T-95 Main Battle Tank

Warning! Information on this page is obsolete. Please refer to the page about a new Nizhny Tagil MBT for up-to-date information.

T-80 low-profile turret testbed
The drawing of a T-80 low-profile turret testbed by S.Zaloga, courtesy of Alex Clark
This picture is one of the candidates to being refered to as T-95 MBT.

This tank is what was originally perceived in the West to be the perspective Russian MBT. It is either a hoax or a real conceptual prototype. In the latter case its relation to Nizhny Tagil design is unknown.

The design is unique in that it has a very small and extremely rounded auto-loader instead of a turret. The entire crew is situated in the hull, which is separated from the auto-loader by an armored bulkhead. Main gun rounds are placed in a circle around a loader and are delivered by a revolving transporter, fully automating the loading procedure. This scheme raises crew survivability to an incredible level.

Yet another major innovation attributed to this tank is a new anti-tank gun that has a larger caliber than the 2A46 series, 135 mm. This 135mm gun pops up occasionally since as early as the end of eighties when it was attributed to a mysterious T-86 MBT. Today it is more or less a certainty that there is no 135mm gun in existence. 2A46M is still in service, and accuracy and reliability upgrades and new ammo designs seem to bring it finally to the level of the powerful Rh-120 line of guns of Leopard, Abrams and Merkava. There are, however, indications of a 152mm tank gun being developed.

It is hard to tell how much in common does this MBT have with a real new tank being developed in Nizhny Tagil, but the main features of both vehicles are an unmanned gunpod, crew placement in the hull and a large-caliber maingun.

T-95 MBT

Turret layout

Weight:               50? metric tons
Crew:                 3

Engine:               1000 hp diesel or 1250 hp gas-turbine
Max Road Speed:       >75 km/h
Max X-country Speed:  >48 km/h
Power/Weight:         at least 24.0 hp/tn
Ground Pressure:      1.00? kg/sq.cm

Weapons
Main Weapon:          135mm smoothbore?!
Ammunition:           40? rounds
Ammunition Types:     APFSDS, HEAT, HEF, ?
ATGM through 135mm:   most likely 9M119M "Refleks" (Sniper-B) derivative
Auxiliary armament:   UNKNOWN
Smoke Screens:        Smoke Grenades, Smoke Discharger

Equipment
Rangefinder:          Laser
Night Vision:         Thermal Imager
Fire Control:         Optical; Missile Guidance Capability
Jammers:              Shtora-1? IR & SACLOS Jammer, Radar Jammer

Onboard Computer
Accuracy aids, Target recognition and acquisition,
HQ and units link, Global positioning

Active Protection System: Arena?

Front Armor (Turret):     composite, very rounded
Front Armor (Hull):       composite
                          3rd generation ERA
Side Armor (Turret):      composite, very rounded
Side Armor (Hull):        ?
                          3rd generation ERA
Rear Armor (Turret):      composite, very rounded
Rear Armor (Hull):        ?
Top Armor (Turret):       ?
                          3rd generation ERA


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