Under the umbrella of Ukroboronprom, the Ukrainian State Defense Company of army export, the Company "Malyshev Plant" promotes its Oplot BM Main Battle Tank (MBT), a solution to replace the old T-55 MBT of the Peruvian Army. The Oplot BM is an upgraded version of the T-84 Oplot MBT.
Oplot BM main battle tank (Picture source Wikipedia)
The Oplot MBT is one of the latest generations of main battle tank available in the current military market. The Oplot BM is fully designed and manufactured in Ukraine offering high level of mobility, protection and firepower. The OPLOT BM is in service with the Ukrainian armed forces and the Royal Thai Army.
The Oplot BM is armed with one 125mm smoothbore gun able to fire standard ammunition including high explosive fragmentation (HE-FRAG), armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding-sabot (APFSDS), high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) but also anti-tank guided missile at a maximum firing range of 5,000m. Second armament includes one 7.62mm coaxial machine gun coupled to the main gun and one remotely controlled weapon station armed with one 12.7mm caliber heavy machine gun. The Oplot has 46 rounds of ammunition for the main gun, of which 28 rounds are placed in an automatic loader.
The Oplot BM is fitted with a computerized fire control system that includes armament control devices to provide all data considering weather conditions and other parameters influencing the accuracy of fire. The system also includes PTT-2 thermal sighting system used to observe, detect, recognize and identify the targets and the PNK-6 used to detect and identify ground and aerial targets by the tank commander in day and night conditions.
The Oplot BM protection systems integrate passive armor and explosive reactive armor. The turret and hull are fitted with multilayer armor and built-in anti-tandem-warhead explosive reactive armor (BATW-ERA) for optimum protection against APFSDS, high-explosive squash head (HESH), high-explosive plastic (HEP) and HEAT-type projectiles. The front of the hull is fitted with explosive reactive armor panels for extended protection. The hull sides are hinged with large rubber skirts to withstand the attacks of man-portable anti-tank weapons.
The Oplot BM is motorized with a 6ТD-2 multi-fuel, six-cylinder, liquid cooled diesel engine which delivers a maximum power of 882 kW. It can run at a maximum road speed of 70 km/h with a maximum cruising range of 500 km. The Oplot BM can cross a vertical obstacle of 1 m and a trench of 2,85m. It can negotiate a gradient of 32° and side slopes of 25°. It can cross water obstacle with a depth of 1.8 m without preparation. The Oplot BM is provided with a snorkel for deep fording and can ford 5m of water with equipment, which can be deployed in 20 minutes.
