Breaking news
Iran defense industry has technology to produce main battle tanks similar to Russian T-90 MBT 10402163.
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Defence & Security News - Iran
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| Iran defense industry has technology to produce main battle tanks similar to Russian T-90 MBT. | |||
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Iranian Ground Force Commander Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan said Iran is no longer interested in buying T-90 main battle tanks from Russia. According to him, Iran has enough capacity and techological know-how to produce new generation battle tanks similar of Russian T-90 and advanced military hardware, so it makes no sense to purchase them from elsewhere.
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 Russian-made T-90 MBT at defense exhibition RAE 2015 in Nizhny Tagil, Russia. |
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"We were once interested in buying the Russian tanks. But since we can manufacture similar models within the country and we plan to do so in the near future, the deal is now off," Pourdastan said on Tuesday.
Pourdastan had said back in December the country was planning to purchase advanced T-90 tanks from Russia. "We have presented the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces with a proposal to buy T-90 tanks from Russia," Pourdastan told reporters in the Northeastern city of Mashhad at the time.
"We are trying to develop the needed defensive capacities and capabilities in ourselves proper to the atmosphere of threats (posed to Iran)," he stressed.
The T-90 MBT is one of the standard main battle tank uses by the Russian armed forces. The production of T-90 MBT has started in 1994. The hull and turret of the T-90 over the forward arc is fitted with the latest generation Kontakt-5 ERA which provides protection against APFSDS and HEAT-type projectiles. The main armament of the T-90 consists of one 125 mm 2A46M1 (or D-81TM) smoothbore gun fitted with a fume extractor and a thermal sleeve. This gun can also fire the 9M119 Refleks laser-guided projectile out to a range of 5,000 m. Second armament includes one 7.62 mm PKTM machine gun is mounted coaxially to the right of the main armament and one 12.7 mm NVST machine gun is mounted on the commander's cupola. |
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 The Iranian-made Zulfiqar 3 MBT at military parade in Tehran, Iran. |
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Since 1994, Iran produces local-made main battle tank under the name of Zulfiqar. According military experts, the Zulfiqar is based on Russian-made T-72 MBT including the 125 mm smoothbore gun and automatic loader.
Zulfiqar 3 is the latest and most advanced version in the Zulfiqar family. The development of this tank has been completed late in 1999. The Zulfiqar 3 was showed for the first time to the public in 2011 during a military parade in Tehran. This new generation of Iranian-made main battle tank is a new concept compared to the previous series of the Zulfiqar family. New features include new suspension, powerpack, armament and armour. The Zulfiqar 3 is armed with a fully-stabilized 2A46M 125 mm smooth-bore cannon with autoloader, manufactured locally under the name HM-50. The cannon can fire a wide range of ammunition including HE-FRAG (High Explosive - Fragmentation), APFSDS (Armor Piercing, Fin Stabilized, Discarding Sabot-Tracer) and HEAT (High Explosive Anti-Tank). The cannon is also able to fire AT-11 ATGM (Anti-Tank Guided Missile) named in Russia 9K119 Svir. |
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