Once the mainstay of the Soviet tank industry, today Ukraine's defense industry is in a tragic situation
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991
Ukraine inherited the production capacity of the most expensive and advanced main battle tank from the Soviet Union, the T-80
Ukraine is one of three separate Soviet facilities where cheaper T-72 tanks were made in the 1980s - the Mareshev Plant in the city of Kharkiv
While Russia abandoned the production of the T-80 main tank in 1992 to switch to the T-72 which is said to be much more cost-effective in production and operation
Meanwhile, Ukraine continued to supply T-80 for export and to modernize the design
The result was the T-84 Oplot - another version of the T-80
The difference is that the T-84 uses a diesel engine instead of a gas turbine engine like on the Soviet T-80s
The use of diesel engines offers greater durability, lower operating costs, but also poorer performance especially in cold weather
The tank has a weight of about 46 tons, a length of 7m, a width of 3.77m, and a height of 2.21m
The crew of 3 includes: driver, gunner, and commander
The T-84 is fitted with a fully welded turret and is fitted with built-in explosive reactive armor blocks\
Protection is enhanced by Shtora-1 countermeasures system
significantly increasing tank's survivability against ATGW with semi-active or semi-automatic guidance
Similar to the T-80UD, the T-84 is equipped with a 125 mm smoothbore gun, with an automatic loader
This MBT is also compatible with the 9K119M Refleks anti-tank guided missiles
Effective range of fire with APFSDS round is 2,000-3,000 m day and 2,000-2,600 at night
Armor penetration is about 590-630 mm at 2,000 m range
Secondary armament consists of coaxial 7.62 mm machine gun and a roof-mounted 12.7 mm heavy machine gun
The fire control system includes a gunner's day sight, PNK-6 commander's panoramic sighting system
PTT-2 thermal imaging sight, anti-aircraft sight and anti-aircraft machine gun control system
Detection range of targets for thermal sighting system is up to 8 km
The advanced fire-control system enables the gunner or commander to lay and fire the main armament on the move
The T-84 is powered by a 16.3 liter KMDB 6TD-2 6-cylinder diesel engine with 1,200 hp
Some variants are powered by a more powerful 6TD-3 turbocharged diesel, developing 1,500 hp
Auxiliary gas turbine power unit is fitted to power all the tank's systems, when the main engine is turned off
The maximum speed can reach 65 km/h, the range is 540 km
The T-84 Oplot is an advanced version of the T-84 fitted with a new turret, incorporating an armoured ammunition compartment
Ten of these entered Ukrainian service in 2001
Ukrainian army never ordered this tank in large numbers due to funding problems
and instead relied on their ageing T-64 main battle tanks and their upgraded versions
One problem with the T-84 tank program is that Ukraine's defense industry capacity is very limited compared to the 1990s
The T-84 is hardly used in Ukraine
Its main customer, the Royal Thai Army, ordered 49 T-84s in 2011 but the deal was canceled due to Ukraine's limited production capacity