MBT 04 Tigershark

"Let the enemy run while they can, we'll catch up soon enough."
-Unnamed Tigershark commander.

The MBT-04 "Tigershark" is an advance main battle tank made by Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory. It is the standard Main Battle tank of the armed force of Republic of Bangladesh and many other SAARC nations. It is the first indigenous main battle of Bangladesh and is known for high speed, accurate and lethal firepower and its ease of maintains.

Design & Development: The Tigershark is the result of Bangladesh army desire to create their own armored fighting vehicles. Previously the Bangladesh Armed forced operated imported tanks such is the PAC Type-235 main battle tank. The tanks were of foreign design and required technical assistance to operate efficiently. In the early 20’s, Bangladesh issued a requirement for a main battle tank that was to be lighter than fifty ton, had to have a gun adequate to counter modern armor and must have mobility as good as the current tank in service. As none of countries industrial companies had the capability or resource to make a tank on their own, all of them combined their efforts under to construct a single design. It took them three years to design and finish the first prototype which was followed another two years of testing and redesign. Finally the new tank was christened as the MBT-04 "Tigershark" and was accepted into service.

Crew Layout: The crew layout is fairly conventional in the Tigershark with the driver at the front and commander, gunner and loader at the turret. One notable difference is however since the main gun of the tank is offsetted on the right, loader sits behind the gunner instead of the commander.    

Protection: The tank is protected by blocs of nano-crystal steel modular ceramic composite armor in the front and sides and is entirely covered by 30mm of carbon coated titanium spaced appliqué armor panels. These panels are placed over the hulls and magnetically locked in placed. These panels have two functions. The first one is to protect the tank from shaped charge munitions while the second make the tank stealthy thereby making it harder to detect.  The tank also futures an Walton AEDS-231 softkill countermeasure system and has mounting points for a hardkill systems

Armament: The main armament of the Tigershark is a BOF-05 100mm fully stabilized  electro-thermal gun. The gun is fed by a five round loading clip allowing the tank to rapidly fire off five shots without having to reload. One interesting feature of the one piece shells it fires that is the propellant charges are encased in combustible bags instead of metal casing. The shells are stored in compartment surrounded by a pressurized water/glycol mixture – so-called "wet-stowage". In the event of a hit which penetrated the fighting compartment, the jacket would rupture, soaking the charges and preventing a catastrophic propellant explosion. As there is no shell case, the firing of the charge is done by vent tubes automatically loaded from a magazine on the breech. The gun is targeted by a Walton PTS-05 fire control system. The tank is also equipped with two 12.7mm heavy machinegun one of which is located on top of the main gun while the other is located on top of the turret in front of the commander’s hatch which can be remotely controlled from inside the turret.    

Mobility: The Tigershark is power by a compact Progoti HTE-023 6-cylinder 2 storke multi fuel engine generating 1,200 hp, drives a hydro-mechanical automatic transmission capable of both manual and fully automatic power-shifting, the transmission has 5 forward and 2 reverse speeds along with a braking system that incorporates carbon friction brakes and a secondary speed-retarding system. This allows the 46 ton vehicle to reach an impressive top speed of 75 kilometer per hour on road and 60 kilometer per hour on rough terrain in just under 12 seconds.  The tank uses the time tested torsion bar suspension system with advance friction dampers. The running gear consists of five dual rubber-tire road wheels per side, with the idler wheel at the front and drive sprocket at the rear. Another interesting feature of the tank is the four inflatable 200 liter fuel tanks located on the each sides of the tank incased in armored housing. This housing can be either used to carry extra fuel or can also be used as stowage bin for other equipment.  

The Tigershark is now slowly replacing the older MBT in Bangladesh Military service while more than a few nations have ordered the vehicle for their own armed forces. Currently, there are multiple ongoing project based on its hull that includes a Self Propelled Anti Aircraft Gun design, an Heavy Infantry Fighting Vehicle Design and even a Heavy Tank Concept primarily for export market.   

 
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