Type 59G(BD) Durjoy

Bangladesh is an active delta with hundreds of rivers and swamps. So its army needs armoured vehicles with limited weight but good protection, firepower and speed. Between the '80s and the early 2000s, the army had hundreds of Type 59 tanks which stayed in service until 2015. The Bangladesh Army decided to upgrade all the remaining functional tanks because the rebuilding process of a tank costs one third of buying a new tank. During this process only the tanks, which is based on the upgrade , hull is used and all the other aspects are upgraded.

The tank uses the basic Type 59 hull which is 6.04 metres (19.8 ft) long, 3.27 metres (10.7 ft) wide and has a height of 2.59 metres (8 ft 6 in). Currently the Mark I weighs 40 tonnes (39 long tons; 44 short tons) and the Mark II is a bit heavier 42 tonnes (41 long tons; 46 short tons), unlike the basic Type 59 tanks. The weight of the tank increased due to the added upgrade package.

The Durjoy uses a 730 horsepower (540 kW) diesel engine with a torque of 1400 rpm and has a power to weight ratio of 17.4 hp per tonnes. The maximum speed of the vehicle varies: in fact the Mk.I can at 49 kilometres per hour (30 mph) max and the Mk.II has a total spand of 60 kilometres per hour (37 mph). The tanks range is also different in the versions:400 kilometres (250 mi) for the Mk.I and 450 kilometres (280 mi) for the Mk.II. It is equipped with rubber padded tracks to navigate well in softer soils and swamps. The tank has five road wheels on each side with a prominent gap between the first and second road wheel. The track is driven by a drive sprocket at the rear, with an idler at the front. It is notable that there are no return rollers. The suspension is a torsion bar system. The engine exhaust is on the left fender.

The Durjoy tanks require a crew of 4 people which includes commander, driver, gunner and loader. Unlike the basic Type 59, the Durjoy has an air conditioning system to increase crew comfort and complete NBC protection.

Protection

Side view of Durjoy MBT

The primary protection system of the tank is made of a layer of thick steel modular composite armour. To increase protection against APFSDS, HEAT and ATGM rounds, there is Chinese 3rd generation explosive reactive armour on the Mk.I placed on the tank's front and turret, and Kontakt-5 on the Mk.II placed all around the tank to protect it from all types of projectiles, including APFSDS, HEAT, HE-FS, HE-FRAG as well as ATGMs. Besides, there is cage armour at the back of the turret to increase the protection level. Smoke grenade launchers are fitted to each side of the turret. A collective fire suppression system is added to increase the crew survivability rate.

The tanks are equipped with a laser warning receiver to give a warning when it's targeted by enemy laser range-finder or laser designator. It also has a soft-kill active protection system and an electronic countermeasure system to protect itself against anti-tank guided missiles.

Armaments

125 mm main gun of Type 59G(BD) Durjoy

The Durjoy tank has a 125 mm smoothbore gun which is the tank's primary weapon. The gun has a dual-axis gun stabilizer which enables the tank to fire at a target while the tank is moving. This gun is capable of firing armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS), high-explosive anti-tank warhead (HEAT) and high explosive (HE) rounds as well as anti-tank guided missiles. The tank carries a total of 28 shells for the main gun and can fire at a rate of 4 shells per minute. It's APFSDS round can penetrate over 500 mm of RHA at 2 kilometres.[1]

As a secondary armament, it has a 12.7 mm W85 heavy machine gun with 3000 rounds and a 7.62 mm Type 86 coaxial machine gun with 550-600 rounds. The 12.7 mm machine gun can be used in an anti-aircraft role too.

 Bangladesh

• Bangladesh Army: 174 Type 59 tanks are upgraded or being upgraded.

Comparable tanks

• Al-Zarrar
• M60-2000 Main Battle Tank
• M60 Sabra
• Magach
• Ramses II MBT
• Sho't
• TR-85
• Type 72Z

Related Developments

• Type 59
• T-54/T-55
• Type 69II G

Related lists

• T-54/T-55 operators and variants