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Howdy yall! this is my first ‘Suggestion’ post, so any suggestions for how to improve my post are more than welcome!
**Introduction:**The history of the T-80UD starts naturally with the T-80U. While it was in many ways a very impressive MBT for the USSR, its dramatic fuel consumption, and issues regarding the turbine, lead for an interest to simplify the tank and increase the range by modifying its engine. This desire later turned into a project that lead to the development and creation of the T-80UD, which was powered a 1,000HP diesel and was introduced in 1985 and entered service with the Soviet Army in 1987.
Early T-80UD
With the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine inherited a stock pile of 300+ T-80UD’s and In 1996 Ukraine signed a deal to sell 320 of the vehicles to Pakistan. Some deliveries were made despite objections from Russia, who claimed the vehicle was in fact a Russian vehicle and refused to supply the Ukraine the parts to modernize the tank to the agreements promised standard. However Ukraine had been developing a similar but upgraded version of the T-80UD, the T-84, so used parts from that vehicle to complete the production and delivery to the Pakistani Army in 1999, totaling 320 vehicles. the most notable differences with these modified T-80UD’s from Ukraine, was found in the turret, with the cast design of the T-84 being used instead. Given that these tank were all produced later, many of them had Thermal sights found on late T-80U’s.
another Pakistani T-80UD
Later on, Pakistan would receive 6TD-2E diesel engine’s, and some of these would be put into there latest T-80UD’s, creating the ultimate T-80UD that i refer to as T-80UD(6TD-2E). This tank is very comparable in performance to early T-84’s, thanks to the new turrets and same powerpack(I will elaborate on proof of this later).
Pakistani T-80UD with the new turret from Ukraine
Specifications:
Weight - 46 tons
Crew - 3
Engine - 1,200HP 6TD-2E diesel engine
Mobility - 43mph Forward- 19.4 reverse- (Same powerpack as found on the MBT-2000)
Smoke grenades - 8 x 81mm Smoke Grenades
Main armament - 1 x 125mm smoothbore gun
Ammo - 45 rounds total (28 in autoloader + 17 additional rounds)
Commander MG - 1 x 12.7mm NVST machine gun
Ammo - 300 rounds
Coaxial MG - 1 x 7.62mm PKT machine gun
Ammo - 1,250 rounds
Armor - Same as T-80U except now with a cast turret similar to that of the T-90
**Proof of Improved Powerpack:**in this section i whish to detail a hard to find yet key detail that can be found on some of the most upgraded Pakistani T-80UD’s, and that being that the last version of these tanks received the same power pack as found on Ukrainian T-84 and MBT-2000, with a 1200HP engine, and an improved transmission. I wish to make this fact evident, as many online sources simply assume that all Pakistani T-80UD’s have the same power pack as found on the original USSR T-80UD when that simply isnt the case.
the easiest way to prove this is through photo evidence of the backside of the T-80UD(late), the T-84, and the MBT-2000/Al-Khalid
Pakistani T-80UD(Late) rear
Ukrainian T-84 Oplot rear- Notice the identical vents, the shape of the transmission cover and access port is also identical
Al-Khalid rear view- Notice again how similar the vents are, and how the exact same shape and access port around the transmission are still present
all this indicates that the T-80UD(late) has the same power pack as found on both Ukrainian T-84’s, and Pakistani MBT-2000’s.
Thank you all for reading my suggestion, and please leave your feedback on what you think!
Image sources:
Spoiler
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T-80UD Main Battle Tank | MilitaryToday.com
T-90 “Bhishma” Tanks in Ladakh – A Comprehensive Look – Air Power Asia
T-80UD MBT | Defence Forum & Military Photos - DefenceTalk
T-80UD | Pakistan Defence
https://pdf.defence.pk/media/t-80ud-mbt.8055/full?d=1460622618
https://ru.pinterest.com/pin/484911084859662089/
https://www.armyrecognition.com/pakistan_pakistani_army_tanks_heavy_armoured_uk/al_khalid_al-khalid_main_battle_tank_technical_data_pictures.html
https://urbanpk.com/pakdef/pakmilitary/army/gallery/images/khalid_hit07.jpg
Info Sources:
