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T-95 against "Almaty": could Russia get the best tank in the world?
Recently, the T-95 again forced to talk about themselves. A photo of “Object 195”, which has already managed to discredit itself, has been posted to the network, which was noted by the notorious blog of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies bmpd. All trials involving the owner of the photo, the blogger Gur Khan, will not be brought. For ordinary lovers of armored vehicles, the photo is interesting first of all because it is almost the first quality photo of the T-95 that was in open access, where you can see all (or almost all) features of the once-promising machine.
According to the data presented, the photo shows the first prototype of the main tank "Object 195", made as part of the Perfection-88 development work. Readers may have already seen photos of the second prototype of the T-95. On one of them, the tower of the combat vehicle is hidden by a tarpaulin, the second one due to the angle also does not allow to consider all the features of the MBT. In total, by the way, according to bmpd information, three complete prototypes of the “Object 195” were produced. The tank captured in the picture was equipped with an sighting and surveillance radar station and the Standart active protection system. Tracks on the car removed.
The history of the creation of this amazing tank is full of dark spots, but the general information today is not difficult to find in the public domain (how true they are - another question). The aim of the project was to find a replacement for the motley fleet of Soviet main battle tanks. The main thing was to create MBT, devoid of the main drawback of such machines as the T-72 and T-64. We are talking about a relatively low security of the crew, due to a very dense layout, in which tanks and ammunition were not isolated from the crew. In general, already in the 80s it was clear that the classical Soviet school of tank building itself was largely exhausted. At the same time, new technologies made it possible to create MBTs with reliable remote-controlled uninhabited tower.
We are talking about well-known thanks to the T-14 carriage layout. The gun T-95 was located in a relatively small uninhabited tower, and the ammunition, as far as can be judged, was under the tower, although there were other information. The crew of three people designers put in an armored "capsule" in front of the tank. In the future, one crew member could be abandoned, reducing the number of tankers to an absolute minimum of two people. It is difficult to unequivocally call the advantage or disadvantage of the tank. Americans, for example, are convinced that for service (in particular, repairs) and the combat capability of a combat unit, four tankers are just right.
The survivability of the T-95 tank on the battlefield was designed to increase not so much the new layout as the advanced all-view and all-round KAZ “Standard”, which we mentioned above. Recall that it was the domestic engineers in the Soviet years that were the first in the world to create a really working active protection complex for tanks. The old "Thrush", among other things, ensured the defeat of cumulative projectiles flying at speeds of up to 700 meters per second. "Standart", of course, was performed taking into account the experience of the creation and operation of this KAZ. And there was no doubt about its potential effectiveness.
The main innovation of the tank was the giant 152-mm smooth-bore cannon 2A83, which in its power was superior to all NATO and Soviet tank guns. She made the T-95 potentially the best breakthrough tank, and besides, she guaranteed an effective defeat of both the main and prospective tanks of a potential enemy from long distances. Such an advantage, of course, looks very tempting. But in the end the project was closed: the Ministry of Defense declared its “moral obsolescence”.
Is the choice justified?
We will try to understand why the military preferred the T-14. To do this, compare the characteristics of the two MBT.
Concept. The general idea of the two tanks is similar: these are rather large by Soviet standards machines, which have, as previously mentioned, uninhabited towers and give crews potentially high protection. In general, the T-14 is seen as the direct heir of the "Object 195". It is difficult to say how economical it is. We will never be able to compare the two serial machines, and it makes no sense to draw conclusions about profitability based on the analysis of the concept.
Mobility. According to reports, the T-95 could get a diesel engine A-85-3 (12N360) - four-stroke, X-shaped, 12-cylinder, with gas turbine supercharging, liquid cooling with intermediate air cooling. Engine capacity - 35 liters, power about 1500 hp This engine has become a completely new design with great modernization potential. On the T-14, 12N360 is also installed: but earlier a number of sources mentioned that to increase the resource capacity would be significantly reduced. According to the latest data, the power of the T-14 engine changes depending on the boost: 1350/1500/1800 hp. We can say that, in any case, formally (and at maximum modes), the power density of the T-95 and T-14 is quite high. According to this indicator, tanks are comparable or even better than Western cars. Recall that the "Abrams", despite their huge mass, always distinguished by good mobility. Provided that the soil can withstand such a weight.
Firepower. Here the differences between the T-95 and T-14 are immediately apparent. Experts believe that the 125-mm 2A82 cannon mounted on the new Russian tank is potentially good, but it does not give a decisive superiority over similar tank guns of the West. In contrast, the 152-mm T-95 cannon could not only become a Challenger and Leopard thunderstorm, but also create a new round of the arms race, because other countries would also want such a "weighty argument" for themselves. And their old platforms probably would not have been able to ensure reliable operation of such a powerful fire system. But this, of course, in theory. In practice, increasing the caliber to 152 mm could lead to a decrease in the life of the gun barrel, a decrease in the number of projectiles, or (if the ammunition was comparable to the T-80 or T-72 ammunition), the weight of the combat vehicle increased. In other words, the question is controversial and complex.
Electronics . This is an important aspect for any modern tank. The T-14 received a medium-range circular Doppler radar with AFAR, ultraviolet HD surveillance cameras with 360 ° coverage and many other useful equipment (the use of on-board UAV targeting, however, was not confirmed). “Object 195” is an older machine, respectively, its optics / electronics are objectively older. However, absolutely nothing prevented the modernization of the tank to provide a fundamentally new equipment, not inferior to the one that is installed on the T-14.
Conclusion
lack of information about the T-95 does not allow us to judge its potential with confidence. Based on the available data, it can be assumed that, purely conceptually, the T-14 does not have distinct advantages over the older machine. Exactly as "Object 195" can not boast of a decisive superiority over its progenitor. The choice in favor of the T-14 with a high degree of probability was due to the need to create not only or even not so much a new tank as a unified tracked platform for a whole series of new cars. However, one cannot exclude the banal desire of interested parties to receive the coveted additional funding for a new development.
Source: topwar.ru
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