Guns? Who needs guns when you’ve got the business end of a Mig jet engine mounted on your tank’s turret?
That’ll show those land mines who’s boss.
The Russians really like using jet engines for just about anything. Let’s use a jet engine for mine clearing?
Da! Let’s use a jet engine to melt snow? Da!
Meet the Progvev-T, a gas-dynamic minesweeper.
This 37-tons beast was a T-54 tank base and a MiG-15 jet engine on top. Progvev-T also had a container with kerosene that allowed it to clear up to 6 kilometers of road without refueling.
The concept was simple to imagine. Take a jet engine and use the considerable heat and blast effect to clear and disable mines. Easy right?
The only problem with the design was that the size of the tank and noise generated do not make it a stealthy beast at all. The T-54/55 hull could take the weight with no problem. It just was an easy and slow target.
