The Iranian military currently owns about 2,000-3,000 relatively modern tanks
According to US intelligence, the backbone of Iran's armored forces is the Soviet T-72S MBT units
Tehran has made a lot of efforts to upgrade and improve their power over the original version
In addition, Iran also develops and produces many powerful domestic main battle tanks in accordance with available resources
In 2014, the Iranian Army presented another domestically produced main battle tank, named Sabalan
This is in fact an upgraded version of the M47M Patton medium tank
equipped with a new gun and a new fire control system domestically produced by the Iranian defense industry
Iran’s Sabalan tank has been designed based on the experience and know-how gained from designing the indigenous Zulfiqar and Samsam main battle tanks
The tank has a weight of about 50 tons, a length of 8.5 m, a width of 3.6 m, and a height of 3.3 m
The M47 was a very popular American medium tank during the Cold War, which was exported widely to its allies
The M47M is an upgraded version of the M47 with a number of updates
including the engine and fire control elements of the M60A1 as well as some other improvements
The M47M was later upgraded to Sabalan
It has side skirts and a newly built turret fitted with an American M68 105 mm rifled gun, based on the British L7 rifled gun.
Compared to modern MBTs, Sabalan's main gun cannot match modern MBTs, which are armed with 120 mm or 125 mm gun
Other upgrades include a laser range finder, new fire control system and communication equipment
Auxiliary armament includes a coaxial 7.62 mm machine gun
Most likely can mount a 12.7 mm heavy machine gun
The new Iranian tank has a new turret, but lacks additional explosive reactive armor
Crew of four, including commander, gunner, loader and driver.
Sabalan shares the same engine as the M60, with a 750 hp Continental AVDS-1790-2 turbodiesel
The tank can reach a top speed of 50 km/h, and has a range of 500 km
Iran was delivered about 400 M47s in the 1960s, then upgraded to the M47M standard in the 1970s
An estimated 170 of them are still in service today
It seems that Iran plans to upgrade these ageing tanks to Sabalan standard to keep them combat worthy and in service
Sabalan upgrade costs about one third of the price of the newly-built Zulfiqar 3 MBT
Currently it is unknown how many tanks will be upgraded to Sabalan standard