Iraq Is The Latest Middle East Country To Modernize Its Old Tanks

Over the summer, Iraq unveiled its domestically-built Khafil-1 tank. The tank is a heavily modified and modernized version of the vintage T-55/Type 59 tanks that have long been in the Iraqi Army’s arsenal. 

The Khafil-1 has a new and smaller turret and more modern reactive armor to protect its crew from RPGs or anti-tank missiles, a crucially important feature for the kind of conflicts the Iraqi Army fights, and a remote-controlled machine gun.

By extensively modernizing its T-55/Type 59s to more adequately deal with the kind of threats its forces will most likely face for the foreseeable future, Baghdad has undoubtedly prolonged the lifespan and usage of what are otherwise very antiquated tanks.

Other states in the Middle East have modernized and upgraded their older tanks for similar reasons.

For example, Egypt has a large arsenal of vintage T-54/55 and T-62s, many of which it has in storage. Cairo successfully prolonged the life of some of its T-54s by heavily modifying them and making a new variant called the Ramses II.

The Ramses II is a T-54 outfitted with both the engine and gun of the American M60, of which Egypt operates well over 1,000 of to this day.

Iran has also modified and built its own version of various tanks for years now. Beginning in 1996, it began building the Zulfiqar family of tanks. Three versions have been built to date. Iran likely developed the tank from components of older American M60 Patton and Russian T-72 tanks, both of which Iran has operated over the years. 

The tank also bears a striking resemblance to the U.S. M1 Abrams tank, which Iran has never possessed. One overview of the Zulfiqar 3 noted that the layout is also very similar. 

Other Iranian tanks borrow heavily from the design of foreign armor. For example, Iran’s Mobarez tank is an upgraded domestically-built variant of the British Chieftain tank, of which Iran operated several since the 1970s.

Then there is the Karrar tank. When the Iranian Army expressed its desire to procure Russian T-90 tanks in 2016 Tehran only bought 24 and immediately sent them all to a pro-Assad militia in Syria. Iran insisted it doesn’t need to import tanks when it can make its own.

The Karrar strongly resembles the T-90 and, like the T-90, can reportedly fire anti-tank laser-guided missiles from its main gun. As with its previous domestically-built tanks, the Karrar borrows components from several other tanks.

“It is based on the T-72 platform, but it also has something from the American Abrams and M60 tanks,” said Russian military analyst Vladimir Bogatyrev. “Some elements are borrowed from the M48 and the British Chieftain tank. They took all these elements and tried to design their own tank.”

Then there is Turkey. A large portion of Ankara’s tank fleet consists of M60 tanks, with over 1,000 still in service.

Turkey plans to introduce its much more modern domestically-produced Altay main battle tank sometime in this decade. In the meantime, the M60 will likely remain in service for the foreseeable future.

Turkey already wanted to modernize its M60s in the early 2000s. Israel, which already had extensive experience in modernizing and upgrading its M48s and M60s, offered Turkey the Sabra upgrade package.

The Sabra, known as the M60T in Turkish service, came outfitted with new active and passive armor, fire control system, a 120 mm smoothbore gun and 1000HP engine. Israel upgraded 170 of Turkey’s M60s with these capabilities which cost Turkey $687 million. 

In 2016, Turkey launched Operation Euphrates Shield against the Islamic State group and the Kurdish YPG in Syria. Turkey’s M60s, including the M60Ts, participated in large numbers in that operation and proved vulnerable to anti-tank missiles.

Since then, Turkey’s ASELSAN defense firm upgraded the country’s M60T fleet, notably equipping those tanks with new active protection systems to make them more capable of withstanding hits from anti-tank missiles and other such threats.

These programs demonstrate how Middle East powers are becoming increasingly more capable of modifying, upgrading and producing new variants of their tanks and ensuring they will have significantly longer service lives in that notoriously conflict prone part of the world.