Poland has announced its readiness to send 60 more tanks to Ukraine, 30 of which are PT-91 and 14 Leopard 2 tanks.
Poland was among the first countries to send main battle tanks to Ukraine since the conflict broke out in February 2022. And now, Poland has announced its readiness to send 60 more tanks to Ukraine, 30 of which are PT-91 and 14 Leopard 2 tanks. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced on January 26.
Earlier, Poland delivered 290 T-72A/T-72M/T-72M1R tanks to Ukraine from its military inventory. The PT-91 Twardy is in fact a deeply upgraded version of the Soviet T-72, with several modifications and upgrades to improve its performance and capabilities. Currently Poland is operating 92 PT-91s, 27 PT-91MAs, and 113 PT-91MA1s. Poland is working to upgrade its ground fleet with the purchase of K2 tanks from Korea and Abrams from the US, but until then PT-91 remained the core of the country’s armored forces.
Twardy’s upgrades include a new fire control system, improved armor, and a more powerful engine. The PT-91 entered service with the Polish Armed Forces in 1995 and is still the backbone of the Polish armored forces.
Compared with the original Soviet T-72, the most noticeable difference on the PT-91 Twardy is the ERAWA explosive reactive armor plates arranged on the front, sides, as well as the turret. There are a total of 394 shielding ERAWA armor blocks arranged in a very dense, no gap, providing 30 to 70% better protection depending on the type of ammunition. However, PT-91’s armor is still considered to be equivalent to Kontakt-1, unable to withstand modern 120 mm armor-piercing rounds, fired from a distance of 2,000 m of Western tanks.
The main armament of the PT-91 is a 125 mm smoothbore gun, with an automatic reloading system. Secondary armament includes a 7.62 mm PKT coaxial machine gun, and a 12.7 mm NSVT anti-aircraft machine gun. The tank is equipped with a modern Polish fire control system Drawa, while the gunner has a thermal imaging sight combined with a laser rangefinder manufactured by France.
Thanks to advanced upgrades, the main battle tank PT-91 can deal with a variety of targets, has a very high gunnery accuracy, and works well in all weather conditions. Besides, it is also equipped with NBC protection system, as well as advanced communication equipment.
PT-91 Twardy has a weight of 45.3 tons, a length of 6.86 m, a width of 3.59 m, and a height of 2.19 m. It is equipped with a PZL-Wola S-1000R diesel engine with a capacity of 1,000 horsepower at 2,000 rpm, for a maximum speed of 70 km/h, a range of 480 km.
