At 5:29am on July 16th, 1945, the world changed forever when the United States successfully and
secretly detonated the first Nuclear Bomb in the New Mexico desert. Some people consider this test,
codenamed “Trinity” to be the start of the “Atomic Age”, a time where the future was all Nuclear.
Both sides of the iron curtain were quick to implement this revolutionary technology
wherever they could, and this would lead to two of the most interesting tank designs
ever thought up. The nuclear-proof Object 279 and the nuclear-powered Chrysler TV-8.
For the American people in the early 1950s nuclear bombs were now a terrifying reality, but using
Atomic Fission as a power source was positive and it was exciting. Nuclear power was within reach,
and why stop there? There were designs for atomic cars, aircraft, ships, missiles and submarines.
And the military was, of course, very interested. The Air Force had begun work on a nuclear powered
aircraft as early as 1946, a project that would culminate in the Convair X-6. The Navy’s first
Nuclear Submarine put to sea in 1955. The Army was not going to be left out. American designers would
soon attempt to put a nuclear reactor into a tank. The initial idea was for a dedicated reactor
vehicle to power an entire convoy of electric armoured fighting vehicles,
with these vehicles’ turbines switching to petrol before entering combat.
The aptly named “Question Mark III” conference in June 1954 suggested the first Nuclear powered
tank – the TV-1. This vehicle would weigh over 70 tons and be armed with a 105mm gun, with
14 inches of armour and its nuclear fuel source giving 500 hours of operation before refuelling.
The “Question Mark IV” conference the following year would use the newest technologies to create
a lighter design, the R32, weighing in at 50 tons and with a 90mm gun, but offering 4000
miles of range. These were obviously weird tanks,
But this was nothing compared to what Chrysler were working on – the TV-8.
The Chrysler TV-8 was unconventional to say the least. Almost the entire tank was
placed inside the turret, including all 4 crew members and the power plant. The
only aspects of the vehicle not rotating in the turret were, naturally, the tracks,
as well as the motors and the fuel tanks. Notice I said motors – the TV-8 was to be electrically
driven. The V-8 engine would be connected to an electric generator, providing power to the motors
in the hull that would drive each of the tracks. The tank would be armed with a 90mm T208 gun,
the same used on the T95 medium. This gun would be rigidly mounted within the pod shaped turret,
which would be elevated using hydraulic pistons. I’m not sure if this is technically an oscillating
turret but it shares many of the characteristics and drawbacks I went over in my last video.
One drawback it does NOT share is the lack of NBC protection – the TV-8 was designed
to operate during a nuclear war without issue. The turret could be made completely airtight, and
the crew operated the vehicle using closed circuit television cameras, shielding their eyes from any
potential nuclear blast. The pod shaped turret was even streamlined so the vehicle could resist
the nuclear shockwave. This streamlined shape had other benefits – like being able to float.
The outer shell of the vehicle’s turret is just that – an outer shell. The inner armour is more
conventional as you can see here – straight lines and nice sharp angles made from thick,
steel armour. The outer shell was relatively thin, but the gap between the pod and the armour
was filled with air, meaning the 25 ton vehicle could float with ease like a big green balloon.
This outer shell also provided protection, detonating shaped charged warheads
prematurely to protect those inside. But the crew were not the most critical
piece of this vehicle. The first iteration of the design used a gasoline V-8, yes, but the
plan was to replace this with a compact nuclear reactor, and generate power using that instead.
The upside was that the vehicle would have incredible range – over 4000
miles! This is thanks to the fact that nuclear fuel is so much more energy dense that petrol or
diesel could ever be – in fact 1g of uranium fuel has 100,000 times more energy than 1g of diesel.
The cons, however, were pretty huge. The crew would be exposed to large amounts of radiation,
meaning crews would have to operate on a rotating basis in an attempt to limit
exposure. Additionally, if a TV-8 was destroyed the reactor and it’s contents would be sprayed
around the surrounding area, making the zone around the vehicle like a mini Chernobyl.
