Object 775 Rocket Tank

In the early 1960s, with accelerated development of missile weapons, engineers of tank builders turned their eyes to the possibility of installing a tank of missile weapons. It seemed then one of the promising directions of the development of tank armament was the installation on the tank of missile weapons is no longer as an additional, but as a primary. The idea of creating a small, maneuverable, vehicle equipped with a powerful rocket weapons with a large range of defeat "fighter tanks" was at that time very relevant for Soviet engineers. One of the examples of this direction in the history of domestic tank construction is the project of creating a rocket tank known as "Object 775" (on the basis of T-64).

Works on this new project were carried out in the USSR, in the design bureau of the Chelyabinsk plant, in the period from 1962 to 1964. Pavel Isakov was the Head and lead engineer of the project. In a short time, the engineers of the KB have developed working drawings of the future machine, new chassis design and layout scheme. From the classic layout, it differed in that both crew members, mechanic-driver and commander, he is a gunner-operator, housed in a special, isolated cabin, located in the turret of the tank. During rotation of the turret cab rotates along with it. With the driver's seat was a separate independent structure, which allows the rider to always be face forward, regardless of which side is Tower tank. A distinctive feature of the design of the hull and turret was that the original scheme for accommodation of the crew managed to make significant reduction of the height of the machine and thus reduce its vulnerability, allowing it to be used in battle as a shelter even most minor crease area. However, low silhouette cars limited to crew members to review and monitor the developments on the battlefield. Combined with the fact that the machine was equipped with special equipment and mechanisms a Dozer, survival in the conditions of modern combat machines had to be very high.

As a power unit was chosen Oppositnyj 5-cylinder diesel Tank Engine 5TDF with liquid cooling capacity of 700 hp, providing the average speed of movement on solid soil to 70 km per hour. The Capacity of fuel tanks allowed the car to pass without additional refueling more than 550 km. Unlike predecessors (IT-1, "Object 287", "Object 430"), it was was decided to change the suspension design on "Object 775". Instead of torsion suspension was installed hydropneumatic, equipped with a mechanism of change of clearance, depending on the combat situation and the nature of the terrain. Tower missile tank was cast, flattened snout, with very low silhouette, making machine height amounted to 1740 mm. Hull machine was going to butt welding method, rolled armor sheet with thickness of a sheet of 30 to 120 mm, that allowed, given the small size and small for this type of machine weight (not more than 37 tons), make the armour protection of the machine is comparable with that of heavy tanks. In addition, to protect the crew from radiation in the event of the use of nuclear weapons, armour plates were covered inside a special compound based on plastics.

The Main weapon of the new "fighter" of tanks was the 125-mm gun-launcher rocket launcher with semi-automatic mechanism of loading D-126, created in OKB-9 and capable of firing as usual uncontrollable anti-tank and guided missiles for a range of up to 4 000 (NRS) and (PTUR) up to 9 000 meters. In addition, there was installed one 7.62-mm tank machine gun SGMT. Ammunition consisted of 22 high-explosive projectiles-missiles and 15 guided missiles "Typhoon" 9M15, cumulative warhead which can burn up to 250 mm of armor at an angle of 60° and meetings up to 500 mm at an angle of 90° at a distance up to 4 000 meters. This surplus was enough to destroy any guaranteed the most heavy and well armored tank, consisting at that time armed with any foreign army. Targeting was done using infrared rays semi-automatic guidance complex, created by the design Bureau Rubin.

Testing of the machine was carried out until 1965, on them "tank fighter" showed good both running and combat qualities. However, the tank was never accepted, which was the reason, now it is difficult to say. Perhaps because of the defects and weak reliability of the missile guidance system or because of the complexity and high cost of production. The only surviving "Object of 775" is currently in the exposition of the Tank Museum.