In Development: Object 292

Commanders!

Today, we’d like to officially unveil the second of the upcoming progression vehicles, the Soviet Object 292 MBT!

As usual, let’s have a bit of history first. Object 292 was a late Soviet era “supertank” that was intended to fight the next generation of NATO MBTs. It was designed as an improved variant of the T-80 series MBT by the Kirov Plant in Leningrad (St. Petersburg).

You might be familiar with an overhauled T-80BV MBT with the 152mm 2A73 gun but that was not the “true” Object 292 – much like the Black Eagle “prototype”, it was just a testbed (in this case for the gun). It was developed in 1990 to see whether the 152mm gun could fit into the T-80B turret. It could (with some adjustments) and the vehicle underwent extensive trials in 1991 in Rzhev.

The tests have confirmed that the gun represented a major improvement of firepower compared to the standard 125mm 2A46 smoothbore series, including a 50 percent increase of muzzle energy. At the same time, due to its advanced construction, the gun had roughly the same recoil as the 2A46, allowing it to be installed into existing Soviet tanks. The chassis of the vehicle was stable and the vehicle performed well. At the same time, another welded turret was developed and it was this new variant that was to be used on the T-80U chassis and it is this combination we’re introducing.

This Object 292 variant (also known as “T-80U tank with LP-83 gun” or sometimes “T-80M”) isn’t super-well documented but it did exist in the form of drawing and several models. In this configuration, the tank weighed roughly 46 tons and had a crew of three men.

The tank was well-armored, the protection levels of the turret were analogical to the T-80U MBT with the ERA kit being upgradeable from the usual Kontakt-5 to Malakhit (a precursor to the current Relikt system). The tank was to be fitted with two active protection systems:

• Shtora-1M soft-kill APS (connected to new 3D17 Purga-2 or 3D17M Purga-2M smoke grenades instead of the usual 902B Tucha system)
• Drozd-2 hard-kill APS

The status of the tank was monitored by a new control system called Barsuk-2.

The armament consisted mainly of the abovementioned 152mm 2A73 cannon (factory designation LP-83). The gun would be automatically loaded from a large carousel beneath the turret and a bustle-mounted charge storage (with blow-out panels). The vehicle carried 30 two-piece rounds, 16 of which were ready in the autoloader magazine. The gun fired the following shells:

• Grifel-1 APFSDS with Tungsten core
• Grifel-2 APFSDS with Depleted Uranium core
• Grifel-3 HE-FRAG
• Zaraysk APFSDS (the name also belongs to the research project of the LP-83 gun, performance unknown)
• Sprinter ATGM with a tandem HEAT warhead

The weapon was controlled by the 1A45M FCS featuring the DVE-BS wind sensor, 1G46M optics and either the older Buran-M night sights or the Agava-2T thermal imager. The commander had T01-K04 Agat-M optics at his disposal.

The tank was powered by the GTD-1250 1250hp gas turbine engine (or even the then-developed 1500hp GTD-1500G engine), allowing it to go as fast as 70 km/h.

In short, it was to be a beast. However, with the breakup of the Soviet Union and the major budget cuts that followed, the vehicle was never really developed into a production variant. Its prototype had stayed abandoned for years until it was moved to the Kubinka tank museum and restored.

In Armored Warfare, the Object 292 will be a Marat Shishkin Tier 10 Main Battle Tank.

We had several options as to what to put on Tier 10 of the branch but this vehicle seemed like the most natural choice, especially when we decided not to just go with a T-80B with a different gun but an entirely new turret. We also debated the name but in the end, we felt that Object 292 is the best-known option.

Gameplay-wise, we’re once again looking at a rather conventional vehicle with the gameplay similar to that of the Tier 7 T-80U MBT. The vehicle will be relatively difficult to destroy due to its compact size, fast, and hard-hitting, although the protection levels will perhaps not be the best of its Tier. After all, it’s a three-decades-old piece of technology. It’ll be best suited for players who like a lot of mobility and firepower without sacrificing too much protection.

We hope you’ll enjoy it and, as always:

See you on the battlefield!