Iranian Ground Forces | News and Equipment

[Natalya Shadova]

Unfortunately there was only one Karrar main battle Tank participating in the Great Prophet 17 exercise. What was thought to be the second Karrar MBT is only the same Karrar without the camouflage netting and shrouds.

How exactly did you come to the conclusion that those were the same tank?

 

[Natalya Shadova]

Bahram Jan I have few questions:
1-Why they only had one Karrar ...surly the Tank Factories can produce more than one within the last two years.Is it because the final configuration of the tank still not decided.

2- What engine is used ..Same old T72 original or upgraded..who provides the engine...Iranian or Russian.

3- Does Karrar have "Active Protection" system.How do you rate Karrar against Latest Merkava Tank .

1: There were 2 tanks the in the exercises, and we know dedicated Karrar production lines exist. We saw 6 on the production line back in 2017, and a few more in 2020.

2: Karrar has a 1000hp engine, but Iran produces a 1300hp one that can also be used.

3: It has an APS, but only against ATGMs. It uses electro optical jammers, but the 2 tanks during exercises had new jammers not previously seen

I think that we have two models out there. One modified T-72 upgraded to Karrar standard and the actual Karrar with Iranian engine.

Are you talking about these tanks?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1465010850603966469

 

[Bahram Esfandiari]

Bahram Jan I have few questions:
1-Why they only had one Karrar ...surly the Tank Factories can produce more than one within the last two years.Is it because the final configuration of the tank still not decided.

2- What engine is used ..Same old T72 original or upgraded..who provides the engine...Iranian or Russian.

3- Does Karrar have "Active Protection" system.How do you rate Karrar against Latest Merkava Tank .

1. I don't know why they only brought 1 to Qeshm Island as part of the Exercise. I was surprised to see Karrar with IRGC ground forces because I was under the impression that the IRGC was going to upgrade their T-72 fleet with the upgrade package that they themselves have developed.

2- around last year there were pictures released from the Bani-Hashem Tank plant in Dorud, Lorestan. one of the Karrars photographed at the plant had a banner that read "hp 1000". from this I assume that it is a 1000 Hp diesel engine. Possibly a turbo charged version of the original 840hp V-84 T-72S engine.

3.a) Karrar was designed with a "Soft Kill" Active Protection System designed to trick the Guidance system of Semi Automatic Control Line of Sight (SACLOS) missiles like T.O.W. This was a direct lesson from the war in Syria. SACLOS missiles use a flair at the rear of the missile for the fire control system to track the position of the missile in flight and guide it to the target. the Passive protection system is mounted on either side of the turret and it emits a read light that mimics the flair and confuses the missile's fire control system resulting in it missing its target.

b) I don't think karrar was designed to go up against the Merkava or Abrams but to upgrade the T-72 to be more survivable on the modern battlefield by employing lessons learned in the Syrian theater and be able to deal with Modern MBTs that are in service with Iran's neighbors like Azerbaijan.

 

[sha ah]

Tank on tank battles are extremely rare these days. Preferably the airforce or a fleet or drones will clear the field before tanks and infantry roll in to conduct clean up operations.

Keep in mind that all of Iran's neighbors have export variants of tanks. In Syria ISIS was able to destroy more than a dozen Turkish Leopard 2 tanks pretty easily.

Tanks can cost millions and training the crew can take months. ATGMs cost a fraction of the price of a tank, usually tens of thousands of dollars and basic training only takes hours.

Even if the plan is to engage tanks with tanks, it's a good idea to use ATGM crews or various other means to ambush the enemy first.

1. I don't know why they only brought 1 to Qeshm Island as part of the Exercise. I was surprised to see Karrar with IRGC ground forces because I was under the impression that the IRGC was going to upgrade their T-72 fleet with the upgrade package that they themselves have developed.
View attachment 803031
2- around last year there were pictures released from the Bani-Hashem Tank plant in Dorud, Lorestan. one of the Karrars photographed at the plant had a banner that read "hp 1000". from this I assume that it is a 1000 Hp diesel engine. Possibly a turbo charged version of the original 840hp V-84 T-72S engine.
View attachment 803032
3.a) Karrar was designed with a "Soft Kill" Active Protection System designed to trick the Guidance system of Semi Automatic Control Line of Sight (SACLOS) missiles like T.O.W. This was a direct lesson from the war in Syria. SACLOS missiles use a flair at the rear of the missile for the fire control system to track the position of the missile in flight and guide it to the target. the Passive protection system is mounted on either side of the turret and it emits a read light that mimics the flair and confuses the missile's fire control system resulting in it missing its target.

b) I don't think karrar was designed to go up against the Merkava or Abrams but to upgrade the T-72 to be more survivable on the modern battlefield by employing lessons learned in the Syrian theater and be able to deal with Modern MBTs that are in service with Iran's neighbors like Azerbaijan.

 

[Sineva]

They should really be putting these massive miniguns and big *** guns on an humvee-like vehicle. I hate that they put them on a Safir or Aras vehicle like it is some makeshift technical.

Yeah,I get what you`re saying,maybe something more like this

But I also liked this little MRAP utility

 

[Bahram Esfandiari]

why spread false informations ? why some people need to make up stuff to put everything in negative light *facepalm*

pics from different karrars in the exercise.

slightly different main cannon turret (just look at the tip of the cannon), camouflage on turret and armour and abit change in machinegun...

even a blind man can tell its not the same Tank.

its 2 different Karrars the second one is a newer produced model.

they are still some changes going on in the Tank. Its entering mass production though according IRGC`s run Instagram page.

1.The main gun in the top picture has a muzzle cover on it. the cover is removed in the bottom picture.
2. In the top Phot the Crew commander's remote weapons system is pointed to the rear of the vehicle and in the bottom picture it is pointed to the front.

