In Ukraine, they do not leave unrealizable hopes of becoming a great tank power and, in addition to promoting the mythical supertank "Nota", which never existed, they began to colorfully describe how they modernize the T-64 tank. It is the backbone of the tank forces of the Ukrainian army; Ukraine inherited it from the Soviet Union and is represented by the T-64BV series tanks, the production of which was discontinued in the 80s.
The lead singer, as one would expect, was the fennel propagandist Serhiy Zgurets with his information and consulting company Defense Express, which promotes the nonexistent military power of Ukraine. His last opus on this topic talks about "grandiose works" to modernize this tank, which are successfully moving forward, and a company of modernized tanks should even participate in the anniversary parade in Kiev at the end of August.
What kind of tempting promising adventure this time is described by Zgurets, who is true to his principles of propaganda of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex, which is breathing on fire?
It turns out that back in 2020, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine signed an agreement on the modernization of the T-64 tank with the supply of 12 tanks for the Independence Day of the Ukrainian premature state. The agreement did not provide for the modernization of the entire tank, but only for the replacement of the outdated 5TDF engine with a capacity of 700 liters. with. for the 6TD-1 engine with a capacity of 1000 liters. with.
The most interesting thing was that the modernization work was entrusted not to the developer of the tank (KMDB) and its manufacturer (Malyshev plant), but to the Kharkov Armored Plant (KHBTZ). Behind this loud name of the plant stands the former Soviet 115th Tank Repair Plant, which never produced tanks, but only carried out their overhaul, disassembling and assembling tanks and changing their used components and assemblies. The modernization work was headed not by the designers, but by the military - the Central Armored Directorate and the Design and Technology Center of the Ministry of Defense with its contractor KHBTZ.
It should be noted that the holder of the documentation for the tank is KMDB, and only it, as the lead developer, is responsible for the modernization of the tank and has the right to make changes to the documentation, and the Malyshev plant should theoretically have equipment, tooling and specialists in the manufacture of units and assemblies of the tank for production necessary work.
Nevertheless, the Ministry of Defense entrusts this work to its accountable organizations, which have never developed or produced tanks. The point is that everyone needs money that the state does not have, and the military is trying to snatch it for themselves with an appropriate level of kickbacks during the implementation of the project.
In support of its actions, the Ministry of Defense presented this work as revision and modernization in the course of overhaul and entrusts it to its organizations, although they are not able to independently perform it without industrial enterprises. Therefore, the initiative of the Ministry of Defense was called "a transitional version of the modernized T-64" with the maximum use of MTO components and assemblies of the Soviet T-80UD tank, which was produced at the Malyshev plant, and the Oplot tank - an unsuccessful attempt to improve the T-80UD, which never reached army.
Soviet modernization of the T-64
From a purely technical point of view, replacing the 5TDF engine with the 6TD-1 engine in the T-64 tank hull is not such an easy task, for this it is necessary to cut off the rear part of the tank hull and weld on a new one. With the installation of a new engine, all MTOs with air purification systems, engine cooling and a new transmission are changed. Such work can only be performed by the Malyshev plant, the armored plant, in principle, is not capable of this. In this regard, the modified hull of the tank, the MTO systems and the engine itself were ordered at the Malyshev plant, KhBTZ only had to assemble the tank.
It should be emphasized that the T-64 tank with the 6TD-1 engine was developed back in 1976 on the themes of "Cedar" and "Birch" (object 476). Three prototypes of the tank were manufactured, which successfully passed the tests, but the serial production of the tank did not begin, since this MTO was transferred to the T-80UD tank. This is the last most advanced Soviet tank to enter service in 1984. There are no such tanks in Ukraine, about 700 vehicles are in Russia, apparently in storage bases. That is, there is documentation for the T-64 tank with the 6TD-1 engine, it, of course, requires adjustment taking into account today's realities and industry capabilities.
