T-64BM Bulat (tank) - the last upgrade of the T-64

The history of Soviet tank building knows a lot of cases when cars produced a few dozen years ago, still continue to be quite relevant in the modern battlefield. Not without modernization, of course. One such example is "Bulat". This tank is produced by the Kharkov plant and represents the modernization of the old T-64A.

Predecessor

It should be noted that this tank was one of the most promising developments of Soviet industry. The history of its creation dates back to the 60s, in the design bureau of the city of Kharkov. From the middle of the same 60-ies it is sent to the conveyor, where a new machine starts to mass produce along with the tanks T-64, T-62, and T-55. Official acceptance for service took place only in 1969, and in the first place they were equipped with elite tank divisions located on the western outskirts of the country.

History of T-64A

For the sake of justice it is necessary to say that originally the idea of the appearance of such a machine arose in the designers as far back as 1946. This idea was prompted by the work begun on the creation of a fundamentally different diesel engine (with which the USSR always had a problem). Soon famous in narrow circles of KB number 75 completed its creation. Almost immediately, work began on the tank itself, which for a long time was code-named "Object 430".

Post-Soviet history

"Sixty-quarters" began to be produced at the Malyshev plant since 1963 (Kharkov Tank Plant). The release lasted a quarter of a century, and during this time, about 5.5 thousand of these machines, which were advanced for their time, were brought down from the conveyor.

Immediately after the collapse of the USSR, the Kharkov Tank Plant was quickly tapped to the hands of an independent Ukraine (along with all the equipment already paid for). It is not surprising that the "foreign" T-64 quickly ceased to be of interest to the Ministry of Defense, and therefore the tanks remaining in Russia quickly "retrained" into training cars where the cadets practiced the most unthinkable exercises, simply spending their resources.

More recently (in 2011), an official order was issued to send all the remaining tanks for remelting. Speaking of current affairs, this little detail has served a good service: the current Ukrainian authorities can not blame Russia for delivering these tanks to the Donbas. Officially, we do not have them.

Since the whole project base was in the hands of specialists from Ukraine, they nevertheless decided not to completely destroy the enterprise. It was decided to start the modernization of the old equipment with the installation of relatively new weapons, surveillance devices and others. Under the T-64E brand, the car is now actively (albeit in small batches) shipped to states like South Sudan and Somalia, which simply do not have the money for normal, modern armored vehicles.

So where did that "Bulat" come from? The tank is a further development of this old line.

Modernization of T-64E

Soon it became clear that the Ukrainian troops urgently need normal tanks. The situation was pathetic: it seems that Kharkov was the pearl of the whole tank building of the USSR, only all decent cars were sold for a long time, and only the corps remained from the "mothballed" T-80 and T-72. In a word, new, "Ukrainian" tanks were needed.

Of course, great hopes were placed on the semi-mythical (for the Ukrainians themselves) "Bulwark", that's only in the APU of these tanks is still not more than a dozen, and their cost is such that it is pointless to expect the further saturation of "independent" troops with this technique. But these cars please the owners of the oil budgets in the UAE, where they are very positive.

The output was found relatively quickly. In the warehouses there was a bunch of useless T-64s. It remained only to "screw" to them a new engine 5TDFE, whose power is very decent 900 liters. from. Oddly enough, but all the work of the Ukrainians were conducted in secrecy, no one could see the new tank. Only a couple of years ago it was actively advertised in the press, it managed to "light up" even at the prestigious arms exhibition in the UAE.

In principle, for the first time the tank was shown to the general public already in 1999, but only (according to active rumors) it was a mock-up in a very sad stage of readiness, the Ukrainian army did not wait for the machine. The tank forces of this state at that time were formed exclusively from the remainders of the T-72 and T-80U reserves.

What has changed in the tank?

It should be noted that the results of the work are indeed visible even with the naked eye. The tank no longer looks like a relic of the times of World War II, it looked like a modern war machine. The body of the tank is evenly distributed dynamic protection, the frontal part looks powerful and reliable. Let's look at the main innovations:

• The sides of the car are closed by the "Knife-2" protection blocks. For a better coverage of the surface, they are made both square and rectangular.
• Two types of "dynamics" - "Knife-2" and "Contact-1" - are rationally distributed over the surface of the armor, assembled for a simple and cheap "lattice" scheme. The main advantage of this method of installation is the extremely small weight of the armor protection of the machine.
• The structural component of the tower is also fundamentally altered, which is especially visible in the lateral projection. The Ukrainian side does not cover this moment, but experts assume that there is an additional ammunition compartment in the tower.

