Kharkiv Morozov T-80UD
Notes: The Ukrainians have long thought the T-80 was an excellent tank, combining speed, firepower, and armor protection in a very fast-moving package. (The T-80 was Morozov’s idea, anyway.) However, Kharkiv Morozov thought that while, in its time, the T-80’s gas turbine was a good idea – it gave the T-80 excellent speed and mobility – they also knew that the gas turbine gobbled up prodigious amounts of fuel. While the T-80s gas turbine was much better than earlier Russian gas turbines, it was still a little unreliable and maintenance-heavy.
Therefore, when the Ukrainians were modernizing their T-80Us, the first thing they changed was the powerpack. The engine was replaced with a 6TD-1 1000-horsepower turbocharged multifuel engine (and intended it to run primarily from diesel). The new engine also has other advantages – it has much more reliability, both in general and especially in hot, dry, dusty conditions. A new automatic transmission was installed to match the engine, and the driver’s controls are a simple steering T-bar and conventional gas and brake pedal. The suspension is an improved version of that of the T-80U, giving the T-80UD a smoother ride both on the road and cross country. Below the front hull is a hanging rubber mat that also helps keep down dust. The fuel tanks are self-sealing and have automatic explosion and fire dampening and suppression systems, as does the engine compartment itself. The Ukrainians also added a small gas turbine APU with a power output of 8kW.
Of course, the Ukrainians did not stop with a mobility upgrade. The main gun was replaced with a 125mm KBA-3, which fires all 125mm rounds as well as the laser-guided 9K119M (AT-11 Sniper-B) ATGM. The KBA requires less maintenance, and what maintenance is done is easier to accomplish. The barrel of the KBA-3 can be changed without removing the entire gun, and the KBA-3 and its improved autoloader are more reliable than the 2A46M. Earlier versions of the T-80UD, did in fact use the 2A46M gun. The KBA-3s autoloader carries 28 rounds; six rounds are carried on each side of the driver in armored bins, and five more rounds are carried in an armored bin in the turret. The fire control system is virtually identical to that of the T-64BM (though a bit more advanced than the T-64BM, this is not quantifiable in game terms). As with other modern Ukrainian missile-firing tanks, the T-80UD has a separate laser designator for use with its ATGMs. The autoloader carousel and the ammunition stowage bins have armored exteriors.
The commander’s machinegun is housed in an integrated cupola system that allows the KT-12.7 to be aimed and fired from inside the turret using its own auxiliary sights and laser rangefinder, and is stabilized in the vertical plane. The turret’s traverse mechanism, however, is limited to 75 ° left or right in of itself, though of course 360 °-rotation is possible with the help of the turret. The commander’s machinegun can be elevated to -5 °/+70 °. (It should be noted that the commander’s ballistic computer and laser rangefinder functions only to an elevation of +20 degrees; beyond that, a conventional coincidence rangefinder is used.) The commander has override controls for the main gun and coaxial machinegun. The commander’s machinegun may also be an NSVT at customer request; likewise, the coaxial machinegun may be a PKT.
Compared to other former Soviet-based designs, the interior of the T-80UD is almost roomy. Inside the T-80UD’s fighting compartment are racks for AK-type weapons, pistols, and hand grenades for each crewmember, in addition to a signal flare pistol and several of three colors of flares. The crew is able to fit part of the personal gear inside, or extra machinegun ammunition boxes or a couple of main gun rounds can be put inside. In addition, the T-80UD has a decent-sized bustle rack and the turret and hull have several equipment boxes.
Extra protection is provided by an upgrade to the frontal composite armor as well as appliqué armor, both in the form of standard add-on armor plates and stand-off armor plates. Like most other armored vehicles, the T-80UD can lay a thick, oily smoke screen by injecting diesel fuel into its exhaust. The T-80UD has a cluster of four smoke grenade launchers on either side of its turret. Under armor, above the engine compartment, is a layer of insulation that helps dampen the IR signature of the engine (-3 to hit with IR-guided weapons and -2 to detect the T-80UD with IR viewers or thermal imagers). Lugs for ERA (usually the Ukrainian Nozh or Nozh-2, but customers may specify lugs for other types of ERA if desired) are found on the glacis, turret front, turret sides, and the forward third of the hull sides.
Pakistani T-80UDs
In the early 1990s, Ukraine negotiated with Pakistan to fill Pakistan’s needs for newer main battle tanks; the Pakistanis chose the T-80UD, deciding to procure 320 of them. These T-80UDs were to have all been delivered throughout 1997. After the first 15 T-80UDs were delivered to Pakistan, the Ukrainians were suddenly forced to suspend shipments.
The problem was the Russians. Perhaps the biggest customer for Russian military equipment is the Indians, and the Indians weren’t happy that the Pakistanis were getting tanks with main guns and fire control equipment almost as good as that on their new T-90Ss. At the time, the Ukrainians were fitting 2A46M main guns and Russian-built fire control equipment, as well as some other turret equipment that was Russian designed but built under license in Ukraine; the ERA that Ukraine was using at the time was also the Russian Kontakt series. The Russians refused to sell the Ukrainians any more tank components, and rescinded the licenses they had issued.
The Ukrainians, however, were already well on their way to having a defense industry independent of Russia, and the boycott merely gave Kharkiv Morozov extra impetus to bring those components to fruit even faster. The Ukrainians kept the Pakistanis happy by delivering 20 more T-80UDs that had been drawn from an unfulfilled earlier export order, and between 1997 and 2002, the Ukrainians delivered 285 more T-80UDs.
Sort of.
The original T-80UDs delivered to the Pakistanis were in fact standard T-80UDs. The remaining T-80UDs, however, were not standard; the Ukrainians used the hulls and hull components of the T-80UD, but the turrets of these vehicles were actually the same as those installed on the T-84. In addition, the ERA lugs were modular and could take both Kontakt-series and Nozh-series ERA, as well as Pakistani-designed ERA modules. The Pakistanis also use PKTs and NSVTs on their T-80UDs of both types. It is rumored, but not confirmed, that some of the later shipments included the Varta system. So the Pakistanis ended up with tanks which were almost the equal of the T-84, and could stand up on the battlefield to the Indians’ T-90Ss. The Pakistanis were happy with this.