In the 1980s, the Soviet Union thought about creating a new main tank for the needs of the armed forces. The country's defense enterprises presented several promising projects to the army command, but the collapse of the USSR made its own adjustments to the development process. As a result, some developments were forgotten, while others were returned only in the 1990s. Just such was the "Object 640" or the promising tank "Black Eagle": a machine that could go to the troops of a new country instead of the T-14 "Armata".
The development of a promising tank within the walls of the Omsk Design Bureau of Transport Engineering lasted several years. The current prototype was presented to the army in 1997. The project 640 car was called the romantic nickname "Black Eagle". In fact, it was a deep modernization of the Soviet T-80U tank, which was put into service in 1985. The main feature of the new machine was the use of a 7-roller chassis, which was the product of a deep modernization of the chassis of the already mentioned T-80U.
The Black Eagle tank was noticeably longer than its predecessor. They "stretched" the body for a reason. This was an attempt to strengthen the upper part of the tank, as well as eliminate the weak area in the area of the driver's periscopes. Inside, the tank was divided into several sealed compartments, which were separated from each other by thick sheets of armor. The crew of the tank was located below the level of the tower of the 640th. Tankers could get into their places through the gunner's hatch, as well as through the tank turret. The fuel tanks were placed on the sides of the tank, the fighting compartment and the control compartment were connected to each other into one compartment.
The armor in the Black Eagle was noticeably thicker than that of its predecessor tanks. Compared to the Soviet T-80, the armor of the combat vehicle turret has increased by 20-25%. The hull was reinforced with additional armor plates. The tank's ammunition was located in a separate removable armored capsule, which was connected inside the tank to an automatic loader. In the compartment with the ammunition there were knockout panels to divert the blast wave in case of detonation of ammunition as a result of a fire or getting into a tank. The tower of the 640th was welded, made of two fragments. At the same time, fundamentally new methods of cooking were used in its production, which made it possible to achieve even more reliability.
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The main caliber of the Black Eagle was a 125-mm smoothbore gun, exactly the same as on all other tanks of the late Soviet period. Ammunition for the main gun was 32 rounds. As an additional weapon, a 7.62-mm PKT turret machine gun and a 12.7-mm Kord anti-aircraft machine gun were used. Smoke grenade launchers were installed on the tank turret. The modular armor of the tank was supplemented by the Drozd-2 active protection complex and the Cactus dynamic protection. The promising tank was driven by a gas turbine engine with a capacity of 1,500 hp, which, with a tank mass of 48 tons, allowed the car to accelerate to 80 km / h on the highway. With the presence of external banks, the "Object 640" could travel up to 500 km.
If you believe the statements of the Ministry of Defense, then in reality the "Object 640" was never intended for mass production. Only one single experimental machine was made. The tank became a "living experiment". The technical solutions tested on the Black Eagle have partially migrated to the T-14 Armata, and are partially used to modernize existing and in service Soviet tanks.
If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about what shortcomings the Soviet tankers saw in the legendary T-34.
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/271021/61040/