So what else is the tank like, on the basis of which the "Bulat" was created? The tank, as we have already said, is equipped with much more sophisticated surveillance devices. So, for the first time in tanks of this class, a panoramic sight with a thermal imager appeared, which greatly increases the chances of the tank surviving in battle.

Since the site for its installation is chosen really successful, it can be said with certainty that the modernization was carried out thought out. In general, all Ukrainian tanks are not bad idea, but only the implementation of projects often suffers. Usually this is due to the low quality of the armored steel used and the lack of experienced specialists from the old Soviet school.

The main armament of the tank

The main weaponry is a 125-mm tank gun. In addition, the machine is mounted immediately two combat modules: they consist of an aircraft automatic gun GSh-23 (caliber 30 mm), a machine gun НСВТ caliber 12.7 mm, as well as an automatic grenade launcher AG-17.

These modules are extremely effective in urban conditions, in which conventional Soviet tanks traditionally carry large losses from anti-tank weapons. In addition, they are extremely effective in countering the light armored vehicles of the enemy, allowing the cavalry not to spend the main ammunition in vain.

In general, the work was really carried out impressive. But this is not yet Bulat. The tank that bears this name is the further development and processing of the just described modification of the old machine. So, we finally proceed to describe the immediate "hero" of our article.

So what is "Bulat"?

So, the new Ukrainian tank is a "deep rethinking" of the T-64A and T-64B (and other modifications). The purpose of modernization was to bring the new machine closer to the level of T-80UD, T-84U. As we already mentioned above, the "first phenomenon" occurred in 1999.

All modernization was limited to in-depth work in three areas:

• Significant increase in mobility (new power plant).
• Strengthening of defense, including from more or less modern anti-tank complexes.
• Increase of firepower and combat power by installing new weapons systems.

Power point

It is logical that an entirely new diesel engine is installed to increase mobility in the engine compartment. As in the case of the predecessor, a 5TDFM engine with a capacity of 850 horsepower was chosen for this role. In principle, this is the further development of a fairly old 5TDF diesel engine, over which engineers have worked.

In order to accommodate the new 5TDFM in the old engine compartment, it was not only necessary to completely replace the old and inefficient air purifier, but also to rework the exhaust system, which also does not meet any modern requirements. To the Ukrainian tank "Bulat" (once again recalled, created on the basis of the old T-64) did not spoil the roads and monstrously, like its predecessor, in Kharkov developed special lining for caterpillars intended for traffic on public roads.

In any case, the asphalt highway after the movement of the column of vehicles that are equipped with such devices will not turn into a tank training ground. The advantage of such a scheme is also that it does not require any additional modifications of the caterpillar itself. Asphalt shoe and fasteners plant (seemingly) delivers separately, at the request of the customer.

In general, the Ukrainian tanks "Bulat" and "Oplot" throughout its operation are actively accompanied by the manufacturer, which causes some respect.

Anti-tank protection

Increasing the level of protection is achieved through the installation of new dynamic protection complexes on the tower, side and stern of the tank. The manufacturer reports that it was able to improve the resistance of the armor to the action of cumulative ammunition (KUM), as well as sub-caliber armor-piercing shells (BPS). At the same time, the main emphasis is on the fact that the mass of the tank has increased quite insignificantly.

The protection kit consists of two separate modules: a passive armor and a built-in dynamic protection system. External dynamic protection is represented by a frontal module and screens that are attached around the perimeter of the tank body. On the roof of the tower and in some hard-to-reach places, modular sections are mounted, which can be changed quickly if they fail. The elements of the built-in dynamic protection increase the resistance of the equipment to antitank weapons even more.

The total weight of the complete set of dynamic protection (together with fasteners) is about 3.5 tons. Only the tank crew, with their own forces, will be able to perform the installation in approximately 5.5-6 hours. The built-in dynamic protection, which is already installed on the tank by the manufacturer, does not need any additional care during the operation. Thus, the system of protection against Kharkov manufacturers is good because its installation and operation does not require sophisticated tools and highly qualified specialists.

But that's not all. Why, as a rule, the crew of a tank dies when it is defeated by anti-tank weapons, which (most likely) is used by enemy infantry? From fire and heat. To protect people and increase their chances of survival, Ukrainian tank builders provided for an automatic fire fighting system, the response time of which (after some engineering improvements) was reduced to 150 msec.

