Drawings of new Ukrainian main battle tank "T-Rex" (Image: gazeta.ua)
Ukrainian company Arey Engineering Group developed a new main battle tank design codenamed T-Rex (Ukrainian: “Тірекс”), which is to be produced domestically. It met all technical requirements of the country’s defense ministry and is planned to enter service within a year. The manufacturers are convinced this new design will rival T-14 Armata, Russia’s next-generation tank.
“The tank has a conceptually new system of fire control and a high level of personnel protection. Its many features include high maneuverability, 360-degree vision, and a high-bandwidth counteraction analytics system. The design has the full range of solutions needed today for this level of technology,” – Arey‘s chief designer Sergei Stepanov says.
The tank has an unmanned turret, tracked armored body and chassis. The crew of three is seated in an armored capsule in the front of the hull, similar to Armata. From there, they control the tank and manage the cannon and machine-gun fire from the turret, which becomes a weapons module. Just as Armata, the tank is armed with a 125-millimeter cannon with remotely-controlled automatic loader and machine guns. The technology is designed for simultaneous near-distance anti-infantry and far-distance anti-tank fights in day or night conditions.
According to the tank’s designers, its combat characteristics exceed those of the two other advanced Ukrainian tanks: Oplot and Bulat. T-Rex will reuse hulls from the fleet of thousands of T-64 and T-72 tanks Ukraine inherited from the Soviet Union.
“This design is transitional. It allows us to re-use Ukraine’s existing fleet of tanks and to obtain a new level of technology in a short time and with minimal cost. It will not be below world standards,” – said the expert.
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- Drawings of new Ukrainian main battle tank “T-Rex” (Image: gazeta.ua)
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- Drawings of new Ukrainian main battle tank “T-Rex” (Image: gazeta.ua)
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- Drawings of new Ukrainian main battle tank “T-Rex” (Image: gazeta.ua)
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- The T-64, a Soviet second-generation main battle tank developed in Kharkiv, Ukraine and introduced in the early 1960s. (Image: gazeta.ua)
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- The T-72, a Soviet second-generation main battle tank that entered production in 1971. (Image: gazeta.ua)
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- The T-14 Armata, a next-generation Russian main battle tank. It commenced testing in 2016. (Image: gazeta.ua)
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- The state-of-the art Russian T-14 Armata tank stalled in the middle of the Red Square during a preparation for general rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade, would not restart, and had to be towed. Moscow, Russia, Thursday, May 7, 2015. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
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Tags: defense industry, Military analysis, Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, tanks, Ukraine, Ukrainian defense industry, Ukrainian tank T-Rex, Weapons
