[Typhoon]

...well a little but more is revealed but the tank is still largely under wraps.

Its a monster though as can be seen from the latest images at the fantastic armour oriented site below!

http://andrei-bt.livejournal.com/75960.html

[MB.]

Are there any specs whatsoever?

[Typhoon]

It is believed to field a 152 mm smoothbore cannon and an autoloader in a crewless turret. All crew seated up front in specially armoured cabin to seperate them from the ammunition. Active protection system is a possibility as is a new guided munition, beyond that little is known....

Techincally the project has been declared shelved , but this is probably why we now know so much

[El Gilroy]

That turret looks a little high profile. Granted, it won't be much of a target, but still easier to spot, no?

[Typhoon]

Granted, it won't be much of a target, but still easier to spot, no?

With the rise of computerised fire control, thermal imaging and radar then there is no real disadvantage to making your tank slightly bigger as it will be just as easy to hit. What matters is getting a good armour to volume ratio and getting rid of the crew from most of the tank will allow all that extra space to be used for additional armour and a bigger gun.

[eon]

How would this compare to the M1 abrams?

[grassroots1]

The real question is, why don't American tanks have cool names like "Object 195?"

[Igor Antunov]

The company designing it is continuing work without government funding assistance. It is probably too expensive to be viable for the market at this time.

[Typhoon]

How would this compare to the M1 abrams?

No ones knows as we have not got the finished project, the larger calibre gun would give a possible advantage however.

why don't American tanks have cool names like "Object 195?"

Careful you could end up with your artillery named after flowers and ships after communist party congressess if you go down the Soviet route...

[Zerogouki]

It looks like any other tank to me.

[MB.]

Based on this old site: http://fofanov.armor.kiev.ua/Tanks/MBT/n_tagil.html

In March 2000 the Defense Minister Igor Sergeev, while visiting Nizhny Tagil, said that Russia now "has a new T-95 tank" referring to the MBT being discussed here. It is unclear if this means that the vehicle is finally fielded (as only a fielded vehicle may get T-95 designation), or he just used the term that is sufficiently known in the West to avoid getting into details.

I could find very little about this vehicle, because it is all classified data. Here is the precious little I could gather, thanks mostly to Col. Viktor Mourakhovsky.

* Crew protection on the tank will be emphasized to a far greater degree than ever before in Russian tank designs. The level of crew protection should ensure its survival when the tank is hit by any anti-tank munitions from any aspect or angle, thanks to the crew placement in a unitary armored pod inside the hull.
* A unique drivetrain suspension system is being tested on this tank that to a certain extent extinguishes the hull vibrations and stabilizes its position.
* The tank still remains in Class 50 (i.e. it weighs 50 tons) and it shall have an even smaller silhouette than the modern Russian MBTs.
* The gun will be a 152mm smoothbore tank gun/ATGM launcher. The development of this system started as far back as end of the fifties for the heavy tanks (originally a rifled gun, probably M-69). The project was revived in the eighties and the gun was significantly redesigned. Even with ordinary powders a very high initial velocity of an APFSDS projectile is achieved. I could not, unfortunately, learn how the caliber increase is going to influence ammunition allowance and rate of fire.
* This gun shall be located in an unmanned gun pod on top of the hull with no crew access to it. This is likely to increase survivability and lower the silhouette even further.
* The fire control system will be multi-channel (optical + thermal + IR + laser + radar).
* The carousel autoloader goes away.
* According to plans the crew will consist of a 3 man combat structure and one mechanic (not unlike the air force crew structure), who will be responsible for vehicle maintenance and will reside in a battalion service and repair company.

I hope that the veil of secrecy will lift a bit and I will learn more details about this MBT.

http://www.palba.cz/forumfoto/albums/us ... iagram.jpg

[Zerogouki]

They're clearly preparing to challenge us in Afghanistan again