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| Iran Releases the Latest Photos of the Production of the Domestically Made 'Karrar' MBT |
Tehran - The latest photos of the production of the Iran's domestically manufactured Karrar Main Battle Tank (MBT) have been released. The tank was displayed during a visit by the Chief Justice of Iran's Supreme Court, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i, this was reported by Mojnews on August 26, 2022.
The Karrar is Iran's third generation MBT, the existence of which was first announced in 2016. In the announcement, it was stated that the tank has an electro-optical fire control system, laser rangefinder, ballistic computer and can engage stationary and moving targets during the day or night.
The Karrar project was developed locally over the failure to obtain a license and transfer technology to manufacture the Russian T-90MS tank. The Karrar platform is based on the Soviet-era T-72 MBT and Iran tries to incorporate elements from the Russian T-90, the US M1 Abrams, and the British Challenger 2.
Karrar began mass production in 2017 at the Bani Hashim Defense Industrial Complex, Iran. Entered service with the Iranian Armed Forces since 2020, with the first batch of 150 units on order. In 2018, a second batch of 650 units was ordered, all of which will be completed by the end of 2022.
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| Iran Karrar Main Battle Tank (MBT) |
For specifications, Karrar weighs 51 tons, with a body length of 6.8 m, width 3.68 m, height 2.5 m. The vehicle is manned by a crew of three namely driver, commander and gunner. Karrar's main armament is a 125 mm 2A46M / M-2/M-5 smoothbore caliber main cannon with stabilizer.
Secondary armament is a 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun and a remotely controlled 12.7 mm machine gun (RCWS).
The Karrar is equipped with a 1,000 hp diesel engine. It can run maximum on hard flat roads about 70 km/h. The operational range is between 500-550 km, with additional fuel drums the range is increased by another 200-280 km.