AT 2016 year, the front pages of Ukrainian publications and news releases of major channels came out with information about, that Ukraine has begun to develop a promising Tirex tank. It was stated, that developers are ready to submit a version of MBT, who “will revolutionize tank building”. Notably, that it was immediately announced about the "number of superiorities" of the future Tirex tank over the Russian T-14 Armata tank.
Now the Ukrainian sphere of military industry states, that no revolution in tank building took place, and Tirex remained a “paper tank” – in the sense, what's different version, in addition to drawings on paper, doesn't have.
Initially, Tirex was going to repeat some aspects of the design of the aforementioned Russian T-14. In particular, it was a desert tower. It was argued, that eventually the tank can become completely unmanned.
Voiced in 2016 year "planned" parameters: weight 39 tonnes, the main armament is a caliber gun 125 mm with high-power shells, dynamic protection blocks “Duplet” and “Knife” developed by Kiev “Mikrotek”. The emphasis was on, that the base model for the "iconic tank" should be the T-64.
experts note, that the design of the Ukrainian tank presented several years ago was, so to speak, technically unviable. In particular, we are talking about statements on the “creation of more powerful ammunition for the Tirex gun”. With the voiced mass of the tank, firing from a gun with 125-mm high-power shells could lead to problems with the stability of the combat vehicle.
Especially this problem would manifest itself when shooting on the go..
Among experts there is an opinion, what if the crew fired from a tank gun on the move, then this could lead to exorbitant loads on the trailing edge of the tower mount with the transfer of momentum to the ammunition. To avoid ring deformation, holding ammunition, it would require either the use of a particularly durable alloy, or increase the thickness of the ring structure. With suitable alloys in modern Ukraine, big problems. In the case of an increase in the thickness of the ring, this would lead to the need to reduce the number of shells in the ammunition by 3-4 units.
An additional factor of non-viability for the tank design presented at the time “Tireks” – rear projection of the tower. If a projectile hits the turret from behind, even on a tangent projection, they themselves will increase the effectiveness of this hit. The figure is marked with a red triangle
With a high degree of probability, a hit of this kind would lead to the separation of the tower or detonation of the ammunition.