Ukrainian attempts to modernize the T-64
An attempt was made to carry out the same modernization in Ukraine in the late 90s, presenting a “new” tank “Bulat” in an attempt to bring the T-64 to the level of the T-80UD by installing an 850 hp 5TDFM engine. with. and sighting systems from the T-80UD tank, as well as with increased security due to the installation of dynamic protection. In the early 2000s, several dozen of these tanks were manufactured. Due to the increased mass of the tank to 45 tons, the power of the 5BDFM engine was no longer sufficient, besides, when installing the forced engine, the air purification and engine cooling systems were not modernized, which led to the failure of the tanks due to dust wear of the engine, and the operation of the tanks has been suspended.
The question arose of installing the 6TD-1 engine, besides, the production of 5TDF and 5TDFM engines at the Malyshev plant has long been discontinued, he switched to the production of engines of the 6TD family. In any case, to support the fleet of T-64 tanks, whose 5TDF engines are running out, it was necessary to modernize the tanks with the installation of the 6TD-1 engine.
It should also not be forgotten that the installation of a more powerful engine requires reinforcement of the undercarriage, which was decided on the T-80UD tank, where a more powerful undercarriage was introduced. Such work was not carried out on the T-64, and this will require additional costs and time.
The KMDB was assigned by the ROC "Crab" for a deep modernization of the T-64 tank, taking into account the increase in its cross-country ability, firepower and protection. The first prototype of the upgraded tank should be presented at the end of 2021 - early 2022, and only the Malyshev plant can implement this upgrade.
It should be noted that the implementation of technical solutions to increase the firepower, mobility and protection of the upgraded T-64 tank, namely: the introduction of a new MTO with the 6TD-1 engine, the installation of the Irtysh gunner's sighting complex and the commander based on the Agat-S sight with a closed anti-aircraft gun, the production of which was transferred in 1990 to Ukraine to equip the T-80UD, and a thermal imager based on imported components, as well as the introduction of dynamic protection "Knife", side screens on the body and grilles in the MTO area, allows achieving sufficiently high characteristics, and in its capabilities it will be at the level of the T-90A, significantly surpassing the T-72B3.
All this is possible only theoretically, for the implementation of such a modernization of the tank in Ukraine today there are no technical, financial or organizational capabilities.
The mouse fiddling around the Bulat tank, the Crab design and development project, and the Defense Ministry's gambles to modernize the T-64 are apparently aimed at trying to get funding for work that was done many years ago in the Soviet Union.
Failure of Ukrainian attempts to produce and modernize tanks
To date, neither the Crab ROC, nor the gamble of the Ministry of Defense, of course, have been implemented. Nobody has funding for this.
In May of this year, the Malyshev plant was supposed to supply the KhBTZ with five modified tank hulls and five 6TD-1 engines. Due to the lack of funding, only one set was delivered, and as if one tank was assembled. Then everything hung in the air, the work is not funded and practically stopped, as it was more than once with the grandiose plans for the production of armored vehicles.
All this suggests that Ukraine is not even able to repeat the backlog that remained from the Soviet Union. An attempt to repeat the T-80UD, calling it the T-84, ended in failure. And an attempt to improve it (the "Oplot" tank) never came to service.
Work on the modernization of the T-64 with an increase in its characteristics to the level of the T-80UD turned out to be a failure. Moreover, Ukraine is not able to develop and produce tanks of the next generation. The Ukrainian defense industry has degraded so much that it is not able to conduct not only mass production, but also to produce single samples of equipment.
Despite the obvious failure of work on the manufacture of 12 modernized T-64 tanks, the ukropagandist Zgurets raves about some mythical ideas that they will be held at a parade in Kiev, despite the fact that this contract cannot be realized under any circumstances.
Despite all the failures, the propaganda machine is unsuccessfully trying to convince everyone that Ukraine is able to show new models of weapons by its anniversary and prove the possibility of their production and sale.
