Our Tanks to ConquerAbu Dhabi?

Ukraine is taking part in this exhibition for the third time, and has no intention to lag behind the 43 countries and over 800 arms manufacturers participating in this forum. In addition, Ukrainian weapons will be demonstrated this year in La Bourge (France) and at the Idef Military Machinery Exhibition in Turkey, said Mr. Kazakov.

Now this country is considered as a serious competitor in the world arms market. In fact, after the participation in the Idex-95 and Idex-97 exhibitions Ukrainian arms producers got contracts to supply 320 T-80UD tanks to Pakistan, and a shipment of armored carriers to Indonesia. They also intensified their cooperation with France and the Czech Republic, while becoming a party to a joint Ukraine - China - Pakistan project to create a new MBT-2000 tank. All this has helped Ukraine reach ninth place among world arms exporters. This time, at the Idex show Ukraine is touting an upgraded version of T-84, whose exterior design, taking into account the experience of the last tank expositions held late 1998 in Greece, has been slightly modified. Lt. General Mykhailo Borysiuk, the Director of the Morozov Design Bureau, thinks that the performance of the operable model in Abu Dhabi strengthens Ukraine's image as one of the world leaders in the armored vehicle and tank building industry.

Representing the T-72, upgraded according to NATO standards, the Malyshev Plant is also doing its best to meet its clients' needs. Actually there are about 70,000 T-55's in 40 countries, and about 10,000 T-72's in the Arab world, and it is much less expensive to modify these tanks than to buy new ones.