Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami announced that the country's newly-manufactured state-of-the-art main battle tank named Karrar has been mass-produced and is ready for delivery to Armed Forces. This tank was unveiled for the first time to the public in August 2016. A video footage from Iranian Television "Telewebion" was published on YouTube showing the Karrar main battle during trials in the desert.

 Iranian made Karrar MBT main battle tank (Picture source IRNA)

"Karrar is ready to be delivered to the Armed Forces units," General Hatami said on Tuesday, November 28, 2017.

Iran in March unveiled the tank and launched its mass-production line in a ceremony attended by former Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan.

"The tank can compete with the most advanced tanks in the world in the three main areas of power, precision and mobility as well as maintenance and durability in the battleground," General Dehqan said, addressing the ceremony at the time.

In March 2017, the Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan has inaugurate the production line of the new home-made Karrar main battle tank at the Bani-Hashem Armor Industrial Complex in Dorud County, Lorestan. According to military experts, the Karrar MBT is based on the chassis of the Soviet-made T-72 but fitted with a new turret.

The Karrar MBT Main Battle Tank is fitted with a new welded turret which is armed with a a 125 mm smoothbore gun fitted with a fume extractor and a thermal sleeve. The cannon can fire all standard ammunition as the armour-piercing fin-stabilised discarding sabot (APFSDS), high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) and high-explosive fragmentation (HEF) and anti-tank guided missiles.

The Karrar is protected with a new armour package with ERA (Explosive Reactive Armour) at the front of the hull and the turret which gives protection against chemical energy and kinetic energy attack.