"490 Object". The USSR could create the most powerful tank in the world
Hammer and sickle"
The Second World War clearly showed that in the field of tank building almost no one could compare with the USSR, including the gloomy genius of the Third Reich. This status had to be maintained, and in addition, at the set time X of the Soviet Army had to be ready to make a roll to the English Channel. The USSR introduced monsters such as the 279 Object. We recall, he had a mass in 60 tons (a lot, by the standards of 50-x) and, most interestingly, four tracks for better maneuverability.
However, as we know, the development of the Soviet tank building school was largely predetermined by relatively simple, not very expensive and powerful for its time MBT, mainly T-72 and T-64. Unfortunately, already in the 80-e their designs in many ways came up against a dead end due to the difficulties of increasing crew protection in conditions of extremely dense layout. Thus, the now famous Hammer 477 Object, T-95 (aka 195 Object) and many other developments have appeared. The task was simple - to make the most enduring combat machine, which will give the crew the opportunity to survive getting into the life-threatening spaces of the MBT. Do not forget about weapon: Now, a formidable prospective 152-mm gun instead of the usual 125-mm guns was considered the main caliber. Such a solution would dramatically increase the firepower, but it made the car potentially harder and also harder to maintain.
Later, in Russia, the famous experimental Black Eagle will appear, which, in fact, has become a very deep modernization of the T-80, but with fundamentally new crew protection options and a very good power density, even surpassing the performance of the best Western MBT. About “Armat”, it must be assumed, readers already know very well.
Two towers and four caterpillars
It would seem that there is nothing to surprise the sophisticated public: many have monstrous German projects in their memory, as well as the Swedish IKEA on tracks, represented by Strv 103. As well as the aforementioned failed successors of the 72nd. However, recently on btvt.info, materials were published about the absolutely amazing “Object 490”, which was immediately nicknamed “the last Soviet project of promising tank". But it is interesting not only due to its appearance: the car, by the way, was developed in the late 80s - early 90s.
The concept itself is unusual, as far as can be judged, previously no one has put it into practice. We give the outlined in the source history the appearance of MBT. “In October 1984, the management of the GBTU and GRAU arrived at the Kharkov engineering design bureau, headed by General Potapov and Bazhenov, to familiarize themselves with the development of the development of a promising tank. The “490 mm caliber gun” (the 125 mm variant was developed) was installed on the “130A Object”, and the talk about raising the caliber has been going on for a long time. There was a debate about which caliber to choose - 140 mm or 152 mm. At that moment, General Litvinenko, the head of the NKT GRAU (Scientific Committee of the Main Artillery and Missile Control), made the diagram very well and clearly demonstrating how effective the 152 mm caliber is for the tank. Since then, the 152 mm caliber has been adopted for the future project, and no one has ever returned to this issue. After the decision was made on the caliber of the gun of a prospective tank, the existing variants of tanks Topn 490 Object and Rebel 490A Object demanded a complete rearrangement.
The new version of the "Object 490" has become a completely different tank. The fuel compartment, engine compartment of the engine and power plant, as well as the main armament compartment located in front of the tank. Next was the bay of the automatic loader, and the crew was placed at the rear of the tank. Tankers, by the way, there were only two: a driver and a commander. The crew would have survived even with a total "shooting" of the car from the front hemisphere.
The tank received four caterpillars: it could move when two tracked propulsion units were damaged (from opposite sides). In the aft compartment there were two crew hatches, the driver's hatch is provided with a porthole for driving. The car received two engines that issued a totally immodest 2000 horsepower. This is significantly more than that of the T-14: we recall, according to the available data, it has a variable-power 12H360 engine: from 1200 to 1800 horsepower. A promising machine in theory could continue to move even in the event of the disabling of one of the engines.
Perhaps the main difference between a combat vehicle from almost all tanks of that time was simply fantastic firepower. MBT received two towers at once. The 152-mm 2-73 cannon was in the front and the 30-mm grenade launcher in the rear. It also had a panoramic sight with a visual channel and a day / night television sight. In addition, the tank received two 7,62-mm machine gun TKB-666. Of course, all this gave him tremendous opportunities to defeat a variety of goals, including all existing and future NATO tanks. Total car carried 32 unitary shots in automated styling. A very interesting feature is the use of a cannon barrel as an OPVT air intake pipe with an 4,6 meter lifting height, which gave the tank good opportunities to overcome water obstacles.
