Tank Lovers Group
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The Thai army has procured 10 fresh T-84 Oplot main battle tanks from Ukraine with a backlog order for about 40 others.
The tank has new separate crew and ammunition compartments with blowout panels on the ammunition compartment. Both hull sides are fitted with "Nozh" ("knife") explosive reactive armour panels for extended protection to withstand attacks of man-portable anti-tank weapons.
Oplot features a "Varta" optronic countermeasures system for deceiving incoming AT missiles (similar to Russian Shtora). The system integrates laser warning sensors which can locate the area where the laser originated from and automatically slew the main gun to it, so that the crew can return fire.
This deal has been one of the most abysmal MBT deals ever. Due to Ukraine's situation the 40 remaining T-84s are likely to never be seen in Thailand, even though payment has already been made. Thailand has had the first 10 since ~2014, and any remaining/produced MBTs have been sent to the Donbass. The UAF are really scraping the barrel in terms of equipment, and the economic situation has also destroyed what little quality control the country used to have. All and all, it's not looking good for Thailand's contract. They'll never get their money back either.
That's a really sad situation actually. T-84 is not a bad tank, the characteristics are pretty good. But just because of some idiots such machine will be lost just as the other concerns. No more good tanks from Kharkov, no more good Antonov planes from Motor Sych, no more space hardware from Yuzhmash. The death of these concerns is a tragedy of it's own for every technician.
I wholeheartedly agree. Especially due to the fact that I love the T-80 so much.
Even though I'm mostly Tagiloblyad', I really liked T-64 and T-80(BVK and U ones especially). The last one was produced in the wrong time. In the hands of a country with good economy and army they would have shown excellent results. I still hope Russia will make a good use of the 3000 ones in storage and other 450 in use.
Well I love the T-80, but dat GTD-1000TF though. In my fevered dreams of seeing a modernized MBT from KBTM I'd see the gas turbine torn out (Aztec sacrifice to the Sun god style) and replaced with the diesel V-92S2F (currently on T-72B3M, it would also need some modifications to fit the smaller hull). Lots of other changes too, but that would be the first step. Of course, there's a lot of parts because of S-300V and other vehicles that use the GTD-1000TF, so maybe exhaust those before beginning the transplant...
No one actually knows what's really going on with it though, looks like a few brigades here and there are using them, but according to MoD "THEY ARE ALL RETIRED NOTHING TO SEE HERE MOVE ALONG." They're in no hurry to share anyway, so I'm sort of fingers crossed they've had an upgrade of some sort.
Well, I wouldn't be so pessimistic about it. Russian military is full of surprises: "Object 159 is an old useless prototype and Black Eagle is worth nothing to T-90 we will continue to use OH LOOK WE MADE A NEW 5TH GEN TANK ALSO AN APC ALSO AN IFV ALSO AN APCIFV ALSO AN ARTILLERY ALSO TIGER WITH ROCKET PODS." Maybe they got some plans for the T-80 outer systems. It has very well united eastern and western tank styles.