Browsing through online forums one can find not only photographs of the Buntar (Rebel) tank but can also learn that it sported modular armor, an antiaircraft gun placed under the commander’s seat and fiber optic observation instruments instead of the conventional prism-type ones.
Online forum participants all agree that, back in its day, the Buntar was a major breakthrough in the field of tank design.
According to an article published on Military Informant website, the Buntar tank was designed in Kharkiv, Ukraine, as part of an effort to develop a new generation of battle tanks for the Soviet armed forces.
A number of prototypes were built as part of the program, launched in the early 1980s with two-stroke diesel engines, gas-turbine engines, T-64 chassis, electric transmission and two- and three-man crew configurations.
The year 1987 saw the advent of a principally new concept, built around 152mm smoothbore cannon.
Many of the tank designs developed as part of that program are still classified.