According to reports, the tank received reliable protection from armor-piercing subcaliber (approximately 2000 mm) and cumulative projectiles (approximately 4500 mm). In any case, these data without specifying specificity are given in the source. In any case, in terms of security, the tank exceeded all existing and even promising counterparts. Increased the survivability of the active standard complex "Standart", as well as mortars of the "Tucha" system. Of the potential flaws, it is possible to single out the very limited capabilities of the USSR military-industrial complex for the production of modern thermal imagers. In terms of night combat, it was hard to compare with the best NATO tanks by default, but this also applied to all other Soviet tanks.
Innovation vs. Modernization
T-64, T-72 and T-80 went through several serious stages of modernization, even if we talk specifically about the Soviet years. Obviously, the USSR did not plan to abandon these tanks, especially considering the huge number of cars produced. This allows you to confidently talk about two things. Firstly, a promising tank should be as close as possible to previous generations. After all, the use of such a motley OBT park would be not so much technically difficult, but also an incredibly expensive “pleasure.” Secondly, a promising tank had to be relatively cheap in itself in order to conform to the Soviet doctrine of the use of military equipment.
The 490 Object could not fit into these requirements. Of the more specific flaws, it is worth highlighting the very limited declination angles of the gun on board and the stern, which was almost impossible to fix without rebuilding the combat vehicle completely. In practice, this meant that it was very difficult to hit the target behind the MBT: it was difficult to use the 152-mm gun, and the 30-mm grenade launcher installed in the second turret was clearly not enough.
The analogy with the Swedish Strv 103 mentioned above, sometimes called the “tank destroyer”, is not very correct. The latter was never conceived as a “full-fledged” tank and was created taking into account the very limited (in comparison with the United States and the Soviet Union) financial capabilities of the Scandinavian country. In the USSR, in 80, there was no need to create a “semi-automatic control system”: the maximum multi-purpose MBT was needed. It is desirable, no more expensive T-72, but this, of course, ideally.
The voiced factors did not increase the chances for the machine to be embodied in the hardware (on all the photos presented - the layout). But most of all, the collapse of the USSR influenced the fate of both the 490 Object and its other promising counterparts. There is almost no doubt: do not happen this, the army in 1990-2000-e would receive a new tank, created on the basis of one of the advanced developments 80-x. What were these developments, another question. We hope we will return to it.
The Second World War clearly showed that in the field of tank building almost no one could compare with the USSR, including the gloomy genius of the Third Reich. This status had to be maintained, and in addition, at the set time X of the Soviet Army had to be ready to make a roll to the English Channel. The USSR introduced monsters such as the 279 Object. We recall, he had a mass in 60 tons (a lot, by the standards of 50-x) and, most interestingly, four tracks for better maneuverability.
However, as we know, the development of the Soviet tank building school was largely predetermined by relatively simple, not very expensive and powerful for its time MBT, mainly T-72 and T-64. Unfortunately, already in the 80-e their designs in many ways came up against a dead end due to the difficulties of increasing crew protection in conditions of extremely dense layout. Thus, the now famous Hammer 477 Object, T-95 (aka 195 Object) and many other developments have appeared. The task was simple - to make the most enduring combat machine, which will give the crew the opportunity to survive getting into the life-threatening spaces of the MBT. Do not forget about weapon: Now, a formidable prospective 152-mm gun instead of the usual 125-mm guns was considered the main caliber. Such a solution would dramatically increase the firepower, but it made the car potentially harder and also harder to maintain.
Later, in Russia, the famous experimental Black Eagle will appear, which, in fact, has become a very deep modernization of the T-80, but with fundamentally new crew protection options and a very good power density, even surpassing the performance of the best Western MBT. About “Armat”, it must be assumed, readers already know very well.
Two towers and four caterpillars
It would seem that there is nothing to surprise the sophisticated public: many have monstrous German projects in their memory, as well as the Swedish IKEA on tracks, represented by Strv 103. As well as the aforementioned failed successors of the 72nd. However, recently on btvt.info, materials were published about the absolutely amazing “Object 490”, which was immediately nicknamed “the last Soviet project of promising tank". But it is interesting not only due to its appearance: the car, by the way, was developed in the late 80s - early 90s.
