Ukrainian SSR vs independent Ukraine

The military-industrial complex of modern Ukraine and the defense industry of the Ukrainian SSR have important similarities. Both republics had (and Ukraine continues to have) the ability to build main battle tanks. However, this is where the commonalities end. During the Cold War, the Kharkov Malyshev Plant produced up to 8 thousand T-64 tanks. This vehicle, of course, can be treated differently, but for its time the tank was quite breakthrough. As for the plant itself, even in the 90s it could boast of ambitious plans and, at the very least, produced MBT. In 1996, the Ukrainians signed an agreement with Pakistan, which included the supply of 320 T-80UD tanks worth $550 million. The first batch was shipped the following year, and the entire contract was fulfilled in 1999. With a rate of up to 110 tanks built per year.

The modern plant named after Malyshev cannot even dream of this. The situation systematically worsened in the 2000s, and the conflict in Donbass, in fact, only revealed problems that had been accumulating at the enterprise for years. Several dozen BM Oplot tanks produced with great difficulty in the interests of Thailand - the best for that confirmation. In such conditions, an attempt to develop and launch a fundamentally new tank into series is desperate escapism. On the other hand, the Ukrainian military-industrial complex does not lose faith in the “economic miracle,” even after ten or fifteen years.

"Hammer" and Futurized Main Battle Tank

A little . Also in Soviet years specialists from the Kharkov Mechanical Engineering Design Bureau began developing Object 477, also known as the “Hammer”. It was supposed to be a powerful “colossus” with a smooth-bore 152-mm LP-83 gun. The tank received a “carriage” layout, and the crew was located below the turret shoulder strap. The much-loved analogy with the modern T-14 based on the Armata is not entirely correct: the Object 477 can only partially be considered a tank with an uninhabited turret. The difference with other tanks is that the entire crew of three in this case is located no higher than the roof of the hull. Through a hatch in the turret it was possible to get in and out of the tank. Above the hull there was a cannon with an automatic loader, sighting systems and a number of other systems and units that ensured the combat effectiveness of the tank.

The fate of the tank can be compared with the fate of the Russian Object 195. Partially lost Soviet technology, lack of necessary funding and a lack of understanding of the general concept of using tanks in the 21st century led to the abandonment of the project. The “Hammer” project was abandoned in the 2000s, and a number of developments were used in the design of the aforementioned BM “Oplot” tank. Potentially not bad, but representing a typical example of the Soviet school of tank building, with all its advantages and disadvantages.

“Molot” can be considered the last real attempt by Ukrainian designers (albeit with the participation of the Russian side) to build a new tank that would not become another version of the T-64 or T-80. What appeared after him can be classified as fantasy. Positioned as a next-generation tank, the Futurized Main Battle Tank was simply a bold concept from the very beginning. Let us recall that it was presented by Ukroboronprom and Spetstechnoexport at the DEFEXPO India 2014 exhibition. By that time, the country could no longer independently mass-produce such complex equipment.

It was assumed that the tank would receive a 6TD-4 engine with a power of 1500 hp. or 6TD-5 with a power of 1800 hp. They wanted to place the motor in the front part of the hull, and immediately behind it the engineers placed the habitable module. As in the case of the Russian T-14, they wanted to equip the new tank with an uninhabited remote-controlled turret, and the crew would be in a specially isolated armored capsule. The main caliber was considered to be the 125-mm Vityaz cannon or the promising 140-mm Bagira.

Another popular “new product” today is the active protection complex (APS). In the case of FMBT, it should have been “Barrier”. By the way, the attitude of experts towards this system is ambiguous. Some say that it has no fundamental differences from outdated active defense systems of the Soviet period, such as Drozd, and is unable to protect a tank from anti-tank weapons. On the other hand, in April of this year the Turks began equipping the modernized M60 with Zaslon-L. And it’s hard to believe that the modern Ukrainian military-industrial complex could offer something fundamentally better for the Futurized Main Battle Tank project. The only real alternative could be the Israeli “Trophy”, which is already installed not only on Merkavas, but also on American Abrams. And who, according to rumors, performed well.

