In recent weeks, the Kiev Armored Plant has become a real news generator. On August 12, the Ukrainian media reported on the results of the prosecutor's check at the enterprise. The employees of the supervisory department established that the T-72 tank, which was stored there, had disappeared from the plant. An investigation is underway into the loss of the car. The day after the news of the theft of the tank, the Ukrainian prosecutor's office arrested the director of the Kiev armored plant, Eduard Ilyin. He is suspected of participating in a fraud that resulted in the loss of a military vehicle by the army.
A few days later, new information about the work of the Kiev Armored Plant appeared in the Ukrainian media. Probably, the management of the enterprise decided to improve its shaky reputation and invited journalists to the workshops. They were told the latest news about the work of the enterprise and were shown the production of new armored vehicles. The disclosed information allows us to form an opinion about the work of the plant, and also gives grounds for certain conclusions.
It is reported that in order to provide the forces of the "anti-terrorist operation" with armored vehicles, the Kiev Armored Plant had to go to work in two shifts. The main task of the enterprise is currently the construction of armored personnel carriers BTR-3. About two dozen of these machines have already been delivered to the customer. To ensure the operation of armored personnel carriers, a repair team was formed from among the employees of the plant. Now she is in the combat zone and is engaged in the maintenance of armored vehicles of the army and the Nagtsvardia.
The Internet edition Delo.ua was able to find out some details of the operation of the supplied equipment. With reference to the head of the trade union of the plant, Vladimir Yakovenko, it is argued that repairmen mainly have to deal with engine maintenance. The Kiev Armored Plant sends various parts and components to the repair brigade that are used to repair armored vehicles. At the same time, until now there has not been a single case when the armor of combat vehicles would need to be repaired. V. Yakovenko believes that this is due to additional protection in the form of lattice screens installed on the equipment.
In addition to the construction of armored personnel carriers, the Kiev Armored Plant is engaged in the repair and modernization of equipment. So, the company received the task to modernize a batch of T-72 tanks. In the course of this work, combat vehicles receive a new Ukrainian-made engine with a capacity of 1050 hp. As in the case of armored personnel carriers, tank repairs are carried out in the interests of the Ukrainian armed forces.
The two dozen BTR-3 armored personnel carriers mentioned by representatives of the Kiev Armored Plant were probably built in accordance with a recent order. In May this year, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense ordered 22 armored personnel carriers of this model with a total cost of about 100 million hryvnia. This technique was supposed to be distributed between the units of the ground forces and the National Guard. Thus, over the past months, the plant managed to transfer all or almost all of the ordered vehicles to the military. Such a quick execution of the order could be facilitated by the fact that the construction of the BTR-3 was mastered by the Kiev plant a few years ago. It was the Kiev Armored Plant that assembled combat vehicles from the supplied components. Some other enterprises were involved in the manufacture of components and assemblies for the new equipment, in particular, armored hulls are produced by the Azovmash plant in Mariupol.
The armored personnel carrier BTR-3 was developed by the Kharkiv Design Bureau for Mechanical Engineering named after A. A. Morozov and is a further development of the BTR-80, created in the USSR. Ukrainian engineers retained the main features of the machine, but significantly redesigned it taking into account the capabilities of the industry and using other components. As a result of this approach to the design of the BTR-3, it retained the layout of the BTR-80 with the middle location of the troop compartment and the power plant in the stern.
The combat vehicle has a body that provides protection against bullets and shrapnel. The basis of the power plant is a German-made MTU 6R 106 TD21 diesel engine with an output of up to 325 hp. The engine is mated to an Allison transmission. With a combat weight of about 16.5 tons (this parameter depends on the configuration), the car, according to official data, is capable of accelerating to 100 km / h. If necessary, the armored personnel carrier can cross water obstacles by swimming at a speed of up to 8 km / h.
An interesting feature of the BTR-3 is the ability to install various combat modules in accordance with customer requirements. For example, the BTR-3E1 modification is equipped with a BM-3M "Shturm-M" combat module, carrying a 30-mm automatic cannon ZTM-1, a coaxial 7, 62-mm machine gun KT-7, 62, two launchers for Barrier missiles and a 30-mm automatic grenade launcher KBA-117.
In the 2000s, BTR-3 armored personnel carriers of various modifications interested foreign customers. A number of such combat vehicles were sold to Azerbaijan, Ecuador, Myanmar, Chad and other developing countries. The largest customer of the BTR-3 was Thailand, which had bought more than a hundred BTR-3 by 2011 and later ordered an additional batch of 120 vehicles. By 2010, the United Arab Emirates received about 90 Ukrainian armored personnel carriers. Sudan could become another large customer, but after receiving the first batch of 10 vehicles, the Sudanese military was dissatisfied with their quality and canceled the order.
In May of this year, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense placed an order for the BTR-3 for the first time. In accordance with it, in the near future, the armed forces and the National Guard should receive 22 vehicles in the BTR-3E version with a Deutz BF6M1015 engine and a Shturm-M combat module. As follows from the latest reports, some of these machines have already been handed over to the customer and, probably, sent to the combat zone.
So far, we cannot talk about the real combat effectiveness of the BTR-3E armored personnel carriers, recently transferred to the Ukrainian military. Any reliable information about the seizure or destruction of machines of this model has not yet appeared. The small number of BTR-3E and the recent start of deliveries do not yet allow the full operation of such equipment to begin and, as a result, to form an opinion about its real effectiveness. At the same time, it should be noted that during the battles of recent months, the Ukrainian security forces lost a large number of BTR-70 and BTR-80 armored personnel carriers, which in a number of parameters differ little from the BTR-3E. In addition, one should not forget about poor training of soldiers and illiterate command and control of troops.
The general situation on the fronts of Novorossiya is such that a message about the destruction of the first BTR-3E can come at any time. Also, one should not exclude the possibility that Ukrainian armored personnel carriers will become trophies of the militia and will be used by them against their former owners. One way or another, all the laudatory statements about this technique should be considered advertising and an attempt to interest potential customers. The participation of the BTR-3E in combat, in turn, will help future buyers learn more about this technique and draw appropriate conclusions.
