| D-56T tank gun | |
| Origin: | Soviet Union |
| Type: | rifled antitank gun |
| Is Artillery: | yes |
| Is Uk: | yes |
| Service: | 1952–present |
| Wars: | see PT-76#Combat service |
| Designer: | N. Shashmurin and Zh.Y. Kotin |
| Length: | 42 calibers (3.2 metres) |
| Caliber: | 76.2 mm (3 in) |
| Rate: | 6-8 rounds per minute |
| Max Range: | 1,500 metres (1,640 yards) |
| Carriage: | vehicle mount |
The 76.2 mm D-56T series rifled tank gun is the tank gun used on the PT-76, which is the only known armoured vehicle to carry it.
The D-56T is an anti-tank gun of 76.2mm calibre. It can fire five types of rounds, using a manual loader system, it has an effective fire rate of six to eight rounds per minute. It has a max effective range of approximately 1500 meters. This gun is 42 calibers long.
A typical combat ammunition load consists of 24 x OF-350 Frag-HE, 4 x sub-caliber AP-T, 4 x AP-T and 8 x BK-350M HEAT rounds.
The gun is usually mounted in an oval dish-type circular truncated cone turret with flat sloping sides which is mounted over the second, third, and fourth pair of road wheels. All PT-76s have a fume extractor for the main gun at the rear of the turret. Some were fitted with a multi-slotted muzzle brake. Most PT-76s typically feature this gun with a double-baffle muzzle brake, except for the PT-76B, which is typically fitted with the D-56T gun with a two-plane gun stabiliser, a double-baffle muzzle brake and a bore evacuator towards the muzzle.
The D-56T usually saw itself firing five types of anti-tank rounds. Most rounds that were used on the D-56T were HE rounds, with usually a ready combat load having 24 pieces of OF-350 High Explosive Fragmentation ammunition, and 16 other pieces, with three other types of rounds. Common ammunition types were the OF-350 Frag-HE, BM-354P HVAP-T and the BK-354M HEAT-FS.