T-Rex: Ghost T-64

After a somewhat strange presentation of the Futurized Main Battle Tank, very strange things began to happen. In 2016, the Azov engineering group, which had previously announced itself as the Azovets tank support combat vehicle, brought to light a concept with the proud name of Tirex. The analogy with the T-14 arose almost immediately. There is an uninhabited turret and three crew members sitting in a row at the front of the MBT. The armament is standard: 125 mm cannon (probably), machine guns. Dynamic protection was proposed in the form of the “Knife” and “Doublet” blocks. They did not decide to equip the concept with an active protection complex. Apparently, because of the price, although there could be purely technological reasons. But an ambitious idea emerged to integrate the vehicle into a modern unified information and command network, thus giving it superiority over the Oplot and Bulat.

Finally, the most interesting thing: they wanted to do all this on the basis of... T-64. And put it into a conditional series. The main thing is unclear: why do Ukrainian soldiers, who suffered with the T-64BM Bulat, need new problems in the form of an undeveloped, crude tank made on an outdated basis. The developers positioned the Tirex as a “tank of the transition period.” However, in essence, both “Bulat” and BM “Oplot” are such. In any case, they are far from the most powerful tanks in the world and can (in the form in which they exist) be considered only as a temporary solution.

There is obviously no future for development. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense seems to have expressed its readiness to cooperate and purchase these tanks, but one can hardly expect anything like that. Now Ukraine operates several different Soviet MBTs and their modifications at once, which, of course, goes against any concept of unification. The appearance of a new “guest” with dubious characteristics will not please anyone in this regard.

The most recent statement by the Ukrainian side about the “new generation tank” appeared on the website of the Ukrainian state concern “Ukroboronprom” in May 2018. It was about development by the Kharkov Mechanical Engineering Design Bureau named after. A. A. Morozov infantry fighting vehicle and tank. It was reported that automation would reduce the number of crew to two, and the engine power would be approximately 1,500 hp. With. This information was limited, which is generally logical. The problem is that main battle tanks are not the most important thing for the Ukrainian army. Modern armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, anti-tank systems and communications equipment are much more important. We are no longer talking about the state of combat aviation and air defense, as well as possible purchases of new aircraft. Because of this, we repeat, the likelihood of Ukraine having a new tank of “national” design is extremely low. And in the future, Ukrainian specialists will probably consider replacing the T-64 with some version of the Leopard (if there is money) or the Chinese VT-4 (if not).

Since Soviet times, Ukraine has had a powerful production and design base in the field of tank building. In this area, since the early 1930s, a significant center for everything Soviet Union became the Kharkov Locomotive Plant, where both production and independent development of the most modern armored vehicles for those years began. Suffice it to remember that it was at KhPZ that the V-2 diesel engine was developed, on the basis of which its designers Mikhail Koshkin and Alexander Morozov created the legendary T-34 tank at the same enterprise.

Subsequently, this enterprise, which became the head enterprise of the large production association “Plant named after Malyshev”, was inherited by independent Ukraine after the collapse of the USSR. Together with the plant, the Kharkov Mechanical Engineering Design Bureau named after Morozov continued its activities. Both of these structures have retained the status of state property to this day. Since 2011, they have been part of the Ukroboronprom state concern, which specifically highlights the “armored tank cluster”, uniting about 20 industry enterprises, including large tank repair plants in Kharkov and Lviv, developers and manufacturers of individual systems for equipping armored vehicles.

In conditions of extremely weak state support Kharkov tank builders were able to develop and produce the Bulat and Oplot combat vehicles as prototypes. In terms of their performance characteristics, these tanks turned out to be worthy of the highest world level, earning high praise from experts. Another question is that the current political and economic situation has long prevented Ukraine from producing this modern technology in any mass quantities, despite the widely promoted “Ukrainian military power.” And the new president of the country, Vladimir Zelensky, publicly indignant at 1 (one!) new tank produced for the Armed Forces of Ukraine over the past decade, is unlikely to be able to change this situation in the near future.

