Iran’s Karrar Equals World’s Best Tanks

Date: 20 January 2019 - 21:45

News ID: ۶۲۲۹۰

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iran’s latest model of its domestically-built Karrar tank puts it at the level of other world powers, officials have said.
In recent years Iran has built up an impressive list of new weapons systems, including ballistic missiles, and sought to improve its navy and air force.
According to Iran’s Tasnim news agency, a tank dubbed the Karrar (striker) that was initially announced in 2017 is based on models going back to the 1970s. It was developed from the platform of a Russian T-72.
Iranian military experts and technicians have in recent years made great headways in manufacturing a broad range of indigenous equipment, making the armed forces self-sufficient in the arms sphere.
Iran’s deputy Defense Minister General Qassem Taqizadeh discussed the latest version of the tank alongside a new Soumar cruise missile this month. The Karrar was destined to be delivered both to the army and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).
"The tank is at the level of the most advanced global tanks and can be compared to the Russian T-90 tank, even having superiority over it,” former Defense Minister Hussein Dehqan was quoted in Shabestan news.
"It is a tank that, if we want to compare, is on the American Abrams scale.”
The T-90 has been in service since the 1990s and the Abrams since the 1980s but both have received major upgrades since then.
Dehqan played a central role in developing the latest Karrar line of tanks that are built in the city of Dorud in Lorestan province.
The tank has an electro-optical fire control system, and the ability to fire at moving targets at night and in the day, as well as be able to shoot missiles with laser guidance. Like the T-90 its man gun is a 125mm cannon. The tank has armor effective against RPG-7s and similar ordinance.
So far Iran hopes to build 800 of the tanks to bolster its armed forces.