Ukrainian tank building has come to an end
There are no ready-made and effective solutions for saving the Ukrainian military industry and are not expected.
Izvestia writes about this in an article about the prospects of Ukrainian tank building.
It is noted that Ukraine regularly offers foreign armies a look at the Ukrainian Oplot tanks, developed on the basis of the not very successful Soviet modification of the T-80UD, but there is still no great demand for Ukrainian vehicles, since for a quarter of a century Ukrainian tank builders have not created anything breakthrough , which would allow it to compete in the heavy armored vehicles market.
“The fact is that there was too much of a break between the Pakistani and Thai contracts, as a result of which the Malyshev Plant actually lost its competence in producing tanks. They made 50 vehicles over 8 years - in fact, each tank was made individually as a kind of “work of art.” This is a completely abnormal situation. Naturally, potential customers believe that Ukraine cannot physically make tanks. It is not and cannot be a reliable partner,” tank expert Alexey Khlopotov commented on the current situation.
In turn, the publication points out that the systemic crisis that beset the Ukrainian industry began with the loss of technology in metallurgy and metalworking, which is why armor elements, gun barrels, ammunition and much more no longer pass tests and withstand any “baptism of fire.”
“Both the unevenness in the receipt of orders and the violation of the “Soviet model” of cooperation played a role. Under the current conditions, the very concept of “Ukrainian tank building” may disappear as such. There is no longer any talk of new developments (in serious discussions),” the newspaper writes.
In addition, the niche for servicing and repairing Soviet armored vehicles may soon be closed for Ukrainian tank builders, since in August 2018 it became known that Pakistan could conclude an agreement with Russia on the modernization of T-80UD tanks supplied by Ukraine.
Thus, the deputy head of the military-industrial corporation Heavy Industrues Taxila, Brigadier General Anwar Noman, during the Army 2018 forum, said that Russia has everything necessary to bring the T-80 to the modern level.
“The very fact of discussing such a contract with Russia means that Ukrainian tank building, as was previously true American experts noticed, is living out its last few years. There are no ready-made and effective solutions for saving the Ukrainian military industry and are not expected - the problems of the T-84 tanks, actually assembled from what was left as a legacy from the USSR, have not been solved and not a single sane customer will pay attention to such equipment.” , Izvestia summarizes.
See also: What planes? Ukrainian ceiling – “Dozor” armored car and “Molot” mortar – Pashinsky.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.