Defender/Y5 Family

This is a list of Defender/Y5 family tanks in World of Tanks Blitz.

## Lore

*The following "history" is entirely fictional. However, it is based on the official lore of the Defender/Y5 series by Wargaming, with some evidence-based speculation.*

### Defender

Sometime during WWII, the Soviet Union built at least one prototype tank based on the IS-3, but with an "electric engine", as a British tanker later described it. This tank was known as a "Defender" by the Red Army. One such tank was painted black by its crew before being called to reinforce a squad of tanks that had been attacked by German scout tanks. The Defender engaged and destroyed at one of the scouts, killing all but the commander, who was immediately captured and sent to a POW camp. The Defender then went on to destroy several more scouts.

Years passed, and the IS-3 Defender had made a name for itself as it fought in many battles, leaving thousands of fallen enemies in its wake. However, western development soon caught up to the Soviet tank. In response to the IS-3 Defender, the United States initiated the Defender Project, which was developed in total secrecy in a lab in a Nevada desert (presumably Area 51).

The new tank was based on the prototype of the T28, but was powered by an engine that was years ahead of its time. Rumored to be of extraterrestrial origin, the American Defender engine appeared to run on some sort of electricity. Another unusual feature was its electromagnetic railgun. Like the engine, the origins of the railgun were unknown even to the engineers, who were supplied the weapon by their superiors. Like its Soviet counterpart, the T28 Defender's armor is black, though it is unknown whether this is just paint or the true color of the material.

Finally, decades later, the United Kingdom also built a black tank with similar technology to the Soviet and American Defenders, only based on the Centurion. One such Defender Mk. 1 tank was assigned to the best Centurion crew in the British Army. Just two weeks after being introduced to the tank, the Defender's crew engaged an enemy convoy, destroying half of it and leaving the rest in chaos and panic. The existence of the British Defender project was declassified by the 1980s (though the technological details were still top secret by the 2010s), with many documentaries on the tank airing and the commander of the tank able to tell his grandson war stories about his battles in it.

### Y5

Years after the Defenders, the technology corporation Hybrid Nation announced the Y5 series of medium tanks based on still classified Defender technology. These tanks used the hull of the Cromwell and engine technology. The Y5 series was built in three variants, the Y5 T-34, Y5 Firefly, and Y5 ELC bis, which were equipped with the turret of the T-34, Sherman Firefly, and AMX ELC bis, respectively.

The announcement of the Y5 series led to an investigation by the agencies that built the Defenders, though the investigation failed to reveal who leaked the technology to Hybrid Nation.

### Notes

1. ↑ It is not known when the Defender Mk. 1 was built. In this feed article, the commamder of a Defender Mk. 1 is talking with his grandson Jimmy, who is playing World of Tanks Blitz on his phone, which would suggest that this piece of lore takes place in the 2010s. However, the commander states that "Forty years ago, when I was a kid your age, the world was already going crazy. Somebody built a black tank with an electric engine. In response, someone else assembled a black tank destroyer with a railgun and some alien devilry in place of the engine...", referring to the first two Defenders which were built in WWII. This confirms that this article takes place in the 1980s, which creates a plot hole as World of Tanks Blitz was not released until the 2010s. Because of this, it is safe to assume that this lore takes place in an alternate reality where computer technology advanced at a far greater rate after WWII than it did in real life, which could possibly be the result of research conducted for the Defender projects.

### Sources

* The First Defender
* T28 Defender: The Secret Weapon
* Defender Mk. 1
* Y5