The Army soon decided that nuclear powered tanks were, in fact, a silly idea,
and admitted they offered no discernible benefits over conventional vehicles while
having more than their fair share of drawbacks. The entire program was cancelled in 1958,
with only one wooden mock up being built of TV-8. The Soviets went for a different tack entirely – committing
to an incredibly heavy tank that would, essentially, be nuke proof. The so-called
Object 279 project started just as the TV-8 project ended, in the middle of 1956.
The Cold War was heating up, and at this point nuclear combat almost looked inevitable.
Soviet designers were planning a vehicle that would be able to emerge unphased from a nuclear
blast, and fight through an extremely hostile nuclear wasteland to take their objectives.
This meant two things – firstly it had to have incredible off road capabilities. Secondly,
it had to be shaped in such a way that the shockwave of a nuclear blast wouldn’t
flip or otherwise disable the vehicle. Object 279 attempted to solve both of
these issues, and is still today probably the most bizarre design to see actual production.
The vehicle was huge – weighing in at 60 metric tons and mounting a mammoth 130mm gun.
A typical vehicle of this weight class would likely just sink into the ground, but the 279 had
a unique feature – it has 4 sets of tracks. The tracks are mounted in two pairs, each pair being
mounted to a hollow rectangular beam which would then be filled with diesel to serve as fuel tanks.
The quad-track arrangement meant that the ground pressure of the vehicle was
significantly less than it’s rivals, and the 279 had excellent cross country performance,
with it’s immense 1000hp engine allegedly powering the 60 ton behemoth to speeds exceeding 50 km/h.
Like the TV-8, the Object 279’s armour is not what it seems.
The sharp point along the edge of the vehicle is thin steel, creating a void to
protect against shaped charges while enhancing the aerodynamic effect of the armour beneath.
The armour protection of the vehicle was incredible for the time period,
with the cast turret front offering over 320mm of steel on the front and 220mm on the sides.
The hull was even more impressive, with the maximum frontal armour being 270mm not even
taking into account the steep angles of the hull. The sides of the vehicle reportedly
varied from 180mm to 100mm. Nuke proof indeed. The vehicle was also equipped with a relatively
modern NBC protection system, with an over pressured, air conditioned crew compartment giving
it the ability to operate in the most hostile environments for extended periods of time. That
is – if it was still operable. See, the Object 279 was absolutely riddled with reliability issues.
The hydro-pneumatic suspension system would’ve been a problem if there were just 2 tracks,
but this vehicle had 4, doubling all of the maintenance required. It was fast in a
straight line but turning was an agonisingly slow process due to the track arrangement,
and at 60 tons any sort of serious maintenance or repair was almost impossible in the field.
In the end, it suffered the same fate as the M103 and Conqueror – with the focus
shifting to lighter, cheaper medium or main battle tanks.
Check out the M103 video if you want a more in depth look at the fall of the heavy tank.
It also didn’t help that in 1960 the then Soviet premiere Nikita Khrushchev banned any
vehicle from being over 37 tons, in an effort to ease the strain on soviet logistics. The
project was shelved, with one of the 3 completed prototypes surviving in Kubinka tank museum, and the other two being scrapped.
Object 279 could survive a nuclear blast, but clearly nothing can withstand bureaucracy.
In the end neither design would make it to full scale production,
both plagued by seemingly insolvable issues.
No nuclear reactor was ever put into an armoured vehicle as per the TV-8 design,
but the legacy of the vehicle lives on, with a rusted TV-8 somehow making it into the Marvel
TV show “Loki”. You can see it lurking in the grass in a few different shots, inexplicably.
And no vehicle since has had 4 tracks like the 279, or looked quite so much like a UFO.
Two truly revolutionary designs, but just maybe a bit too revolutionary.
Guys I just want to thank you SO much for 10,000 subscribers. It’s
an absolutely massive milestone and obviously I couldn’t have done it without your support.
So many supportive comments and so much positive feedback, both on the YouTube and
the discord and I just appreciate it so much. Face reveal at 100k? See you in the next one!