Poland confirms supply to Ukraine of 30 PT-91 Twardy tanks

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According to information published on the Facebook account of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on January 27, 2023, Poland will deliver 30 PT-91 Twardy Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) to Ukraine.
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Polish army PT-91 Twardy Main Battle Tank MBT. (Picture source Army Recognition)

Currently, Poland approved the delivery to Ukraine of 60 modernized main battle tanks including 30 PT-91 Twardy tanks. This comes to complete the announcement published last week of the delivery of 14 Leopard 2 tanks by Poland.

Poland is the European country that has supplied the largest quantity of combat tanks to Ukraine, indeed, 290 T-72A/T-72M/T-72M1R tanks have already been delivered to Ukraine coming from the military inventory of the Polish armed forces.

The PT-91 Twardy is a Polish main battle tank. It is a license-built version of the Soviet T-72, with a number of modifications and upgrades to improve its performance and capabilities. These include a new fire control system, improved armor, and a more powerful engine. The PT-91 entered service with the Polish Armed Forces in 1995 and is still in use today.

The design of the PT-91 Twardy is similar to the Soviet-made with the driver compartment at the front, the turret in the middle with the commander and gunner, and the engine at the rear. The tank is fitted with the Polish-developed explosive reactive armor Type ERAWA-1 (with one layer of explosive inside) and ERAWA-2 (with two layers of explosive inside) to the hull and turret. The armor package provides protection against the firing of small arms of 7.62, 12.7 and 14.5 mm caliber as well as cannon fragments between 20 and 30 mm.

The PT-91 Twardy is armed with a 125mm smoothbore gun, which is capable of firing a variety of ammunition types, including high-explosive, armor-piercing, and anti-tank guided missiles. It also has a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun and a 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun.

The PT-91 Twardy is powered by an S-12U four-stroke, multifuel, supercharged, water-cooled diesel engine developing 850 hp at 2,300 rpm coupled to a manual transmission with 7 forward and 1 reverse gears. It can run at a maximum road speed of 60 km/h with a maximum cruising range of 650 km.