9K112 Kobra - Development

Development

The first generation of Soviet missile tanks started in 1956 when V.A. Malyshev was ordered by Nikita Khrushchev to instill a "new thinking" into the weapons design bureaus. Part of this "new thinking" was the development of missile tanks including the IT-1 firing the Drakon missile and the Taifun armed Obiekt 297. However these early tank designs were failures. A purely missile armed tank had a 300 meter deadzone around it, where it could not engage targets - also the size of the early missiles limited the number carried. Hybrid designs compromised both main gun firepower and missile carrying capacity.

These limitations led to the development of a hybrid system, where the missile was fired through the barrel of the tank's main cannon. The first generation of this concept was the Obiekt 775 tank, armed with a 125 mm smoothbore gun that could fire high explosive unguided rockets, or a radio command guided projectile. The guided projectile was called Rubin (Ruby) and the unguided projectile called Bur (Drill). The tank could carry 24 Rubin missiles and 48 Bur rockets. The project was a failure, as the Rubins shaped charge warhead was not effective enough, and there were concerns that the missiles command link could be jammed.

Development continued during the 1960s but it was not until the 1970s that serious attention was paid to the concept again. This was probably because of three factors:

• The United States development of a 152 mm gun missile system for the M551 Sheridan and M60A2 tank.
• The development NATO anti-tank missiles such as TOW and Euromissile HOT systems, which had better accuracy at long range than contemporary tank guns.
• The increased threat of helicopters such as the AH-1 Cobra. Missiles could offer a degree of protection against treetop-hovering helicopters.

The development of a second generation of Soviet tube fired guided projectiles began in the 1970s. The Kobra missile system was in competition with the IR guided Gyurza system. The IR guidance system of the Gyurza missile proved troublesome and the Kobra was put into production. The 9K112 was first mounted on a new version of the T-64 in 1980. The later T-80B was also armed with the system. The Gyurza system continued to be developed, dropping the IR guidance system in favour of radio command guidance - it was then developed in to the Shturm or AT-6 Spiral.