Results of modernization

So what is a T-64 Bulat tank? According to the Ukrainian producers themselves (not suffering from excess of modesty), it is "almost identical to the Russian T-90 tank" and "comparable in characteristics to the newest" Oplot "."

Yes, the machine has good prospects in the field of further modernization, especially in the field of improving the power plant by installing the engine 6TD-1 or 6TD-2. It is possible to greatly improve the aiming devices, to put a fundamentally different JMA, navigation and communication tools. In addition, the resource of the machine after modernization is close to 11 thousand kilometers (as for the new tank).

If you throw aside pathos, then everything is not so rosy. Yes, in terms of its characteristics, the upgraded T-64 really can be compared to the T-72 early series. That's just how it can "exceed" the fundamentally different T-90 and the new modifications of the T-72, it's not entirely clear.

In principle, he does have positive qualities. Thus, in the manufacture of rollers and other parts of the chassis of the T-72 tank, more than a ton of non-ferrous metal alloys are used, while for the T-64, no more than 200 kilograms are needed. Accordingly, this fact dramatically reduces the cost of a combat vehicle, but the reliability of the "walker" suffers.

The only thing in which the T-64 is really better is the maintainability of the running gear. And then, to the latter, the experts have many questions (once again we recall the alloys of non-ferrous metals). The fact is that in the GDR (where most of these tanks went), the technicians had numerous claims regarding the wear of caterpillars and wreaths. T-64 very often flew caterpillars, and often it was accompanied by severe injuries and injuries for people who were close to the tank.

And the statements of Ukrainians that their "best modern tank" almost exceeds the English "Challenger" and the German "Leopard-2" look absolutely "unusual" - that it looks especially ridiculous in the light of the fact that the English car was objectively recognized as the best Tank during the NATO operation in Iraq. It would be superfluous to say that "Bulat" managed to fight only in the Donbas, and the network is already full of photos of the killed and burned Ukrainian cars. Why is he so good?

Apparently, its cheap: the cost of upgrading an old T-64 (according to two or three years ago) is about 400 thousand dollars, while for the production of one "Bulk" you need at least 1.5 million.

Analysis of shortcomings

In the network to date, so many "chants" that are dedicated to the "new" tank, that I would like to arrange a moment of objectivity, talking about his shortcomings.

First, the weight and power of the engine. "Bulat" weighs 45 tons at an engine power of 850 l / s. "The obsolete and inefficient Russian T-72 tank has a mass of 44.5 tons and an engine whose capacity is 1000 l / s. What kind of "highest mobility" (advertising booklets of the Kharkov plant) can there be? On the T-72, if necessary, you can hang a couple more tons of armor, while for the T-64 for this purpose you will have to change the engine.

And this is where the dog is buried. Even in the "shaggy" 70-ies there were attempts to further develop the T-64 by installing on it an engine at 1000 l / s. The problem was that the running of the old car did not stand such tests, starting to literally crumble on the go. Because of this, by 1987 the leadership of the USSR had finally abandoned the further development of the T-64.

A gun. The tank "Bulat", whose characteristics we are considering, is completed with the model KBA3 (conventional 2A46M-1). The manufacturer claims that it is "much better than the T-72 and T-90 guns." I wonder what is better? Russian tanks have a 2A24M-4 / M-5 gun, which gives 17% less dispersion when firing on the move and provides an improvement of 15-20% accuracy of shooting (just the same as in the old 2A46M-1). Paradox, not otherwise.

As for the actual range of fire, then this is still more interesting. Judging by official, Soviet data, the cannon of the "Ukrainian" provides a real target range of 1.5 km (which for those times was the norm). In "Tagil", this value is equal to 2.3-2.5 km. And where are the "improvements" here? Again it is not clear.

As for passive and dynamic armor, the story here is generally vague. Not a single (!) Full-fledged State Test "Bulat" with all this "body kit" did not pass. All data is from official Kharkov sources only. Surely, international customers are guided by the same arguments: they are interested in T-72, T-80, T-90 and the same "Oplot", but for some reason they are completely uninteresting "Bulat".

Proceeding from all the above, we can draw a simple conclusion. The Kharkov modification certainly improves the quality characteristics of the old T-64, but it does not exactly turn it into a superweapon. Modernization is fairly sound, meets the needs of the modern Ukrainian army, which is not spoiled by normal financing. But still there are no miracles: a car from the 60's, even with a new engine and dynamic protection, modern tanks are not equal.