Zulfiqar (ذوالفقار) is an Iranian

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 ...

, conceived by

Brigadier General Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointed ...

Mir-Younes Masoumzadeh, deputy ground force commander for research and self-sufficiency of the armed forces. It is named after

Zulfiqar Zulfiqar ( ar, ذُو ٱلْفَقَار, Ḏū-l-Faqār, ), also spelled ''Zu al-Faqar'', ''Zulfikar'', ''Dhu al-Faqar'', ''Dhulfaqar'' or ''Dhulfiqar'', is the sword of Ali ibn Abi Talib. Middle Eastern weapons are commonly inscribed w ...

, the legendary sword of

Ali ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam ...

the fourth Caliph and the first Shiite Imam. It's also known as Zolfaqar. The test prototypes of the tank were evaluated in 1993. Six semi-industrial prototypes of the tank were produced and tested in 1997.

Design specifications

Features

The tank has a distinctive box-shaped, steel-welded

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

of local design. The Zulfiqar is believed to be developed from major components of the Soviet

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 ha ...

and American M48 and M60 tanks. The suspension is modelled on the M48 /

M60 Patton The M60 is an American second-generation main battle tank (MBT). It was officially standardized as the Tank, Combat, Full Tracked: 105-mm Gun, M60 in March 1959. Although developed from the M48 Patton, the M60 tank series was never officially ...

tanks supplied to Iran by the U.S. The SPAT 1200 transmission also seems to be a local development of that of the M-60. Zulfiqar-1's combat weight has been reported to be 36 tonnes with a 780 hp diesel engine; giving the tank a 21.7 hp per ton ratio.Cordesman & Kleiber, page 46 Some sources see resemblances between the Zulfiqar design and the

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian prototype Osório. The Zulfiqar is operated by a crew of three personnel. The automatic loader is believed to be the same one from the T-72 tank. On 25 October 2016, Iran had successfully tested an

active protection system An active protection system is a system designed to actively prevent certain anti-tank weapons from destroying a vehicle. Countermeasures that either conceal the vehicle from, or disrupt the guidance of an incoming guided missile threat are design ...

on the Zulfiqar, based on

pulse-doppler A pulse-Doppler radar is a radar system that determines the range to a target using pulse-timing techniques, and uses the Doppler effect of the returned signal to determine the target object's velocity. It combines the features of pulse radars an ...

and

phased-array radar In antenna theory, a phased array usually means an electronically scanned array, a computer-controlled array of antennas which creates a beam of radio waves that can be electronically steered to point in different directions without moving th ...

systems equipped with four arms systems that can cover a full 360-degrees of sight.

Armament

The tank is armed with a 125 mm

smoothbore A smoothbore weapon is one that has a barrel without rifling. Smoothbores range from handheld firearms to powerful tank guns and large artillery mortars. History Early firearms had smoothly bored barrels that fired projectiles without signi ...

gun 2A46 derived from that of the T-72, which is fitted with a fume extractor. Its secondary armament consists of a 7.62 mm coaxial and a 12.7 mm machine gun. For the Zulfiqar/T-72 fleet, the Ammunition Group of the Iranian

Defense Industries Organization ''Sâzmân-e Sanâye'-e Defâ'-e Jomhuri-ye Eslâmi-ye Iran'' , type = State-owned company , location = , industry = Defense , predecessor = , foundation = , founder = , hq_location_city = Tehran , hq_location_country = Iran , num_lo ...

mass-produces a standard

high explosive An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An exp ...

propellant charge which fires the 3 kg warhead at a muzzle velocity of . The Zulfiqar-1 uses the

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

n EFCS-3 fire control system, the same model used on the Type 72Z ("Safir-74"), providing 'fire-on-the-move' technology. The Zulfiqar allegedly mounts a laser-warning pod on the turret. Its design enables the tank to use an Iranian-made package of

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 ...

Production

In April 1997 Acting Commander of the Ground Forces of the Iranian Army,

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

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 Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani ( fa, اکبر هاشمی رفسنجانی, Akbar Hāshemī Rafsanjānī, born Akbar Hashemi Bahramani, 25 August 1934 – 8 January 2017) was an Iranian peoples, Iranian politician, writer, and one of the founding fath ...

formally inaugurated a production line for the domestically manufactured Zulfiqar main battle tanks and Boragh tracked

armoured personnel carrier An armoured personnel carrier (APC) is a broad type of armoured military vehicle designed to transport personnel and equipment in combat zones. Since World War I, APCs have become a very common piece of military equipment around the world. Acc ...

. The facility, the Shahid Kolah Dooz Industrial Complex, will also produce the

BMP-2 The BMP-2 (''Boyevaya Mashina Pekhoty'', , literally "combat machine/vehicle (of the) infantry") is an amphibious infantry fighting vehicle introduced in the 1980s in the Soviet Union, following on from the BMP-1 of the 1960s. Development hist ...

armored personnel carrier.

Variants

Zulfiqar-1

The Zulfiqar-1 is based on the

M48 Patton The M48 Patton is an American List of main battle tanks by generation#First generation, first-generation main battle tank (MBT) introduced in February 1952, being designated as the 90mm Gun Tank: M48. It was designed as a replacement for the M2 ...

model acquired under the pre-revolution era. The Zulfiqar-1 was first revealed in public in 1994. A total of six prototypes were completed and field tested in 1997. The Zulfiqar-1 is protected by a welded steel hull and the turret is reinforced by a

composite armour Composite armour is a type of vehicle armour consisting of layers of different material such as metals, plastics, ceramics or air. Most composite armours are lighter than their all-metal equivalent, but instead occupy a larger volume for the sam ...

. The Zulfiqar-1 is armed with a 125mm Smoothbore gun taken from a T-72. At least 150 were produced. Zulfiqar Tank - Side View

Zulfiqar-2

The Zulfiqar-2 is an interim main battle tank prototype used as a test bed. This variant is fitted with a new and more powerful engine. It has an extended chassis and possibly uses an improved autoloader.

Zulfiqar-3

The Zulfiqar-3, the most advanced variant of the Zulfiqar family, bears a close resemblance to the American

M1 Abrams The M1 Abrams is a third-generation American main battle tank designed by Chrysler Defense (now General Dynamics Land Systems) and named for General Creighton Abrams. Conceived for modern armored ground warfare and now one of the heaviest ta ...

. It features considerable upgrades to the fire-control system, chassis, engine and main gun. The new variant is equipped with the 2A46 125 mm smoothbore cannon with an

autoloader An autoloader or auto-loader is a mechanical aid or replacement for the personnel that load ordnance into crew-served weapons without being an integrated part of the gun itself. The term is generally only applied to larger weapons, such as nava ...

, a laser rangefinder and a new fire-control system. It is also fitted with a reinforced turret and the wheels are covered by an armoured skirt. Research and development on the tank was completed in 1999 and the tank appeared in a military parade in 2011.Zulfiqar 3 Zolfaqar main battle tank technical data sheet specifications description pictures video
Around 100 built, unknown current production status. Some estimates put it as high as 250. Zolfaghar3Tank1

Operators

* - At least 400 Zulfiqar-1, and 750 Zulfiqar-3.

Notes

References

* Cordesman, Anthony H. & Kleiber, Martin (2007). ''Iran's Military Forces and Warfighting Capabilities: The Threat in the Northern Gulf.'' Greenwood Publishing Group.

External links

ACIG.org
Photos of the Zulfiqar 3 at a 2003 parade in Tehran {{Weapons of Iran Main battle tanks of Iran Post–Cold War main battle tanks Tanks with autoloaders Military vehicles introduced in the 1990s