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The layout of the T-54 is convention al, with themain armament comprising a 100mm rifled gun. The T-54 has been used more than any other tank since the Second World War. It is intended for combat action s involving tanks, combat vehicles, armored person nel carriers and other armored enemy targets. The T-55 combines a high velocity gun with exception al long-range endurance. The T-55 has a fully tracked, five-road-wheeled chassis with a low-silhouetted hull and a dome shaped turret. The T-54 series tanks first appeared in 1949 as replacements for the T-34 tank of World War II. The first T-54 prototype was completed in 1946 with first production beginning in 1947. The T-54 was con tinuously improved and modified, and, when sufficient changes had been made, the tank was redesignated T-55. The T-55 was introduced in 1958 and incorporates all therefinements and improvements of the fully developed T-54 series without being radically different in design or appearance. The T-55A appeared in the early 1960s. Production continued in the Soviet Union through 1981 and was also undertaken in China (as the Type 59), Czechoslovakia and Poland . Large numbers are still in service, although by the 1980s the T-54/55 had been replaced by the T-62, T-64, T-72 as the primary main battle tank in first -line Soviet tank and motorized rifle units. Used in the invasion of Hungary in 1956, Czechoslovakia in 1968, and Syria in 1970, it was themain Arab tank in the 1967 and 1973 wars with Israel. During the 1970s, the T-54 saw combat in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Ugand a.
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