Ukraine company Ukrspetsexport ships Oplot MBT to US.

According to Defense Blog, Ukraine’s state-owned arms trading agency Ukrspetsexport Corp. delivered the Oplot main battle tank to the U.S. military last week. Vadim Nozdrya, general director of the Ukrspetseksport, said that the tank was shipped to the United States within the framework of the contract for the new combat vehicle.
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Ukraine’s state-owned arms trading agency Ukrspetsexport Corp. delivered the Oplot main battle tank to the U.S. military (Picture source: Ukrspetsexport)

It is noteworthy that this is not the first time Ukraine has supplied tanks to the USA: in 2003, the U.S. Government obtained four T-80UD main battle tanks with an installed Drozd Active Protection System (APS) from Ukraine. The four T-80UD tanks arrived at the U.S. Army Aberdeen Test Center throughout December 2003 and January 2004.

The Oplot MBT is one of the latest generations of main battle tanks available on the current military market. The Oplot BM is fully designed and manufactured in Ukraine offering a high level of mobility, protection, and firepower. The Oplot BM is in service with the Ukrainian armed forces and the Royal Thai Army.

The Oplot BM is armed with a 125mm smoothbore gun able to fire standard ammunition including high explosive fragmentation (HE-FRAG), armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding-sabot (APFSDS), high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) but also anti-tank guided missile at a maximum firing range of 5,000m. The second armament includes a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun coupled to the main gun, and a remotely controlled weapon station armed with a 12.7mm caliber heavy machine gun. The Oplot carries 46 rounds of ammunition for the main gun, of which 28 are placed in an automatic loader.

The Oplot BM is fitted with a computerized fire control system that includes armament control devices to provide all data considering weather conditions and other parameters influencing the accuracy of fire. The system also includes PTT-2 thermal sighting system used to observe, detect, recognize and identify the targets and the PNK-6 used to detect and identify ground and aerial targets by the tank commander in day and night conditions.

The Oplot BM protection systems integrate passive armor and explosive reactive armor. The turret and hull are fitted with multilayer armor and built-in anti-tandem-warhead explosive reactive armor (BATW-ERA) for optimum protection against APFSDS, high-explosive squash head (HESH), high-explosive plastic (HEP) and HEAT-type projectiles. The front of the hull is fitted with explosive reactive armor panels for extended protection. The hull sides are hinged with large rubber skirts to withstand the attacks of man-portable anti-tank weapons.

The Oplot BM is motorized with a 6ТD-2 multi-fuel, six-cylinder, liquid-cooled diesel engine which delivers a maximum power of 882 kW. It can run at a maximum road speed of 70 km/h with a maximum cruising range of 500 km. The Oplot BM can cross a vertical obstacle of 1 m and a trench of 2,85m. It can negotiate a gradient of 32° and side slopes of 25°. It can cross water obstacles with a depth of 1.8 m without preparation. The Oplot BM is provided with a snorkel for deep fording and can ford 5m of water with equipment, which can be deployed in 20 minutes.