First things first: I checked Russian
UNIT 697 it shows the
T-72B3M/B4 which in itself is it's own tank and I understand what you did here. For further I refer you to
Pg.47/Post 466.
The Russian
T-72B1 really is just a slightly better
T-72B w/o ATGM capability. It does create a little dilemma because
if I remember correctly the T-72B, B1 & B2 all became operational in 1985. But there's no denying that the T-72B1 was updated with the "White Eagle" Pkg. and were operational by
2012, have (are seeing) seen combat in the Ukraine and having been deployed to the "Eastern Front" to include a new gun etc. etc. as I posted last night concerning
Nicaragua having them as well.
This is the tank I propose for Russia. The question again is do we have to enter the original unmodified one?
Ukraine/Thailand:
OPLOT-T as both these countries have named it, is on track for Thailand to receive the rest of their order of tanks by late Fall as has been posted by me and widely on the net. Yes production was curtailed for national defense purposes, however a second production line was opened late last Fall to fulfill this order as noted. Since it was brought up and Don certainly knows by now how I follow up on equipment I've submitted (Or related to them.) wouldn't be surprised that again as mentioned yes Thailand was forced to "stop gap" the situation by ordering tanks from
China. This had nothing to do about the
OPLOT-T's performance, they are very happy with it's performance, but, to simply to meet their immediate national defense requirements.
http://www.uawire.org/news/ukraine-p...ks-to-thailand
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the...ia-being-17817
http://www.armyrecognition.com/janua..._10301176.html
Ukraine: The
T-80U and
T-80UD (Mostly) are currently in service at around 270 - 275 tanks depending on source.
Also the Ukraine never fielded the T-80, they just built them for Russia. It would seem they from Russian feedback (?) and from their own building experiences (?), saw the same flaws with the
T-80 and went to their own modified
T-80U/UD models as shown in ref. 2 below. The first ref. is from a Russian and I'm assuming a journalist as he posted some pictures of the OPLOT-M. About three posts down he lists the UAF tanks that have seen combat in Eastern Ukraine.
http://sturgeonshouse.ipbhost.com/in...lat-and-other/
https://www.forecastinternational.co...DACH_RECNO=422
If the T-80 is in the Ukraine OOB, I don't believe it's ever been fielded. I do believe they had some after the Cold War ended but brought them to the above discussed standards.
Note: Only Russian and possibly East German troops operated them (?) however, they were
definitely stationed there.
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the...disaster-13550
Note: Russia has been bringing back the T-80 over the last few months. They've been updating them first before deploying them. All T-80 Russian models were to have been retired by 2015. However given the the current political situation the existing variants, to include the
T-80U, will be held in service until 2020 pending arrival in numbers of the
ARMATA.
http://www.defense-house.com/defense...ve-until-2020/
http://carnegie.ru/2014/05/25/close-ranks/hbrg
Well it's getting late. I've seen in a couple of defense reporting sites and in a couple of business sites that the Ukraine took a
major step in getting it's defense industry straightened out by hiring our recent former head of
DARPA we would call that a "coup" in most circles.
http://www.defense-aerospace.com/art...rpa-chief.html
https://sputniknews.com/military/201...prom-analysis/.
Related recent Ukrainian Posts:
Pg.48/Post 472 &
Pg.46/Post 457.
Regards,
Pat
