Lozovsky Forging and Mechanical Plant LLC supplies cracked hulls for the BTR-4E to the State Enterprise "Kharkov Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering named after Morozov", but the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine is satisfied with this.
Its director Sergei Zgurets writes about this in a material on the website of the Ukrainian information and consulting company Defense Express, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
"PE" Lozovsky Forging and Mechanical Plant "delivered to the Kharkov Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering (KMDB) the first three buildings for the manufacture of BTR-4 of a new batch. But it turned out that they came with a marriage. They have cracks. However, on the unwelded and cracked armor, there is the stigma of the military representation of the Ministry of Defense: “everything is in order” with these hulls. To be honest, it's just kind of sur…
Let me remind you that on the eve of the new year, Abromavicius, Director General of the State Concern Ukroboronprom, said that, together with the Ministry of Defense and with the support of the government, they finally unblocked a contract under state guarantees for the supply of 45 armored personnel carriers-4 for the Armed Forces. The first 12 BTR-4s have already been delivered, and an advance payment of UAH 125 million has been made to the KMDB.
The design bureau, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, was saved by the efforts of the new team of the concern. After all, in fact, because of non-payment of salaries, people fled from there, as from a sinking ship. It was also stated that all BTR-4s, both ready-made and subsequent ones, will be made from Ukrainian armor of the 71 brand.
However, the first new buildings from Lozova, which were recently delivered to Kharkov, have clearly expressed signs of marriage. This is poor-quality welding, "not penetration", according to experts, armor - that is, voids under a thin layer of metal that can be easily pierced by enemy bullets.
And also cracks that hide under the paint. In addition, each of these iron semi-finished products still has to be “finished with a file” with a colossal loss of time so that the units and assemblies can be installed by the KMDB cleaning teams,” writes Sergey Zgurets.