Iranian Army Receives New Suleiman-402 Tanks: How Capable Are They?

The Iranian Army has begun to receive newly developed Suleiman-402 main battle tanks, which are supplied through comprehensive modernisation of the M60 tanks supplied by the United States in the 1970s. The tank most notably differs from the original M60 in its use of a new remotely controlled weapon station, enhanced composite and reactive armour, and the integration of a larger smoothbore gun reported at 120mm or 125mm to replace the older 105m rifled gun. The tank’s upgraded fire control systems includemore advanced targeting sensors, ballistic computers, and night-vision capabilities, while its engine is also reported to have been replaced with a more powerful and fuel efficient successor.

The Iranian tank fleet is currently considered to be among the least sophisticated among the world’s major military powers, and of over 1500 tanks in service over 1000 are obsolete M60s, M47/48s, Chieftains,Type 59s and Chonmas. Although modern Russian T-90s were procured in the 2010s, these were donated to the Syrian Arab Army as aid, and have since fallen into the hands of NATO-aligned Islamist paramilitaries hostile to Tehran. The Iranian Army was previously expected to phase out its obsolete Western tanks in the 1990s and 2000s, replacing them with over 1000 Soviet T-72 tanks produced under license. After the USSR’s disintegration, however, Western pressure on Moscow led it to cancel the deal, by which time less than 500 T-72s had been built.

The Suleiman-402 is not expected to provide comparable capabilities either to modern T-72 variants, or to the T-72 derived Karrar tank which Iranian sources claimed had been developed domestically, but which was never produced at scale. The M60 and the similarly capable Chieftain proved to be overwhelmingly outmatched by the T-72 during the Iran-Iraq War, as confirmed by sources from both sides. In the opening stages of the war an Iraqi tank battalion equipped with T-72s neutralised Iranian armour in multiple engagements reportedly suffered no losses whatsoever, with even Iran’s M68 anti tank guns and TOW anti tank missiles proving wholly ineffective. At least one engagement pitting Iraqi T-62 and T-72 units against Iranian armour, including M60s, saw the Iranians lose over 100 tanks with Iraqi losses limited to around a dozen, most of which were T-62s. One of the M60’s leading shortcomings was its reliance on a rifled gun, with the Western world having been approximately 20 years behind the Soviet Union in introducing smoothbore guns into service.

Modernising the M60 to the Suleiman-402 standard is not expected to allow the vehicles to pose a serious challenge to modern classes of main battle tank fielded abroad, but could make them significantly more capable in an infantry support role. Likely a primary rationale for investing in modernising the M60 fleet is Iran’s ability to service and produce parts for the vehicles without relying on foreign supplies, with the cost and economic advantages of investing in an entirely indigenous solution to the obsolescence of the country’s armour expected to be significant. These upgrades may be pursued in parallel to efforts to procure modern main battle tanks from abroad, with the Chinese VT-4 and North Korean Chonma II considered leading contenders to receive new Iranian orders. With several hundred M60 tanks having been lost in the Iran-Iraq War, it remains uncertain what portion of the approximately 150 remaining tanks will be modernised.