After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine can be said to be the second largest heir to the Soviet legacy after Russia, not only a strong military manufacturing industry, but also a large number of Soviet-style equipment. From the small arms AK-74 to the An-225, the largest aircraft ever built in human history, it is a huge asset. At that time, Ukraine was one of the strongest in the world military rankings. Today we will talk about the main station tank "T-84 Fortress M" developed by Ukraine on the basis of the T-80UD main battle tank.
Pictured: T-84 Fortress M main battle tank
The T-84 tank was a model designed by the Kharkiv Morozov Mechanical Design Bureau on the basis of the T-80UD main battle tank, so this tank also retains many of the exterior features of soviet tanks. The new tank was introduced in 1995 and has many improvements over the previous T-80UD. He began serving in the Ukrainian army in 1999. However, due to financial problems, the Ukrainian military did not purchase the tank on a large scale, but only a very small number of troops were equipped with this type of tank, but instead occupied part of the overseas market.
Moving castle in Kharkiv
Because it was designed by the Kharkiv Molozov Mechanical Design Bureau, it is also known as "Kharkiv's Mobile Castle" by China Net.
As the "king of land warfare", tanks often analyze the three big data of tanks when analyzing direct data, namely: "firepower", "mobility" and "defense".
Let's look first at its "firepower" (after all, cannons are men's romance). The T-84M main battle tank follows the T-84 tank's 125 mm KBA-3 smoothbore tank gun, which is the Ukrainian version of the Soviet 2A46M-1 smoothbore gun, which is 20%-30% better than the 2A46M-1. The gun was equipped with a thermal sheath, a cylindrical extraction device in the middle of the gun, and a gun velocity measuring device at the muzzle. The service life of the gun is 750 rounds when firing armor-piercing shells and 1000 rounds when firing armor-breaking shells. The maximum rate of fire of the gun can reach 9 rounds per minute when using the automatic loader, and when using manual loading, it depends on the loader's kirin arm. The gun's conventional shells are conventionally dispensed (i.e. the warhead is loaded separately from the propellant) and can carry 43 rounds of ammunition. Conventional shells can be divided into: depleted uranium shelling armor-piercing shells, tail stabilized hollow charge armor-breaking shells, armor-shattering shells and anti-personnel explosive grenades. The T-84M vertically penetrated 650 mm of steel armor plates at a distance of 1,000 meters when firing depleted uranium shellless armor-piercing shells, although this data is more embarrassing than the 600 penetration depth ratio of the PLA 96A's stable tail unshelled armor-piercing shells at a distance of 2,000 meters, but it is barely enough.
Pictured: T84M
In terms of fire control, the T-84M was equipped with a more advanced fire control system at that time, and the subsystems in the system were: a gunner daytime sight, a thermal imager, a commander sight system, a anti-aircraft sight, an anti-aircraft machine gun control system, a ballistic computer, and a weapon stabilization system. It is worth mentioning that the T-84M's fire control system introduces a hunting and annihilation mechanism, that is, the commander and the gunner can control the aiming and firing of the gun, and the first round hit rate is also quite fragrant. In addition, the T-84M is equipped with a 7.62 mm parallel machine gun and a 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine gun mounted on the captain's hatch, and the commander can control the anti-aircraft machine gun fire through the remote control in the car or shoot in manual mode (friendly reminder: the probe is risky).
The mobility of tanks is also a part that cannot be ignored. Armored units with good mobility can better and faster intersperse to encircle enemy forces or reinforce their own forces.
The reason for the overall maneuverability of the T-84M comes mainly from its "heart" engine. The T-84M was equipped with a 6TD-2 6-cylinder opposed-piston diesel engine modified from the Soviet 6TD-1 diesel engine, which could provide 1200 horsepower, making the T-84M have overall good maneuverability.
Pictured: The T-84M in motion
The T-84M tank weighs 48 tons, has a maximum road speed of 65-70 km/h, an average off-road speed of 45-50 km/h, a travel road of 540 km, an off-road 400 km, a maximum climbing angle of 32 degrees, a maximum rolling gradient of 25 degrees, a vertical high wall of 1 meter, a trench crossing of 2.85 meters, a wading capacity of 1.8 meters without preparation, and a 5 meters when ready. From the above data, it can be seen that the T-84M has a good maneuverability in the environment at that time.
After talking about firepower and maneuvering, let's talk about another major element of tanks, "defense". Chinese military fans should have heard the saying "save yourself and destroy the enemy." Only by protecting yourself first can you find the opportunity to destroy the enemy, so the ability to defend is also an indispensable element of the tank.
The turret of the T-84M follows the way Soviet tanks were built, using a welded "round head" with a group of 6 smoke emitters on each side of the head. The power unit is in the rear body, which can better prevent paralysis after the backup.
Compared to the T-84 Molotov Mechanical Design Bureau, which installed the T-84M with more advanced basic armor and reactive armor, the inclined armor and frontal armor in front of the T-84M hull used advanced composite multi-layer basic armor, which alternately embedded special materials and controlled deformation layers in the rolled armor.
The T-84M tank turret is 280 mm thick in front and 180 mm on both sides, with a thickness of 200 mm on the hull head and a considerable vertical armor thickness of about 700 mm. Its armor-piercing and armor-piercing capabilities are about 21 percent higher than the T-84 tank's composite base armor, equivalent to homogeneous steel plates 600 mm and 850 mm thick, respectively. The T-84M tank is fitted with the latest additional reactive armor blocks, an improved version of the Ukrainian version of the "Contact-5". The effectiveness of this new type of additional reactive armor defense hollow charge armor-piercing bullets and defensive armor-piercing bullets is further improved. The T-84M tank hull is equipped side-by-side on the front oblique armor plate of the T-84M tank hull with two rows of reactive armor blocks of this type, each with 3 blocks. A large integral rubber shield was added to the top of the additional reactive armor, so that people could not see the reactive armor from the outside. To enhance defense against the top-attacking weapon, reactive armor blocks extend from the gun shield all the way up to the rear edge of the top of the turret, covering the entire top of the turret. When this type of reactive armor was combined with the base armor of the T-84M tank, its ability to defend against armor-breaking and armor-piercing shells reached a homogeneous steel plate equivalent to 1200 mm and 1000 mm thick, respectively. Such a strong protective force has made most of the active anti-tank weapons in the world today powerless.
Moving castle in the mud
The T-84M has also robbed mainland business in Pakistan and Thailand in the international market. Although the performance is not as good as most foreign trade tanks on the mainland, the T-84 series has won many orders with its price advantage and the basis of Soviet arms sales that year, which has a breath of life for Ukraine's military industry.