Ukraine Delivers Main Battle Tanks to Thailand

Ria Novosti ^ | 05/02/2014

[sukhoi-30mki]

[JRios1968]

THAILAND????

[Gen.Blather]

4 mill per copy? That’s dirt cheap!

[skinkinthegrass]

obliviously; think ChiComs..or Vietnamese.

[FAA]

Yes, it is. The Oplot is a modernized T-80 which has been around for almost 40 years now so it’s “mature” and not terribly difficult or risky to build.

[AppyPappy]

“The main gun can fire a laser-guided missile “

They are going to wish it didn’t fire that missile.

[nascarnation]

4 mill per copy? That’s dirt cheap!

Don't say that so loud.

Every freakin municipality in the US will be buying one...

[Tijeras_Slim]

Nice muzzle... is that the Airsoft version?

[SampleMan]

Nice lipstick on the muzzle.

[Gen.Blather]

“Every freakin municipality in the US will be buying one... “

That sudden proliferation of tanks in your neighborhood is your tax money given to financial supporters (tank manufacturers). The army can’t use those obsolete things so they’re giving them to local law enforcement. (Crony capitalism.) I have a muzzle loading rifle manufactured at the end of the civil war. They were never issued because they were obsolete when made. So, they’re all in perfect condition. (Same thing, different time.)

[GeronL]

does Maine want them back?

//sorry, stupid joke

[Talisker]

Coming soon to a police department near you.

(You got a problem with that, citizen?)

[thackney]

I thought that was lipstick?

[The Antiyuppie]

“They are going to wish it didn’t fire that missile.”

Might as well send up a signal flare these days...

[SunTzuWu]

LOL!!

[lurk]

In steaming hot Thailand, that bad boy better have A/C inside for the crew.

[cunning_fish]

>>>Yes, it is. The Oplot is a modernized T-80 which has been around for almost 40 years now so it’s “mature” and not terribly difficult or risky to build.<<<

More like a T-64 and a crappy unreliable diesel instead of gas-turbine.

[Monterrosa-24]

That's a beautiful tank. The Ukrainian tank-factory is in Kharkov (Kharkiv in Ukrainian) and that city was the last major municipality ever taken by the German Army in World War II. The Germans under Field Marshal von Manstein retook the city in 1943 and held it long enough to use some of the T-34s that were on the production line.

[Monterrosa-24]

Good condition T-64s would still be devastating platforms for engaging Styker-type and BTR-type vehicles. While the poor armor is very vulnerable to even lighter shoulder-fired weapons the T-64’s main gun with modern ammo is a threat even to today’s tanks.

At Fort Benning we wargame against OPFORs with obsolete CCCP vehicles and especially in an urban environment Blue losses can go quite high against those systems.

Perhaps Thailand would prefer diesel engines as there are some advantages.