What tanks are in service with Ukraine?

The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) inherited from the USSR a colossal amount of armored vehicles that were in service with the Kyiv, Carpathian and Odessa military districts. In terms of the size of the tank fleet in 1992 (about 7 thousand units), Ukraine in Europe was second only to Russia and quite a bit to Germany. The basis of the Ukrainian tank forces was made up of very modern T-64, T-72 and T-80 tanks in fairly modern modifications at that time.

Ukraine's surplus tank fleet was widely sold around the world, and the burden of maintaining its own tank units was steadily reduced due to their periodic reductions. By 2014, the country had about 700 tanks in the armed forces (many of them were not combat-ready) and about 1,450 vehicles at storage bases.

For the purpose of unification, the T-64 is recognized as the main tank of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and not only due to its quantitative dominance. “Sixty-fours” in various modifications and their “direct successors” T-80, as well as their engines, were produced in Kharkov, tank guns - in Sumy. Tanks of the T-72 family were not assembled at the Kharkov plant; initially there were a relatively small number of them.

After the events of 2014 and active hostilities in the Donbass region, the Ukrainian side irretrievably lost at least 230 tanks. Many of the remaining vehicles were seriously damaged or found to be severely worn out. To compensate for losses, the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine had to carry out large-scale seizures of armored vehicles from storage bases, a significant part of which was already actually scrap metal.

As a result, to date, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have 680 tanks, according to the standard equipment of their units, although a significant part of them are still in a non-combat condition. The machine types are distributed as follows:

• 475 tanks T-64B, T-64BV, T-64BM;
• 143 tanks T-72AV, T-72B1;
• 62 tanks T-80BV, T-80UD.

The combat capabilities of all Ukrainian tanks are considered quite high. Restoration, repair and replenishment of the current tank fleet of Ukraine in relation to the T-64 is carried out according to the standards of the so-called “modernization of the 2017 model”, within which the tanks, in their parameters, represent a version of the T-64BV with newer thermal imagers, digital radio stations, and satellite navigation equipment and dynamic protection modules. According to Ukroboronprom, such modernization of equipment has so far been carried out for more than 150 tanks, and since the beginning of 2019, similar systems have begun to be installed on T-80 tanks.

History of the development of Ukrainian tanks

Kharkov Design Bureau for Mechanical Engineering (KMDB) after 1992, in parallel with work to improve technology Soviet made, directed significant efforts to create its own designs for new tanks. Such developments were the Bulat and Oplot combat vehicles.

"Bulat"

By 1999, the first prototypes of the deeply modernized Soviet main tanks T-64, developed by KMDB, were produced in Kharkov. “Object 447AM-1” was a deeper version of the modernization, in which the tank based on it was supposed to be assigned the index T-64U, although at the same time a simplified version of “Object 447AM-2”, initially called the T-64BM-2 version, was also being developed. At the same time, information appeared on the KMDB website that the updated tank would be called “Bulat”.

This development was finally completed in 2003, and the official acceptance of the new tank with the T-64BM index into service with the Ukrainian Armed Forces took place in July 2005. Subsequently, broad plans to modernize several hundred T-64 tanks to the Bulat level were significantly curtailed, limiting the state order to 85 vehicles. Most of them were transferred to the Ukrainian Armed Forces in 2008, and the final production of the remaining ones is in force economic problems dragged on until 2014.

"Stronghold"

The first noticeable result of the work of the KMDB in the conditions of state independence of Ukraine was the renaming of the T-80UD to T-84, carried out in 1994. The tanks remained virtually unchanged structurally, but were equipped with an engine with increased power, from 1000 to 1200 hp. T-84 tank mass production did not go, but its further modernization continued.

