Defense Blog reported that Ukraine’s state-owned arms trading agency Ukrspetsexport Corp. delivered the T-84 Oplot main battle tank to the U.S. military last week. The main battle tank tank was shipped to the United States within the framework of the contract for the new main battle tank. This is not the first time Ukraine has supplied tanks to the US. 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. In addition, earlier in April 2020, the Ukrainian-made T-84 tank also was spotted at satellite images that emerged on military online forums.
The BM Oplot is a further development of the previous Oplot, which is based on the T-84 main battle tank. The tank has a conventional layout with the driver’s compartment at the front, fighting compartment in the middle and engine at the rear, accommodating a crew of three members. Tank has a length of 9.7 m (including the forward-facing gun), a width of 3.4 m without removable side skirts, and a height of 2.8 m. The combat weight of the tank is 51 tons. The driver sitting in the centre is provided with a single-piece hatch cover that opens to the right. The commander on the right and the gunner on the left have single-piece hatches. The Oplot MBT is armed with a 125 mm smoothbore KBA-3 cannon, a KT-7.62 (PKT) Coaxial machine gun and a KT-12.7 anti-aircraft machine gun.
BM Oplot is equipped with torsion bar type suspension. Either side of the six dual rubber-tyred road wheels are provided with idler at forward, drive sprocket at the rear, and track support rollers.The tank is powered by a 6TD-2E 6-cylinder turbocharged liquid-cooled engine, which delivers 1,200 horsepower (895 kW).The tank could also be powered by a more powerful 6TD-3 diesel, the tank developing 1,500 hp. Both engines could use diesel, jet engine fuel, petrol or any mixtures of them. The engine provides a maximum on-road speed of 70 kilometres per hour (43 mph) and a range of 500 kilometres (311 mi) with additional fuel tanks. The battle tank is also equipped with a diesel-electric auxiliary power unit 10 kilowatts (13 hp) to supply power to onboard systems when the main engine is turned off.
The protection system includes multilayer passive armour, Duplet explosive reactive armour, Zaslon active protection system, Varta optronic countermeasures system and other tank protection means. Built-in new generation Duplet anti-tandem-warhead explosive reactive armour protects against APFSDS, (HESH) or high-explosive plastic (HEP) and HEAT-type projectiles. Both sides of the driver’s compartment are fitted with explosive reactive armour panels for extended protection. The hull sides are hinged with large rubber skirts to withstand the attacks of man-portable anti-tank weapons. The modular explosive reactive armour package can be easily replaced or upgraded according to the future requirements. Oplot features a Varta optronic countermeasures system for deceiving incoming missiles and anti-tank guided weapons.
