In the early 90s, on the initiative of the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Ground Forces for Science and Development, Brigadier General Mir-Younes Masoumzadeh, the main battle tank of the Iranian army, Zulfiqar-1, was created. The name of the tank is rooted in history, as was the name of the legendary sword of the Shiite imam Hazrat Ali. Already in 1993, the first prototype of the tank passed field tests, and the first pre-production order in the amount of six combat units was issued in 1997. But Zulfiqar-1 is not a product of the development of Iranian military designers, but is an example of how the components and assemblies of the Russian T-72C and the American M48 and M60 are connected into one whole. The latter in significant quantities (240 and 355 respectively) were transferred to the Shah's regime in the 70s, the Russian tank is currently being manufactured in Iran under license. All these combat vehicles belong to the 2nd generation tanks.
At the end of July 1997, the head of Iran, Hashemi Rafsanjani, officially opened a new production line for the production of main battle tanks for the army of the state - Zulfiqar and tracked armored personnel carriers Boragli. However, it is rather difficult to say for sure that mass production of Zulfiqar machines has begun. There are no exact data, and at the level of unconfirmed information, the data fluctuate within an unreal fork from 4 to 520 cars produced.
The performance data of the Zulfiqar-1 tank:
Crew - 4 people.
Combat weight - 36 tons.
Overall dimensions - length - 7000 mm, width - 3600 mm, height - 2500 mm.
Armament stabilizer - two-plane.
Armament - 1 coaxial 7.62 mm machine gun; 1 cannon 2A46, caliber 125 mm; 1 coaxial 7.62 mm machine gun; 8 launchers for launching smoke grenades; 1 anti-aircraft machine gun 54 caliber 12, 7 mm.
The power unit is a 12-cylinder V-shaped diesel engine with a capacity of 780 hp.
Undercarriage - six double road wheels per side (rubberized); five carrier rollers; guide wheel; the drive wheel is located at the rear with removable gear rims; individual torsion bar suspension.
Transmission - SPAT 1200, "Cross-Drive" hydromechanical system.
The maximum speed is 70 km / h.
Autonomous running stock - 450 km.
Communication means - radio station and internal intercom.
The layout of the tank is made in a classic form with the MTO aft location. The tower and hull are welded, rather primitive in shape, close to rectangular. The driver's seat is located on the longitudinal axis of the tank. The front plate of the combat vehicle hull is located at a significant angle of inclination to the vertical.
The undercarriage of the Zulfiqar-1 is modeled on the American M48 and M60 tanks. Based on the design of the hull stern, also similar to the American models, but made welded, the SPAT 1200 Cross-Drive transmission is an exact copy of the M60 transmission. The main armament of the tank is the 125-mm Russian smoothbore cannon 2A46, manufactured in Iran under license from Russia. The question of installing an automatic loader on the tank remains unknown. The Zulfiqar-1 uses the Slovenian EFCS-3 MSA, designed to improve the T-55 tanks. Additional armament includes a 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun and a 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine gun mounted on the commander's cupola.
In addition to the main modification of the Zulfiqar-1 tank, the Zulfiqar-2 and Zulfiqar-3 combat vehicles were manufactured at the end of the 90s.
Zulfiqar-2 looks somewhat different from the main version of the new turret and the installation of bulwarks. The Zulfiqar-3 uses an improved undercarriage with seven rubber track rollers. On these tanks, an MSA with a laser rangefinder, an automatic loader, and a thermal imaging complex for night vision were introduced. The tanks are equipped with a 1000 hp V-84MS power unit. The useful mass increased to 40 tons. On tanks, the main armor was strengthened and the ability to install reactive armor systems was included.
