In March, Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan — Iran’s defense
minister — claimed that a new, unseen Iranian tank called the Karrar “is
one of the most advanced tanks in the world.”
He further suggested that the “tank [is] 100 percent Iranian made and it can even be superior than [the] T-90 in some degrees.”
Then in August, a tank with a close resemblance to the Russian-made
T-90MS appeared on Iranian television. It flew a green, white and red
Iranian flag from the turret … while spinning donuts.
It’s impossible to draw any conclusions about the new tank based on a
grainy split second of video footage. It could be the Karrar — but even
that raises more questions. A “Karrar” might be the Iranian name for a
T-90MS, a locally-produced copy or just a cosmetic upgrade of the T-72.
Or something else entirely.
Russia’s T-90MS is a modern machine which can easily take on the best
tanks in service around the world. It represents an evolutionary — not
revolutionary — design philosophy. To simplify, the T-90 family combines
the older T-72’s chassis with the T-80’s turret.
There are several reasons why the T-90 borrows from both tanks. The
T-80 is plagued by troublesome turbine engines the Russians have since
moved away from. But the main reason is to combine the strengths of both
platforms.
The T-90 also comes with important upgrades such as active protection systems designed to throw off incoming anti-tank weapons.
And the T-90 is tough. In a rare glimpse of the machine in combat in
February, an American-made TOW anti-tank missile fired by rebel fighters
hit a Syrian T-90 but appeared to only cause minor damage.
The tank spotted doing donuts on Iranian T.V. certainly looks like a
T-90MS. There are several clues including the turret’s shape, the slat
armor covering the engine and especially the jagged, teeth-like skirting
and explosive-reactive armor plating above the tracks.
However, there are several differences, as the blog Below the Turret Ring
observed. The Iranian tank has a visible sleeve at the base of the
turret, no additional rearward fuel barrels — as on the T-90MS — and it
has a larger machine gun mounted on the top.
These are fairly minor modifications visible in a low-quality video,
but the differences could be enough to indicate a second possibility.
The tank might be an Iranian copy. Whether Tehran built it from scratch
or cobbled it together from existing tanks, we don’t know.
However, it’s doubtful Iran can build a T-90 to the same
specifications as the Russian version, and there is no evidence Tehran
has a licensing arrangement with Russia for technical assistance
regarding the T-90, although there has been chatter in the press about
making such a deal since December.
Iran and Russia can make individual arms deals despite a U.N. arms embargo “on a case-by-case
basis,” The Diplomat noted when news of a potential deal arose. Iranian
officials have since walked back reports they may buy or seek technical
assistance from Uralvagonzavod, the Russian company which manufactures
the T-90.
“We were once interested
in buying the Russian tanks,” Brig. Gen. Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, the
Iranian army’s ground forces chief, told the Fars News Agency in
February. “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.”
According to Fars, Pourdastan claimed that Iran has the “technological know-how to produce new generation battle tanks and advanced military hardware.”
Another possibility? The tank is not a T-90 at all, but an attempt to
dress-up one of Iran’s existing T-72s so it looks like one. If so, the
tank may lack important countermeasures — such as anti-missile
dazzlers — and modernized fire-control systems that make the T-90 what
it is.
This would not be an unusual move on Tehran’s part. The Iranian
military often exaggerates its capabilities for propaganda purposes. And
lacking access to research, parts and supplies from abroad, Iranian
engineers rely on creativity and engineering ingenuity to make up for
shortcomings whenever possible.
In April, Iran revealed a new tank named the Tiam.
But it’s not really new. The Tiam’s chassis is from an M47 — a 1950s
design supplied by the United States during the reign of the Shah — and
the turret is from a Chinese Type 59/69.
Suffice to say, it doesn’t make for a convincing lookalike. Tehran has not produced any of these locally-made hybrids in appreciable
numbers. What it can do is build limited numbers of tanks based on
older foreign designs, and on a relatively small scale.
Which means there’s good reason to doubt Iran’s claims that the
Karrar is equal to or better than the T-90. And to unravel more clues as
to its origins, we’ll have to wait.
Perhaps not for long. In September, Tehran will celebrate the annual
Sacred Defense Week commemorating the end of the Iran-Iraq War — a time
when military watchers watch closely for reveals of new hardware like
the Iranian Batmobile. Let’s see if the Karrar turns up.
This first appeared in WarIsBoring here
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