The Type 59G Durjoy, sometimes known as Type 59G,[1] is a highly modernized version of the Chinese Type 59 tank for the Bangladesh Army. The Bangladesh Army's old Type 59 tanks were upgraded similarly to Type 59G standard at 902 Central Workshop of the Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory with Chinese assistance.
The Bangladesh Army renamed the tank as Durjoy.
History
The Bangladeshi Army required armoured vehicles with limited weight but good protection, firepower and speed. Between the 1980s and the early 2000s, the army had hundreds of Type 59 tanks which stayed in service until 2015. The Bangladesh Army decided to upgrade all the remaining functional tanks because the rebuilding process of a tank costs one third of buying a new one.
During this process, only the hull of the original tank is used and all the other aspects are upgraded.[2] BMTF upgraded 174 type 59 tanks to Durjoy standard.