I am a Big Fan of the Karrar MBT project and it is not my intention to spread false negative information to discredit it. I had looked closely at he Photos presented and came to the conclusion that there where 2 Karrars present but then I saw this picture.

By looking at the camo pattern on the exposed parts of the Barrel it became clear to me that this was the same Karrar as the one without the added Camouflage netting and shrouds.

 

[Bahram Esfandiari]

Karrar as upgrade package or Karrar as brand new tank with everything new? Confused.

Karrar uses existing T-72 hulls and adds a new all welded Turret with None Explosive reactive armour (NERA) and Explosive reactive Armour (ERA). Iran can build new hulls but why waste money when there are hundreds of T-72s around to utilize?

 

[TheImmortal]

1.The main gun in the top picture has a muzzle cover on it. the cover is removed in the bottom picture.
2. In the top Phot the Crew commander's remote weapons system is pointed to the rear of the vehicle and in the bottom picture it is pointed to the front.

I am a Big Fan of the Karrar MBT project and it is not my intention to spread false negative information to discredit it. I had looked closely at he Photos presented and came to the conclusion that there where 2 Karrars present but then I saw this picture.
View attachment 803042
By looking at the camo pattern on the exposed parts of the Barrel it became clear to me that this was the same Karrar as the one without the added Camouflage netting and shrouds.

Anytime Iran adds camo Netting to a tank, it’s a reused tank.

This tactic was used heavily during the Zolfighar-3 development fiasco. I don’t know who they think is fooled by these moves.

 

[Bahram Esfandiari]

I don't see why should Iran bother producing spare parts for T-72 to the point of being able to produce T-72 and manufacture it on standard of T-90 instead of using some parts from M60 and design T-72/T-90 that uses some parts that Iranian M60 use. North Korea developed better heavier tanks from basis of tooling they used to manufacture T-62 / Chonma-ho.

The Iranian Army itself had a Main Battle Tank project that started around the end of the Iran Iraq war and was based on the M-60. This was called the Zolfaqar and it evolved through to Zolfaqar-3 but it never went to mass production due to lack of funding. The Karrar was a Project belonging to the Defense Industry Organization.
Zolfaqar-1

Zolfaqar-3

 

[aryobarzan]

1. I don't know why they only brought 1 to Qeshm Island as part of the Exercise. I was surprised to see Karrar with IRGC ground forces because I was under the impression that the IRGC was going to upgrade their T-72 fleet with the upgrade package that they themselves have developed.
View attachment 803031
2- around last year there were pictures released from the Bani-Hashem Tank plant in Dorud, Lorestan. one of the Karrars photographed at the plant had a banner that read "hp 1000". from this I assume that it is a 1000 Hp diesel engine. Possibly a turbo charged version of the original 840hp V-84 T-72S engine.
View attachment 803032
3.a) Karrar was designed with a "Soft Kill" Active Protection System designed to trick the Guidance system of Semi Automatic Control Line of Sight (SACLOS) missiles like T.O.W. This was a direct lesson from the war in Syria. SACLOS missiles use a flair at the rear of the missile for the fire control system to track the position of the missile in flight and guide it to the target. the Passive protection system is mounted on either side of the turret and it emits a read light that mimics the flair and confuses the missile's fire control system resulting in it missing its target.

b) I don't think karrar was designed to go up against the Merkava or Abrams but to upgrade the T-72 to be more survivable on the modern battlefield by employing lessons learned in the Syrian theater and be able to deal with Modern MBTs that are in service with Iran's neighbors like Azerbaijan.

Thanks Bahram for the information... The "soft Kill" was interesting to me because I am very familiar with the TOW Tracking system details .

 

[yugocrosrb95]

The Iranian Army itself had a Main Battle Tank project that started around the end of the Iran Iraq war and was based on the M-60. This was called the Zolfaqar and it evolved through to Zolfaqar-3 but it never went to mass production due to lack of funding. The Karrar was a Project belonging to the Defense Industry Organization.

So IRGC lead organization got priority funding for their projects as usual...

...and then those IRGC fanboys brag about "achievements and successes of IRGC" made possible by nepotism, cronyism and favoritism when IRGC milks Iran-Iraq War for all its worth.

 

[aryobarzan]

So IRGC lead organization got priority funding for their projects as usual...

View attachment 803155

...and then those IRGC fanboys brag about "achievements and successes of IRGC" made possible by nepotism, cronyism and favoritism when IRGC milks Iran-Iraq War for all its worth.

IRGC is Iran and Iran is IRGC...you be better off to stay with technical issue .

 

[Cthulhu]

So IRGC lead organization got priority funding for their projects as usual...

That's not an IRGC lead organization.

 

[yugocrosrb95]

IRGC is Iran and Iran is IRGC...

This sentence reminds me of cancerous people that support Croatian Democratic Union(HDZ) in my country.

There are limited number of T-72 to upgrade and that was favored instead of having capability to mass produce main battle tanks domestically to increase number of armor while also recover any losses during potential war while by just upgrading T-72 tanks that can't be repaired once destroyed beyond any attempt of salvage being worthwhile hence no way to recover losses.

That's not an IRGC lead organization.

If I remember correctly Director of DIO is IRGC member that manages and leads DIO.

Also another IRGC member that does inspection to Ministry of Defense involving Armed Forces Logistics... Hence can apply pressure to prioritize IRGC.

 

[Cthulhu]

If I remember correctly Director of DIO is IRGC member that manages and leads DIO.

Also another IRGC member that does inspection to Ministry of Defense involving Armed Forces Logistics... Hence can apply pressure to prioritize IRGC.

The Karrar is designed by a subsidiary of MOD, They get their own funding from the budget, Separate from IRGC and the Artesh. Also the MOD is headed by an Artesh member.