During the Cold War between the Soviet bloc and the West, the USSR developed a draft design of a T-64 main battle tank equipped with a Rezeda weapon system to use 360mm 9M24 nuclear munitions. It was devised as a nuclear-capable fire support vehicle, yet was never implemented in practice.
The parameters of this project remind of the German Sturmtiger self-propelled gun from the World War II era — but at the same time showcase how diverse the means of delivering nuclear weapons can be, at least in theory.
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The very existence of the draft T-64 equipped with Reseda is stated by the btvt_2019 blog on Telegram. The source provides a few sketches but not the chronological framework of this project.
According to the concept, this tank would be armed with a mortar for 360-millimeter shells, with nine shots available including six stocked in the hull and the other three in the turret. The vehicle was to have a coaxial machine gun and 1,000 rounds for it, the crew consisted of only two people, namely a driver and a commander-gunner. The combat weight was calculated to be 34 tons.
The analysts say this project could not be implemented in metal due to the excessive amount of modifications that were required for the T-64. Otherwise it was supposed to preserve the original protection levels and mobility of the chassis it's based on, the standard variety of T-64 with the project codename Object 432.
As for the nuclear ammunition, the publicly known specification of the 9M24 Rezeda rocket-assisted rounds are: the launch weight is 150 kilograms, the warhead weighs 90 kilograms and has a capacity of up to 0.5 kilotons, the range is 2 to 6 kilometers, and the hit accuracy is within 200 meters.
However, the nuance is, this ammunition was never adopted into service, with its development curtailed in 1965. This detail suggests that, most likely, the works on the said T-64 variant were in progress already before the basic version, the Object 432, entered service in the Soviet military.
Still, the history of this failed undertaking is interesting in itself and illustrates a distinct period in tank development history. The Soviet design resembles the German Sturmtiger self-propelled gun from the days of World War II. Its main armament was a 380mm bomb launcher with a firing range of 5 kilometers, so the similarities are not just conceptual, the parameters were quite close, too.
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