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Object 757 Tank w/ Kobra ATGM

The 1950s and early 1960s are one of the most interesting periods for Soviet armored vehicles. It was then that the appearance of the Soviet advanced tank of the second post-war generation was formed in various design organizations. These were the years when the “rocketization” of our armed forces, under the influence of the adventurous plans of the country's leadership, began to grow into euphoria. Some offered to build only rocket tanks, as in their opinion the artillery lost its value, others stood for the mixed armament of tanks consisting of guided missiles (ATGM).

"Object 757" created on the basis of the tank IS-3M. In fact, this is a mobile unit that fired Rubin self-guided missiles. At that time, the ATGM had only just appeared and were a new word in military technology. The homing missiles were the latest technology. The infrared red beam was used as a sight. However, the system was not perfect. There were a lot of advantages. It was enough to rest on the target with a beam, and the rocket itself found it, and there were only minuses: a hindrance in the form of a smoke screen or something like that - and the homing rocket could lose the target and go on self-destruction. In addition, the USSR Ministry of Defense refused to manufacture heavy tanks. So on the "object 757" a cross was put. The tank did not even have time to get a name.

The “Object 757” tank with the Kobra anti-tank missile system was developed at the ChTZ design bureau under the supervision of the chief designer of the plant, P.P. Isakov at the end of 1958 using units and assemblies designed for the Object 770 tank. The prototype tank was manufactured by the factory in 1959. The Tank “Object 757” was not accepted into production and was not in serial production.

The tank had a classical scheme of a general layout with a divided arrangement of a crew of three, the installation of an ATGM in a rotating turret and a longitudinal arrangement of a diesel engine in the stern of the vehicle. The workplace of the driver was housed in the control compartment, made similar to the control compartment of the T-10M tank. The jobs of the commander and gunner-operator were placed on a rotating platform in the fighting compartment, respectively, to the right and left of the gun-launcher. Due to the installation of a low-power turret, the height of the machine was only 1895 mm.

The main weapon of the tank "Object 757" was ATGM "Cobra". The gun-launcher, stabilized in two planes, was located in the fighting compartment along the longitudinal axis of the turret. To the left and right of him were twinned with him 7.62-mm machine gun SGMT and 14.5-mm machine gun KPVT. The maximum firing range of the Kobra ATGM guided missiles was up to 3,000 meters during the day and up to 2,000 meters at night. The front windows of sights and observation devices were protected by armored covers against the effects of gases when fired by a guided missile. The mechanism for closing the covers worked both from the signal of the missile launch system and from the ESD sensor.

In the conveyor of the loading mechanism, in the central part of the crew compartment, there were 18 guided missiles “Cobra” with a caliber of 160 mm, a length of 1250 mm and a mass of 46 kg. Missiles were loaded through the barrel of a gun-launcher at an elevation angle of 0 ° using a hand-operated rammer, tilter and a mechanism for raising and lowering rockets. The rocket had wings, folding in size gauge. The working body on the rocket, executing control commands, was a special rocket engine. The rocket on the flight path rotated with an angular velocity of 10 revolutions per second. The march speed of the rocket was 350 m / s.

The armor protection of the tank "Object 757" - anti-rigging. The bow part of the armor hull had the same shape as that of the heavy T-10M tank. The upper frontal part of the body, 98 mm thick, was tilted 76 ° from the vertical and had a turning angle. The tank was equipped with PAZ and PPO. For the installation of smoke (aerosol) air curtains, two smoke bladders BDSh-5 with remote control were used.

In the engine compartment of the tank was installed diesel V12-6F capacity of 588 kW (800 lu). The maximum speed of the tank with a mass of 44 tons reached 65 km / h. The capacity of the fuel tanks (1650 l) ensured a range of 400 km along the highway. The tank used a double-flow hydromechanical transmission with a hydraulic control system. In the transmission of the tank used onboard gearboxes designed for the tank "Object 734". On each side of the crawler tracker, there were 5 large-diameter double-disc track rollers with internal cushioning and a caterpillar with small footprint. The suspension system used a hydropneumatic suspension, the nodes of which were built into the balancers. The work on the tank was terminated by the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of May 30, 1960. The reason for this is the rejection of the concept of heavy tanks in the Soviet Union and the creation of a new tank "Object 772", which also had missile weapons.

In 1962, the tank "Object 757" was sent to Kolomna in the OKB-14 of the USSR Civil Aviation Concern by the OT (chief designer B.I. Shavyrin) to carry out experimental work on the installation of the Rubin ATGM, which ensured the firing of guided missiles and unguided rocket projectiles. Instead of a 160-mm cannon launcher, a 125-mm stabilized D-126S launcher with a loading mechanism was installed in the low-strength turret instead of a 160-mm gun launcher. It was developed by UZTM OKB-9 and was a recoilless system with a rifled barrel. The opening of the wedge of the gun-launcher was carried out using a pneumatic actuator, closing - a spring mechanism. The barrel tube was replaced without dismantling the gun-launcher.

The Rubin guided missile, 125 mm in caliber and 1.5 m long, had a cumulative warhead (warhead weight 5.5 kg, explosive mass 2.7 kg), which pierced vertically positioned steel armor 500 mm thick. At that time, it reliably penetrated the frontal armor of all foreign tanks. The missile was aimed at the target using a semi-automatic system for the infrared beam. The rate of fire of the ATGM “Rubin” was 4-5 shots / min, the maximum firing range was 4000 m, and the missile flight speed was -550 m / s. The aimed range of the “Bur” projectile (developed by Scientific Research Institute-147, chief designer AN Ganichev) was 9000 m, the rate of fire was 8-10 shots / min, the average flight speed was 650-700 m / s.

The only surviving specimen is in the Vadim Zadorozhny private technology museum, located in the Arkhangelskoe estate in the Krasnogorsk district of the Moscow region. For a long time, historians believed that the super tank of the 60s was not preserved. But enthusiasts got him out of the swamp on the outskirts of one of the military ranges. By museum standards, it is almost in perfect condition: even the fire extinguisher is preserved.