The prototype “Object 478DU9” ​​was equipped with a new turret design with increased strength characteristics, improved aiming and observation devices, and an optical-electronic suppression system for enemy ATGMs “Varta” (analogous to the Soviet “Shtora”). The T-84U "Oplot" tank was put into service, but in the end only a few vehicles were manufactured for state testing, following the results of which, in particular, in 2003, a new dynamic protection "Knife" was tested and installed.

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has directed Kharkov tank builders to further improve the T-84 tank, which resulted in the creation of a single prototype based on the Object 478DU9, called Oplot-M. Tank that received new system fire control and dynamic protection "Duplet", was put into service in May 2009 under the designation T-84BM "Oplot".

The state order for its production was made in the amount of only 10 units, but in the end it was never financed. Only one tank was produced for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and mass production announced in 2008 could not be organized in reality. In 2011, a batch of Oplot BM with a total of 49 vehicles was ordered by Thailand. This contract was completed with great difficulty only in 2018.

Design

One thing to note about the design of new Ukrainian tanks is their fairly low profile. Manufacturers especially note the high ergonomics of the tanks and a fairly high level of comfort for their crews. Among the special properties of the Oplot, it is worth noting the ability of its turret to rotate 180 degrees in less than 5 seconds.

Layout

Both Ukrainian tanks have a classic layout: with the control compartment located in the frontal part, the fighting compartment in the middle, and the engine-transmission compartment in the rear of the hull.

Crew

The tanks used an automatic loader, which made it possible to form a crew of three people: a driver, a gunner and a commander.

Operating temperature

The range of ambient temperatures in which the use of combat vehicles is allowed extends from minus 40 to plus 55 degrees Celsius. At the same time, the tank’s engine is capable of operating in such extreme climatic conditions with almost no reduction in power, which is inaccessible to most modern tanks.

Armor

The Bulat BM is equipped with the Nozh integrated dynamic protection (EDP) complex, which several times reduces the tank’s vulnerability to cumulative weapons. In particular, the “Knife” reliably protects the tank from hand grenade launchers, modern anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) such as “Tou”, “Sturm”, “Fagot” and others, anti-tank cumulative and armor-piercing projectiles. The protection system can be installed by the crew in the field within 5-6 hours and significantly increases the survivability of the tank.

The Oplot tank has a combined protection system, which includes multi-layer armor and a new generation of explosive reactive armor "Duplet", the elements of which do not detonate when hit by 12.7 mm caliber bullets, armor-piercing shells up to 30 mm caliber and shell fragments. The protection is installed by the crew in 2.5-3 hours. Mine protection ensures the survival of the crew when mines with a TNT equivalent of 10 kg are detonated under the caterpillar, and up to 4 kg under the bottom (in the front compartment).

Military weapons

The main armament of the Bulat and Oplot tanks is the KBA3 smoothbore 125-mm gun. It can serve as a launcher for the Ukrainian Kombat ATGM, capable of hitting highly protected ground, surface or low-flying targets (tanks, helicopters, bunkers, etc.) at distances of up to 5 kilometers.

More than modern system fire control, it consists of a 1G46M gunner's sight, a TO1-KO1ER gunner's night complex, which can be replaced with a thermal imager, a 1V528-1 tank ballistic computer, a 2E42M gun stabilizer and a PNK-4CR sighting and observation system.

A gun

The 125-mm KBAZ smooth-bore gun with a barrel length of 48 calibers is stabilized in two planes, it has the ability to fire directly up to 2.6-2.8 km. The tank's rate of fire is up to 8 rounds per minute. The gun barrel is quick-detachable and can be replaced in the field without removing the turret from the tank.

The gun's ammunition capacity is 46 rounds of separate cartridge loading, of which 28 are placed in the automatic loader. The Oplot BM is capable of firing armor-piercing sub-caliber, cumulative, high-explosive fragmentation shells and Kombat ATGMs with a semi-active laser beam control system.

