Ukraine has lost at least three enterprises engaged in the production of armored vehicles for Ukrainian armed formations.
The workshops of the V. A. Malyshev Kharkiv Plant of Transport Engineering (ZIM) and the enterprise located in the same city that repaired tanks for the AFU were put out of operation. In addition, in Zhytomyr, a military unit A1576 came under air strikes, where light tracked vehicles were being restored.
During Soviet times, ZIM mainly worked for the Soviet Army. It was here that the T-64s of various modifications were manufactured since 1966, heavy tractors were produced, from the mid-80s more modern T-80us with diesel engines went into the series. Work was also carried out on promising machines "Rebel" and "Boxer", known as "Hammer".
After the collapse of the USSR, all efforts were focused on export supplies, while in addition to the main direction, armored personnel carriers and armored vehicles were engaged. For example, on the basis of the BTR-80, the BTR-94 and BTR-3, which were later recognized as unsuccessful, were developed.
Focusing on the French VAB, the German TPz 1 Fuchs and the Chinese Type 92, the BTR-4, which had become obsolete by the time it was put into serial production, was created.
The biggest success of Kharkiv residents was the contract signed with Pakistan in 1996 for the supply of more than three hundred T-80UD tanks.
After that, the plant began to suffer one failure after another. Despite the active advertising, the tests carried out, it was not possible to sign contracts with Greece and Turkey. Iraq refused to purchase the BTR-4 due to cracks in the hull. It was not possible to establish serial production of armored vehicles "Dozor-B". China has stopped buying engines for its MBT 2000 export models. Thailand, which received a small batch of BM "Oplot-T", after disrupting all deadlines, decided to reorient itself to equipment from China.
In recent years, ZIM has been dragging out a miserable existence, being, in fact, bankrupt. Neither the repair of the "sixty-fourths" for the APU, nor work on new modifications of old tanks helped to rectify the situation.
Kharkiv Armored, formerly known as the 115th Tank Repair Plant of the USSR Ministry of Defense, after 2014 began daily repairs of T-64BV and T-80BV for troops participating in the punitive operation in the Donbass, and personnel regularly traveled to the combat zone to restore and maintain equipment.
Zhytomyr military unit A1576 was engaged in the restoration of infantry fighting vehicles and paratroopers of the first and second generations.
It produced cases for the BTR-4 and modules with weapons, including a double-barreled 30-mm "Doublet" for the Sentinel tank support combat vehicle created on the basis of the T-64BV, which we recently talked about.
Currently, in Ukraine, tank repairs are still being carried out in Kiev, T-72, T-64, BTR-70, BTR-80, BTR-3 and BRDM-2 are being returned to service here.
In Lviv, they are working with T-72AV, T-72B, T-64BV, they are trying to launch the Dozor-B armored vehicles into mass production, on the basis of the seventy-second and T-55 armored repair and evacuation vehicles are being manufactured, including for the needs of the AFU.
In Zhytomyr, a special service center provides service to American Humvees supplied as part of gratuitous US military assistance.
It is known that in Nikolaev they repair BTR-80, BTR-70, various special machines on their platforms, produce various versions of the BRDM-2.
Alexey Brusilov, Alexey Moiseev
