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Ukrainian armor - Oplot-M, T-64M Bulat and other.


LoooSeR

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I think this cage armor is very inefficient.

 

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Looks to me like the cage armor never mattered to begin with, seeing as it appears to have been hit a couple times in the front from something nasty.

 

In terms of makeshift cage armor, is the issue with it mostly that it serves more as something that sets the charge off a moment sooner instead of actually destroying the missle?  Most of the makeshift stuff I see is more of a mesh material or random bars that don't quite have the same depth and thickness you would find on actual cage armor.

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   Cage/slat armor is supposed to prevent HEAT warheads from detonation and if it still detonates, slat/cage already should have damaged (cut) HEAT warhead to descrease damage.

 

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   Normal slat armor should looks like "knifes" that cut RPG projectiles with gaps between them smaller than caliber of RPG rockets, and still this armor have around 50-60% preventing RPG from detonation.

 

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   That Ukr BMP is equipped with "cage armor" look-alike, that will be almost useless.

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Look, the Ukrainians finally got themselves a new tank!

 

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That might still be out of the price range of the Ukrainian ground forces however.

 

Also, why does it look like they replaced the main gun with what appears to be a water cooled refueling probe?

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Situation with Oplots in 2015 - BMPD blog post.

 

   The news agency RIA Novosti Ukraine, 4 January 2016 published an article by "independent military expert" Diana Mikhailova (an obvious pseudonym), "Ukraine - Thailand: one Oplot, two Oplots, zero Oplots", dedicated to the scandalous situation with the fulfillment of the known contract for the manufacturing and supply of the Oplot-BM main battle tank for Thailand by State Enterprise "Malyshev Plant".
 
   Starting from February 4 of last year, when the Director General of the State Concern "Ukroboronprom" Roman Romanov [lol] has declared that "it is planned to increase the production of Ukrainian tanks almost 25 times in 2015, 40 Oplots will be made, and a year later, production will reach 120 units", the press service was not too lazy to prepare a colorful illustration of this vision of the future Ukrainian tank building.
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Production Schedule for Oplot-BM according to the press service of the "Ukroboronprom." February 2015
 
   The process of summing up of 2015, that began in December, will continue for several months upon receipt of statistics and reports of companies for the IV quarter. However, some of the results were evident immediately.
 
   Despite the promised of multiple growth of Ukrainian tanks production, not a single new Oplots was made in 2015.
 
(...)
   Impressive plans were immediately implemented by the press service of the "Ukroboronprom" in the picture, which was widely circulated on specialized sites and in the effectiveness of the advertising companies of the concern, and also featured a number of presentations on the results of its activities. However, there were the first doubts about the correctness of the data presented. The first batch of five Oplot tanks to the Royal Thai Army was made in the second half of 2013, sent to the customer in December of the same year, and arrived at the port of Sattahip (Thailand) at 4 February of 2014.
 
   Hence, as a starting point of the picture with the production schedule (rather than supply!) of Oplot-BM must be taken first in 2013, not the 2014, when the second batch of five machines was made.
 
   The irony is that even though these tanks have been assembled and sent to the customer as a result of the efforts of returned in August 2014 of Nikolai Belov, the management company fired him a week later after the arrival of the second batch in Thailand in June 2015, "for the failure of production plans".
 
   As the end of 2015 approached, officials of the "Ukroboronprom" less and less often refered to the ill-fated picture and in September, the first deputy director of the State Concern Sergey Pinkas commented an optimistic plan for the production of 40 tanks a year: "I can not say that the production of Oplot all serene and simple. It's very difficult. On the other hand, a year ago they were not produced at all. Today, we already have some series. I do not think that would be quite correct to voice number, because "Oplots" are also in defense orders, and a number of export contracts. To date, a boundary point on the contract with Thailand for the supply of five units we completed. The next point - 31 December. In short, the production speed may not be such as we would like, but let us live to see the end of the year, and we will give the official information".
 
   But then came December, and at 2nd of Dec. a message was made, that shown a different way to look at the schedule. During New Year's press tour Kharkov chief engineer of the Malyshev plant, Alexander Sheiko, at the same time acting Director General of the company, responding to a question about the prospects of working with Thailand, said that "all export contracts are agreed with the Ministry of Defence Ukraine. Only with the permission of the chief of the General Staff of Ukraine sending are possible. I can not name the exact date. Tentative dates, if there will be the coordination of the Ministry of Defense - in December. The amount of equipment to be delivered in the next batch of "Thai Contract" is closed information. "
 
   At the same time the chief engineer of the plant said that "the task for the next year - to completely "close" the Thai contract", which involves the production of at least 39 tanks. How this can be accomplished given the fact that the Ministry of Defence in 2016 ordered the production of nearly two dozen Oplots [18 tanks], already completely impossible to understand.
 
   The last information received has enabled attentive criticism of "Ukroboronprom" and lovers of Ukrainian tanks with a high degree of sarcasm to transform the original production schedule of real achievements "Ukroboronprom" taking as a second point on it was the second batch of five BM Oplots, received by royal army in May 31, 2015, as well as a third - vague promises by Sheiko.
 
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Evaluation of the production schedule of BM Oplot by the social networks. December 4th, 2015
 
   Unfortunately, even such a hard-hitting assessment proved overly optimistic. According to the factory workers "today (December 4) only assembled Oplot from another party did not passed military acceptance, so can not be considered as "produced". So there will be no Oplots batch in March or early April." After another three weeks this was confirmed by the corresponding photograph, which shown only one BM "Oplot" in transit "after testing the factory for cleaning and inspection after running on the ground in Bashkirovka."
 
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Given this information, the most realistic production schedule of the BM "Oplot" today is this:
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   It remains only to recall that agreed in September 2011 shipping schedule of Oplots under the contract for a total of 240 mln. USD. was as follows: December 2012 - 5 units, in August 2013 - 15 units, in December 2013 - 15 units, in August 2014 - 14 units. In fact the total number of issued and delivered tanks for 2013-2015 reached only ten instead of 45-50 pieces. 
 
   Significant impact on the situation is that at the beginning of November 2015 the new (seventh in two years) Acting Director of the State Enterprise "Plant named after Malyshev" appointed Alexander Hlan - the brother of one of the deputies of Ukraine. His predecessor, who worked as the general director of the Kherson Automobile "Anto-Rus" and "Kharkiv tank plant" Viktor Cozonac, who headed the company since late July, according to the factory workers, "went from the SBU abroad". At December 28th, another candidate for the post of the head of the plant will be discussed at a meeting.
 
 
 
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Delivery of the third batch of Oplots to Thailand is postponed.

UNIAN (in Ukrainian)

 

BMPD blog post:

 

   As reported on January 28, 2016 by Ukrainian news agency UNIAN, sending the third batch of tanks "Oplot" under the contract with Thailand that the State Concern "Ukroboronprom" planned to carry out before the end of 2015, was delayed once again.

 
   This was in comments reported by UNIAN CEO, "Ukroboronprom" Roman Romanov. "3rd batch of Oplots - delayed delivery just by the next period of 2016", - he said.
 
   Romanov also noted that the company is ready to provide Ukrainian army with those vehicles if Oplots would be in the state defense order for 2016.
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