a tight match in your favor.

All told, the T57 is one of the best and most flexible damage-dealers in the game. If you manage to get yourself into the right positions in the battle, react appropriately and most importantly survive and don't attract too much attention, it is not unusual to dish out 5000, 6000 or more damage in a game.

Early Research

• None required

Historical Info

The T57 was a heavy tank developed in the U.S. in the mid-50's, It was a slightly modified version of the US T43E1 prototype that further evolved into the M103 heavy tank.

Development history

T58 prototype version fitted with a 155 mm gun in oscillating turret

In October 12, 1951, a decision was made to develop a prototype of a heavy tank with an oscillating turret, a new idea at the time invented by the French AMX company, and adopted on a highly successful AMX 13 light tank, and not so successful AMX 50 series of heavy tanks. The new American tank, designated T57 (according to the American post-war terminology - "120-mm gun tank T57“), was based on the chassis of the T43 tank (a prototype that further evolved into the M103) with a brand new oscillating turret that hosted a powerful 120 mm T123E1 gun.

Oscillating turret

The oscillating turret design, lacking a conventional gun-mantlet, is in two separate parts, with an upper and lower part connected by two hinge bolts or pivots, the gun being fixed within the upper section. The horizontal movement of the gun, traversing, is conventional, but the vertical movement, elevation, is achieved through the pivoting of the entire upper section with respect to the lower section. This method of elevation has two main advantages. Firstly it allows for a smaller turret volume, as no internal space is needed for the vertical movement of the gun breech. Secondly, it allows the use of a relatively simple auto-loader fed by multiround magazines, achieving a very high rate of fire for as long as the magazines were loaded. The Automatic loader was located in the back of a massive tower, and consisted of the feeder drum with 8 rounds. The drum was loaded by a hydraulic actuator, and the commander or gunner could pick three different types of ammunition. Spent cartridges were ejected through a special hatch on the roof of the turret.

Design flaws

Main armament of the tank was 120 mm T123E1 gun with the rifled barrel, and placing such a big, powerful and heavy weapon into the oscillating turret was plagued by various problems. Handling the immense recoil of the gun, and stabilizing the heavy turrets were among the issues that were never completely resolved. The tank had the crew of 4, where the loaders' job was to reload the drum after all rounds had been fired. The tank carried a total of 10 additional rounds in the ammo rack, making a total ammo load to 18 rounds. Other issues were limited gun elevation (due to the back of the turret movement being limited by the hull), problems with ammo protection at certain angles (oscillating turret doesn't have mantlet that solves this problems on classic turrets) and the lack of protection against radiation, chemical or biological weapons, which was considered very important back in the fifties and sixties.

Fate

The development was very slow and interest in the tank started to fade. Changing priorities in favor of the development of small, aero transportable tanks led to the cancellation of the project in January 1957, before the prototype reached operational status and could be tested. No photos of the assembled prototype T57 with 1200 gun have survived.

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Historical Gallery

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  Model of the T57 tank

• image:T57_3.jpg

  Model of the T57 tank

• image:T57_2.jpg

  Model of the T57 tank

• image:T57_4.jpg

  Diagram of the automatic loader in the T57 tank

• image:T57d.jpg

  T58 prototype fitted with a 155 mm gun

Sources and External Links

Sources

R.P. Hunnicutt - A History of the American Heavy Tank: Firepower, 1988 Presidio Press, ISBN 0891413049

USA

Heavy Tanks

ja:XBOX:T57 58