Ukraine serious player in armor market (06/02/96)

Ukraine serious player in armor market

LONDON - For years a premier center of Soviet armored vehicle manufacture, Kharkiv's Malyshev Plant may claim for Ukraine a major portion of the world export market in main battle tanks (MBTs), wrote Christopher Foss in the February 21 edition of Jane's Defence Weekly, the renowned British journal of military analysis.

The Malyshev Plant produces a variety of advanced armored vehicles. In Soviet days it built over 80 percent of a total 1,000 T-80 UD tanks. Today, reports Jane's, an upgraded version, known as the T-84, with an advanced 1,200-horsepower diesel engine, reactive defensive armor (which explodes upon contact with a projectile and disperses the oncoming round's penetrative force) and an accurate and powerful 125-mm gun, has the potential to capture a significant share of the export market in MBTs.

Significantly, the T-84 - nine prototypes of which have been built and showcased at arms exhibitions in Pakistan, Abu Dhabi and elsewhere - may be considered the first truly Ukrainian tank to make its debut on the world arms bazaar. Approximately 98 percent of its components are manufactured domestically and the Malyshev Plant serves as the final assembly site, according to Jane's.

In addition to the T-80 UD and the T-84, the Malyshev Plant offers "Banan" upgrade kits for T-72 tanks. The T-72 MBT is widely used by such ex-Soviet client states as Syria; other potential clients include Iran.

Since turning on its assembly lines, the Malyshev Plant has turned out over 102,000 tanks, including the T-55, T-64, T-80 and now the T-84. The plant is one of Kharkiv's largest employers and even has a subway station named after itself.

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