In the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the T-62 proved no match for the Israeli Merkava in firepower or armored protection. Its main gun could not be aimed low enough to deal with attacking infantry, and its rate of fire was slowed by the complicated fire control system. The T-62 was not as successful as Soviet designers had hoped. T-62 production began in 1962, and an estimated 20,000 were built during the next eight years. The T-62 had a more powerful main gun, heavier armor protection, and a smaller, more powerful, and more dependable engine, but it weighed only about one ton more than the T-55. The T-62 was an up-rating of the T-55 MBT that appeared in the late 1950s. The last American heavy tank was the M-103, which was built only in small numbers and used primarily by the Marine Corps. The United States had been heading in this direction since the end of World War II, but a diehard faction still insisted on the heavy tank.
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