Iran To Unveil New Home-Made Tank By Early 2014

IRAN TO UNVEIL NEW HOME-MADE TANK BY EARLY 2014

15:35 | 2013-02-04

TEHRAN (FNA)- The Iranian Army plans to unveil another home-made main
battle tank, dubbed as Sabalan, by March 2014, a senior Iranian
commander announced on Monday.

Today, the army unveiled an optimized version of Zolfaqar and Samsam
tanks on the occasion of the Ten-Day Dawn ceremonies, celebrating the
victory of the Islamic Revolution back in 1979.

Also in the ceremony, Commander of the Iranian Army Ground Force
Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan unveiled a home-made turret
for M-47 tanks.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the ceremony, Pourdastan
said the new turret has been manufactured by the Self-Sufficiency
Jihad Organization of the Army Ground Force.

“The (M-47) tank with its new turret will be unveiled under the new
name of Sabalan in the near future by Farvardin 1993 (March – April
2014).”

The Army’s newly unveiled Samsam tank is said to be an upgrade of the
M-60A1 battle tank.

Zolfaqar is a second generation of Iran’s main battle tank (MBT). The
test prototypes of the tank were evaluated in 1993. Six
semi-industrial prototypes of the tank were produced and tested in
1997. The tank has a distinctive box-shaped, steel-welded turret of
local design. Zolfaqar combat weight is reported to be 36 tons and has
a 780 hp diesel engine; the tank has a 21.7 hp per ton ratio.

Zolfaqar is operated by a crew of three personnel. The automatic
loader is believed to be the same one from the T-72 tank.

The Zolfaqar-1 uses a fire control system which enjoys a
‘fire-on-the-move’ technology. The Zolfaqar mounts a laser-warning pod
on the turret. Its design enables the tank to use an Iranian-made
package of reactive armor.

Zolfaqar-2 is a prototype tank used as a test bed. The Zolfaqar-3 also
features considerable upgrades to the fire control system, chassis,
engine and main gun, with a 125mm autoloader.