After the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine inherited tank-building enterprises, but failed to fully use them. And now there is a very high probability that the country will turn to foreign tanks instead of the T-84 "Oplot", which at one time had certain hopes.
Military Watch writes about this. The T-84 tank was the result of the modernization of the third-generation Soviet T-80 vehicles. It used a diesel engine, and not a gas turbine, as in its predecessor. This gave great endurance, but made it difficult to work in cold conditions. A small number of these tanks were produced: production turned out to be unreasonably expensive.
As a result, the T-84 did not become a fully operational combat vehicle. In the east of the country, Ukraine used hundreds of old T-64s. At the NATO tank biathlon - the "Strong Europe" competition at the Grafenwer training ground in Germany - Oplot showed very modest results due to problems with the automatic loader. Various shortcomings continued to be revealed two decades after the first T-84 rolled off the assembly line. Ukraine's ability to eliminate them is still in great doubt.
One of the few buyers of the T-84 was Thailand, which placed an order for 49 units in 2011. However, delays in deliveries forced the Thai military to pay attention to Chinese tanks as an alternative.
The article emphasizes that Ukraine is increasingly relying on foreign weapons. There is a high probability that the country will choose imported tanks instead of producing its own. "Significant shortcomings of the T-84 can put an end to Ukraine's attempts to become a major developer and exporter of modern combat tanks," the author summarizes.
Maya Biryukova