Coaxial and anti-aircraft machine guns

The coaxial machine gun in the Ukrainian name has the designation KT-7.62 and is a PKT. Its ammunition capacity is 1250 rounds

The KT-12.7 anti-aircraft machine gun (aka NSVT) has a system remote control and has an ammunition load of 450 rounds.

Specifications

New Ukrainian tanks look quite decent in comparison with similar models of Russian armored vehicles. But if the statements of the Ukrainian side about the approximate correspondence of the Bulat in terms of combat capabilities to the T-90A tanks raise reasonable doubts among experts, the Oplot tank is assessed as a very serious machine, in terms of its characteristics it is second only to the latest versions of the T-90SM. For Bulat, a comparison with the T-72B-3 looks more objective.

Engine and transmission

The Bulat tank is equipped with a multi-fuel, five-cylinder diesel engine 5TDFM with a volume of 13.6 liters and a power of 850 hp. This engine has one of the coolest exhausts in the world, which makes this combat vehicle less vulnerable to heat-guided weapons.

The Oplot tank was equipped with a six-cylinder multi-fuel diesel engine 6TD-2E with a volume of 16.3 liters and a power of 1200 hp, with supercharging, direct-flow purging and direct fuel injection. Due to the compactness of the power unit and the features of its design, it is placed coaxially with the onboard gearboxes. Thanks to this, engine alignment is not required when replacing it, the tank transmission is significantly simplified and the MTO is small in size.

Transmission

Both new tanks are equipped with a planetary gearbox with 7 forward gears. At the same time, “Oplot”, in addition to automatic gear shifting, has the ability, rare for a tank, to have 4-speed reverse gear control. The complex motion control system of this tank operates using a steering wheel instead of levers.

Fuel reserve and consumption

Two additional fuel barrels can be installed at the rear of the tank hull, holding 380 liters of fuel.

Cost of tanks

As of 2004, the cost of upgrading one T-64B/BV to the level of the Bulat tank was estimated at 470 thousand dollars. In the fall of 2014, this amount was already stated at $1 million per tank.

The announced export price of one Oplot tank is $4.9 million.

Dimensions and weight

The Chinese tank is so secret that the official designation of this vehicle is still not known. The world only knows that this tank was nicknamed “mountain”. Experts believe he will fight in the “mountainous” parts of the People's Republic of China.

Source: Janes

Judging by the photo, the combat vehicle will have 6 rollers on each side. According to experts, the mass of the beast will fluctuate around 35 tons. The gun is 105 mm caliber. Crew - 4 people. They say the new product is built on the basis of the Chinese T-99A2. True, the miner inherited optics and dynamic protection systems from the latter.

Source: wikimedia.org

The main goal of the development and appearance of China's new secret tank: to replace the Type 62 - a lightweight version of the old Soviet medium tank T-54.

Source: wikimedia.org

We decided to remember the firepower, weight and other parameters of combat vehicles that are assembled in our country. Read, compare with the Chinese novelty, and be proud of our tanks.

T-64BM “Bulat”

This is a Ukrainian main battle tank, a deep modernization of the Soviet T-64A/B/BV. Developed by the Kharkov Mechanical Engineering Design Bureau named after A. A. Morozov. Produced from 2005 to this day. Weight - 45 tons, firepower - 125-mm KBA-3 smoothbore gun. According to experts, upgrading one T-64B to the Bulat level costs the state no less than 14 million hryvnia. Today there are already 85 such pumped up animals.

T-72AG

Another deep 46-ton modernization from Ukrainian engineers. This time we upgraded the Soviet T-72:

• replaced the 1000-horsepower 6TD-1 engine with a 1200-horsepower 6TD-2;
• strengthened armor and protection systems;
• updated observation and aiming devices;
• a remote-controlled 12.7-mm closed-type anti-aircraft machine gun is installed on the commander's hatch;
• It is possible to attach a satellite navigation system to the tank.

The gun remained the same - 125-mm Soviet smoothbore 2A46 (aka D-81TM).