In the Armed Forces of Ukraine, you can find tanks, armored personnel carriers and air defense systems developed many decades ago
Today, in the arsenal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, you can find samples of military equipment that belong in museums. Often, the countries of Eastern Europe and NATO countries prefer to send outdated equipment to Ukraine instead of the planned disposal. Izvestia dealt with what "prehistoric" weapons samples the Armed Forces of Ukraine could receive.
Tanks
On October 28, 2024, Croatia signed a memorandum of intent with Germany to purchase 50 Leopard-2A8 tanks manufactured by the German company KNDS Deutschland over the next few years. Deliveries will begin in a little over a year — in 2026. The main thing in this is that the same memorandum stipulates that Croatia will pay for German tanks in advance by supplying its old tanks and infantry fighting vehicles of Yugoslav production by the end of 2024.
Leopard-2A8 battle tank
Image Source: Photo: defensie.nl
We are talking about M-84 tanks produced in 1983-1991, which remained in service with the former republics of the Federal Yugoslavia, as well as modernized T-72M tanks, the licensed version of which was assembled, including in Croatia itself. By the early 2000s, this country was armed with both the old Yugoslav M-84 and the updated Croatian M-84A4, of which there were about 80 units in total. It is now planned to transfer to the Armed Forces of Ukraine 30 M-84 tanks of both models and 30 M-80A infantry fighting vehicles, which were also produced in Yugoslavia in the 1980s. For many countries of the former Yugoslavia, this is no longer modern, but decommissioned military equipment, which has already been modernized several times and partially decommissioned.
Serbian Army M-84 battle tank
Image Source: Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org/Srđan Popović
Back in 2022, the Armed Forces of Slovenia received about 30 M-55S tanks. These are Soviet T-55as of the 1960s and 1970s, modernized at the turn of 2000. The vehicles were seriously upgraded with the help of the Israeli company Elbit — they received a new 105 mm cannon, mounted dynamic armor, an updated fire control system and other electronics. The tank now has a digital ballistic computer, a sight with a stabilizer and a laser rangefinder. The engines have also been upgraded with an increase in power from 520 hp to 600 hp. The tanks began to look more impressive and more modern than the original, but at their core they are old Soviet T-55A. Today, some of them are about 60 years old.
Air defense systems
A unique historical air defense system entered service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2022 — the legendary American Hawk air defense systems.
What makes them legendary is that back in the 1980s in the USSR, we studied this symbol of American imperialism in elementary military training classes in schools. The first SAMs of this type were received by Kiev from Spain — in 2022-2023, Ukraine received a total of 12 Hawk PIP III launchers. Since 2022, the United States has begun supplying ammunition for them — MIM-23 anti-aircraft missiles.
The history of the Hawk air defense system is unique — the first mentions of the complex in Soviet military literature date back to the late 1950s. Until the mid-1980s, the SAM was considered quite modern and repeatedly underwent upgrades that allowed it to increase its combat capabilities. With the advent of the Patriot complex and after the end of the Cold War, they remained in service only in some countries. And in fact, the Hawk complex belongs to the first generations of military air defense systems, which can be placed in relatively unprepared positions.
Hawk Air Defense System
Image Source: Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org/lt.col Dragoş Anghelache
Today, such an air defense system can hardly effectively protect facilities from attacks by modern aircraft and cruise missiles, but their current owners are ready to part with them, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine is ready to take any equipment in an attempt to at least counter the striking means of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. So it turns out that the museum air defense system is serving in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Armored personnel carriers
In the second half of the 1960s, the Pansarbandwagn 302 was released in Sweden. The Pbv 302 is a tracked armored personnel carrier from Hagglund oh Sener, which was produced in an amount of over 600 units exclusively for the Swedish army. The armored personnel carrier replaced the first modifications of the American M113 armored personnel carrier in Sweden and was an unusually armed vehicle for its time — it is equipped with a 20mm automatic cannon in a turret that has a circular rotation. At the moment, instead of decommissioning and remelting, the Swedish Ministry of Defense has decided to transfer the remnants of Pbv-302 to Ukraine. The decision was made at the end of May 2024, and the first such armored personnel carriers have already been placed at the disposal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Naturally, this is far from a modern means of conducting land operations. But APU, again, takes everything today.
Swedish tracked armored personnel carrier Pbv 302
Image Source: Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org/Jorchr
Here it's time to mention the classic American M113 armored personnel carrier. It was mass-produced for the U.S. Army and mass-exported from 1960 to 2007. In total, more than 88 thousand cars were produced, which were delivered to 44 countries around the world. The first production armored personnel carrier with aluminum armor became one of the symbols of the Vietnam War and other military adventures of the United States.
The M113 armored personnel carrier is also unusual in that a large number of captured copies are in service in some countries — for example, in Vietnam. They take great care of any military equipment there, and today the Vietnamese army has more than 200 units of these clearly historical devices. There are about 200 M113s in Iran that have been preserved since the Shah's time (the Islamic Revolution happened there in 1979). It is clear that these armored personnel carriers are in service with the US army, but not as many as in storage, and, of course, the latest modifications. Today, and in parts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, this is probably one of the most massive armored personnel carriers. In total, at least 600 units of these "exhibits" were delivered from the USA.
This is the kind of historical military-technical museum that the Kiev regime is collecting today. However, our troops are successfully coping with much more modern systems.
Dmitry Kornev
