Similar to the T-80UD, the T-84 is equipped with a 125 mm smoothbore gun, with an automatic loader.
Once the mainstay of the Soviet tank industry, today Ukraine’s defense industry is in a tragic situation. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine inherited the production capacity of the most expensive and advanced main battle tank from the Soviet Union, the T-80. Ukraine is one of three separate Soviet facilities where cheaper T-72 tanks were made in the 1980s – the Mareshev Plant in the city of Kharkiv.
While Russia abandoned the production of the T-80 main tank in 1992 to switch to the T-72 which is said to be much more cost-effective in production and operation. Meanwhile, Ukraine continued to supply T-80 for export and to modernize the design. The result was the T-84 Oplot – another version of the T-80. The difference is that the T-84 uses a diesel engine instead of a gas turbine engine like on the Soviet T-80s. The use of diesel engines offers greater durability, lower operating costs, but also poorer performance especially in cold weather.
The tank has a weight of about 46 tons, a length of 7m, a width of 3.77m, and a height of 2.21m. The crew of 3 includes: driver, gunner, and commander. The T-84 is fitted with a fully welded turret and is fitted with built-in explosive reactive armor blocks. Protection is enhanced by Shtora-1 countermeasures system, significantly increasing tank’s survivability against ATGW with semi-active or semi-automatic guidance.
Similar to the T-80UD, the T-84 is equipped with a 125 mm smoothbore gun, with an automatic loader. This MBT is also compatible with the 9K119M Refleks anti-tank guided missiles. Effective range of fire with APFSDS round is 2,000-3,000 m day and 2,000-2,600 at night. Armor penetration is about 590-630 mm at 2,000 m range. Secondary armament consists of coaxial 7.62 mm machine gun and a roof-mounted 12.7 mm heavy machine gun.
The fire control system includes a gunner’s day sight, PNK-6 commander’s panoramic sighting system, PTT-2 thermal imaging sight, anti-aircraft sight and anti-aircraft machine gun control system. Detection range of targets for thermal sighting system is up to 8 km. The advanced fire-control system enables the gunner or commander to lay and fire the main armament on the move.
The T-84 is powered by a 16.3 liter KMDB 6TD-2 6-cylinder diesel engine with 1,200 hp. Some variants are powered by a more powerful 6TD-3 turbocharged diesel, developing 1,500 hp. Auxiliary gas turbine power unit is fitted to power all the tank’s systems, when the main engine is turned off. The maximum speed can reach 65 km/h, the range is 540 km.
