Object 279 – The Tank Designed to Survive a Nuclear Blast
It is common knowledge by now that Soviet-era prototypes – particularly tanks – were extremely weird, but the Object 279 takes it to a whole new level. Perhaps the strangest of them all, the Object 279 had more tracks, more armor and more firepower than just about anything else at the time.
This bizarre machine appeared during a wild period for Soviet tank design – from around the final months of WWII to the mid 1960s. Vehicles like the IS-7, T-10 and the flat-as-pancake Object 775 were just some of the tanks to come out of this era.
This time was fraught with the threat of nuclear war and the uninhabitable radioactive wastelands that followed. Tank designers on both sides reacted accordingly, creating what they believed to be the best means of operating in a future shaped by nuclear warfare.
In 1956, the Soviet Union’s Chief Armored Vehicle Directorate listed new requirements for a heavy tank. At this time heavy tanks were still in fashion, with the Soviet Union fielding the IS-2, IS-3, IS-4 and T-10.
