Zulfiqar MBT

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Zulfiqar

General characteristics
Crew	3-4
Length
Width
Height
Weight	40 tonnes
Armour and armament
Armour
Main armament	125mm smoothbore
Secondary armament	12.7mm machine gun
Mobility
Power plant	12-cyl. diesel 780 hp (630 kW)
Suspension	torsion-bar
Road speed
Power/weight	20 hp/ton
Range

Born as the brainchild of brigadier general Mir-Younes Masoumzadeh, deputy ground force commander for research and self- suficiency jihad of the armed forces, the Iranian Zulfiqar [Zolfaqar] main battle tank is believed to be pieced together or developed from major components of the Russian T-72 and American M48 and M60 tanks. This tank, which is claimed to be in production in Iran, is said to be similar in configuration to the M-48 and M-60. Other reports suggest that it bears a close resemblance to the American M1 Abrams.

One of the features of the Zulfiqar tank which has drawn the attention of the Defense Ministry is that indigenously-made parts have been used in it. The testing prototypes of the tank were tested in 1993. Six semi-industrial prototypes of the tank were produced and tested in 1997.

Zulfiqar 1

In April 1997 Acting Commander of the Ground Forces of the Iranian Army, Lieutenant General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani announced that the mass production of Zulfiqar tanks, which began in 1996, was still in progress. He stated that the manufacture of 520 different kinds of tank parts, 600 artillery parts, repair of 500 tanks and armored vehicles have been carried out. In late July 1997 Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani of Iran formally inaugurated a production line for the domestically manufactured Zulfiqar main battle tanks and Boragh tracked armoured personnel carriers. The facility, the Shahid Kolah Dooz Industrial Complex, will also produce the BMT-2 armored personnel carrier.

The Iranian tank is armed with a 125mm smoothbore gun fitted with a fume extractor which may be fed from an automatic loader. It is known that the Zulfiqar uses suspension like that fitted to Western MBTs such as the M48/M60 MBT. The diesel engine is not taken from the T-72 since this has a distinct exhaust outlet on the left side of the hull. This feature is absent on the Zulfiqar.

Zulfiqar 2

The most advanced of these, the Zulfiqar-3, is based on earlier American tanks, primarily the M-60 acquired under the pre-revolution era. The Zulfiqar-3 also features considerable upgrades to the fire control system, chassis, engine and main gun (125mm autoloader). The Zulfiqar-1 is reportedly in service with certain elements of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (Pasdaran) and the Zulfiqar-2 is reportedly a test bed for future designs and upgrades. The Zulfiqar-3 is believed to have recently entered serial production.

The Zulfiqar has a distinctive box-shaped turret unlike the characteristic boat-shaped turret of the T-72 and appears to have a different exhaust system. The Zulfiqar is a 40 tonne vehicle with a 1,000 hp diesel engine and a 125 mm smooth bore gun. For the Zulfigar/T-72 fleet, the Ammunition Group of the Iranian Defence Industries Organization mass produces both a standard High Explosive 23 kilogram tank shell firing a three kilogram warhead out the muzzle at 850 meters per second.