Ukraine could soon start producing a newly designed advanced battle tank – one its designers say is a match for Russia’s new T-14 Armata heavy tank.
The new Ukrainian tank has been dubbed “Tirex” (pronounced “T-Rex,” like the dinosaur.) The Tirex was designed in 2015-2016 by the engineering group of the Ukrainian National Guard’s Azov regiment, and the design patented in early January.
The new war machine is a radical overhaul of the Soviet-era T-64 main battle tank. The designers decided to use the T-64 as the basis for the tank because Ukraine inherited 2,000 T-64s after the fall of the Soviet Union. Most of these tanks were mothballed because Ukraine lacked the funds to keep them operational.
“Our point is that the existing T-64 tank stock enables us to build new combat vehicles, based on those tanks, within a very short time,” the designers of the Tirex told Ukraine’s Defense Express magazine. “They would be of the fourth or fourth-plus generation, so they can be compared with our enemy’s modern armor, including the much-hyped Armata.”
“But our project is not a future tank, it is a mass production tank for today. Soon after these designs are approved by the Defense Ministry, which is a top-priority wartime customer, new technological solutions and (Ukraine’s) industrial base will enable us to modernize up to 10 T-64 tanks to the Tirex level.”
Crew safety
According to the designers, the Tirex will be equipped with a heavy composite armored body, including elements of the modern Nozh and Duplet reactive armor systems: This type of armor neutralizes attacking projectiles with controlled explosions, making tanks less vulnerable to hollow-charge anti-tank shells.
Unlike in old Soviet designs, crew safety is a high priority: The Tirex crew of three operates the vehicle inside an reinforced armored capsule at the front of the tank. For extra crew safety and survival in combat, the tank’s ammunition is stored in the vehicle’s rear – as far from the crew as possible. Loading of the main gun is automated, and the tank’s unmanned turret is controlled remotely from the crew capsule.
Russia’s advanced T-14 Armata main battle tank uses similar principles.
The Tirex’s remote-controlled combat module houses a 152-millimeter smoothbore main gun on its unmanned turret.
“The top priority for the Tirex is the highest possible crew safety, the personnel’s high awareness of what is happening around the tank, combat survivability for sensors, and high ability to operate in a team,” Ukrainian military expert Serhiy Zgurets from the Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies, told the Kyiv Post.
“All these (features) are mostly meant to eliminate all the vulnerabilities seen in the Ukrainian tanks engaged in combat in the east, and also to lay the foundation for building a new generation of armored vehicles in Ukraine,’
Match for rivals
Tanks and other armored vehicles have been widely used in the Donbas war by both sides since the very beginning of the conflict. The overwhelming majority of the armor consists of T-72, T-64, and T-55 Soviet-era tanks produced from the 1960s to the 1980s, which are often in poor condition and demand costly servicing.
Tanks have been used during the war mainly to support infantry during clashes, and were actively engaged in the biggest battles between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian militants, including the battles for Debaltseve in early 2015 and Ilovaisk in mid-2014.
According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Ukrainian armed forces now operate over 700 tanks, having lost over 300 units in the Donbas war over the last two years.
With its advanced combat capabilities and crew protection, the Tirex would outgun the T-64BM Bulat, another Ukrainian main battle tank produced since 2005 as a modernization of the T-64, while costing approximately the same, Zgurets wrote in Defense Express. According to the magazine, the price tag for a Tirex could be over Hr 14 million ($520,000).
The chief designer of Azov’s engineering group, Serhiy Stepanov, that full-scale production of his creation could start soon, and the first of the new Tirex tanks be in use as early as next year.
“It is a vehicle for a transitional period,” Stepanov said. “It allows the potential of Ukraine’s present tank stock to be used, and new level vehicles to be created in a short time and with the minimum expenses.”
“They would match their rivals worldwide, as they have all the features necessary for this kind of machinery today,” the chief designer said.