The concept itself is unusual, as far as can be judged, previously no one has put it into practice. We give the outlined in the source history the appearance of MBT. “In October 1984, the management of the GBTU and GRAU arrived at the Kharkov engineering design bureau, headed by General Potapov and Bazhenov, to familiarize themselves with the development of the development of a promising tank. The “490 mm caliber gun” (the 125 mm variant was developed) was installed on the “130A Object”, and the talk about raising the caliber has been going on for a long time. There was a debate about which caliber to choose - 140 mm or 152 mm. At that moment, General Litvinenko, the head of the NKT GRAU (Scientific Committee of the Main Artillery and Missile Control), made the diagram very well and clearly demonstrating how effective the 152 mm caliber is for the tank. Since then, the 152 mm caliber has been adopted for the future project, and no one has ever returned to this issue. After the decision was made on the caliber of the gun of a prospective tank, the existing variants of tanks Topn 490 Object and Rebel 490A Object demanded a complete rearrangement.
The new version of the "Object 490" has become a completely different tank. The fuel compartment, engine compartment of the engine and power plant, as well as the main armament compartment located in front of the tank. Next was the bay of the automatic loader, and the crew was placed at the rear of the tank. Tankers, by the way, there were only two: a driver and a commander. The crew would have survived even with a total "shooting" of the car from the front hemisphere.
The tank received four caterpillars: it could move when two tracked propulsion units were damaged (from opposite sides). In the aft compartment there were two crew hatches, the driver's hatch is provided with a porthole for driving. The car received two engines that issued a totally immodest 2000 horsepower. This is significantly more than that of the T-14: we recall, according to the available data, it has a variable-power 12H360 engine: from 1200 to 1800 horsepower. A promising machine in theory could continue to move even in the event of the disabling of one of the engines.
Perhaps the main difference between a combat vehicle from almost all tanks of that time was simply fantastic firepower. MBT received two towers at once. The 152-mm 2-73 cannon was in the front and the 30-mm grenade launcher in the rear. It also had a panoramic sight with a visual channel and a day / night television sight. In addition, the tank received two 7,62-mm machine gun TKB-666. Of course, all this gave him tremendous opportunities to defeat a variety of goals, including all existing and future NATO tanks. Total car carried 32 unitary shots in automated styling. A very interesting feature is the use of a cannon barrel as an OPVT air intake pipe with an 4,6 meter lifting height, which gave the tank good opportunities to overcome water obstacles.
According to reports, the tank received reliable protection from armor-piercing subcaliber (approximately 2000 mm) and cumulative projectiles (approximately 4500 mm). In any case, these data without specifying specificity are given in the source. In any case, in terms of security, the tank exceeded all existing and even promising counterparts. Increased the survivability of the active standard complex "Standart", as well as mortars of the "Tucha" system. Of the potential flaws, it is possible to single out the very limited capabilities of the USSR military-industrial complex for the production of modern thermal imagers. In terms of night combat, it was hard to compare with the best NATO tanks by default, but this also applied to all other Soviet tanks.
Innovation vs. Modernization
T-64, T-72 and T-80 went through several serious stages of modernization, even if we talk specifically about the Soviet years. Obviously, the USSR did not plan to abandon these tanks, especially considering the huge number of cars produced. This allows you to confidently talk about two things. Firstly, a promising tank should be as close as possible to previous generations. After all, the use of such a motley OBT park would be not so much technically difficult, but also an incredibly expensive “pleasure.” Secondly, a promising tank had to be relatively cheap in itself in order to conform to the Soviet doctrine of the use of military equipment.
The 490 Object could not fit into these requirements. Of the more specific flaws, it is worth highlighting the very limited declination angles of the gun on board and the stern, which was almost impossible to fix without rebuilding the combat vehicle completely. In practice, this meant that it was very difficult to hit the target behind the MBT: it was difficult to use the 152-mm gun, and the 30-mm grenade launcher installed in the second turret was clearly not enough.
The analogy with the Swedish Strv 103 mentioned above, sometimes called the “tank destroyer”, is not very correct. The latter was never conceived as a “full-fledged” tank and was created taking into account the very limited (in comparison with the United States and the Soviet Union) financial capabilities of the Scandinavian country. In the USSR, in 80, there was no need to create a “semi-automatic control system”: the maximum multi-purpose MBT was needed. It is desirable, no more expensive T-72, but this, of course, ideally.
The voiced factors did not increase the chances for the machine to be embodied in the hardware (on all the photos presented - the layout). But most of all, the collapse of the USSR influenced the fate of both the 490 Object and its other promising counterparts. There is almost no doubt: do not happen this, the army in 1990-2000-e would receive a new tank, created on the basis of one of the advanced developments 80-x. What were these developments, another question. We hope we will return to it.
Information