T-Rex ( uk, Тірекс) was a Ukrainian

main battle tank A main battle tank (MBT), also known as a battle tank or universal tank, is a tank that fills the role of armor-protected direct fire and maneuver in many modern armies. Cold War-era development of more powerful engines, better suspension sys ...

announced in 2016.

Development

The vehicle was announced in 2016 and was developed by the , an engineering group belonging to the

Azov Battalion The Special Operations Detachment "Azov" (), also known as the Azov Regiment ( uk, Полк «Азов», translit=Polk "Azov") and formerly the Azov Battalion ( uk, батальйон «Азов», translit=Batalion "Azov"), is a unit of the ...

. It was named after ''

Tyrannosaurus rex ''Tyrannosaurus'' is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' (''rex'' meaning "king" in Latin), often called ''T. rex'' or colloquially ''T-Rex'', is one of the best represented theropods. ''Tyrannosaurus'' live ...

''. Its main competitor was the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

n MBT

T-14 Armata The T-14 Armata ( rus, Т-14 «Армата»; industrial designation russian: Объект 148, Ob'yekt 148, Object 148), is a next-generation Russian main battle tank based on the Armata Universal Combat Platform. The Russian Army initially ...

. Sergei Stepanov, the chief designer for Arey, claimed that the tank would have a "conceptually new system of fire control and a high level of personnel protection," along with "many features include high maneuverability, 360-degree vision, and a high-bandwidth counteraction analytics system." The vehicle would be based on the

T-64 The T-64 is a Soviet tank manufactured in Kharkiv, and designed by Kharkiv Morozov Machine Building Design Bureau. The tank was introduced in the early 1960s. It was a more advanced counterpart to the T-62: the T-64 served in tank divisions, whil ...

and hulls of T-64 and

T-72 The T-72 is a family of Soviet/Russian main battle tanks that entered production in 1969. The T-72 was a development of the T-64, which was troubled by high costs and its reliance on immature developmental technology. About 25,000 T-72 tanks h ...

, inherited by the thousands from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, would be reused in the production of the tanks. The Azov Battalion estimated that up to 20 tanks could be upgraded every month. In 2020, Russian media claimed that development and production of the tank had ceased as the project was "technically unviable." These unverified reports cited stability problems and possible rupturing of the tank barrel when firing 125-mm shells.

Design

The tank would be based on the

and would feature an unmanned turret. The three crew members would be seated in an armored capsule at the front of the hull, where they could remotely-control the cannon, the automatic loader and the machine guns T-Rex would weigh 39 tons and be equipped with a 125mm main gun with "high-power projetiles". The armor would utilize both Nozh and Doublet ( uk, Дуплет, links=no) explosive

reactive armor Reactive armour is a type of vehicle armour that reacts in some way to the impact of a weapon to reduce the damage done to the vehicle being protected. It is most effective in protecting against shaped charges and specially hardened kinetic ener ...

. The combat capability was said by the Ukrainian press to be exceeding those of the Ukrainian Oplot and Bulat, while at the same time being more cost-effective than the Bulat.

References

{{reflist

External links

Patent for T-Rex (in Ukrainian)
Tanks with autoloaders Main battle tanks of Ukraine