The T-55A is a Soviet tank that was introduced in 1961 as a modification to the T-54/55 tank. The T-55A had a lengthened hull, removing a machine gun to make the tank weigh 38 tonnes (76,000 lbs). From 1964 to 1983, 8,300 T-55As were built in Czechoslovakia alone, plus 27,500 in the USSR and thousands in other Eastern Bloc nations.