Ukraine’s UkrOboronProm company delivered to Thailand the batch of five Oplot main battle tanks (MBT) on 10 December, that was reported by the local media. 

Ukraine was contracted to supply a battalion of 49 Oplot MBTs worth 7.2 billion baht in 2011 but was slow to press ahead with production and delivery due to security problems in the country.

According to reports in Thai social networks, the batch of Oplot tanks recently arrived from Ukraine by sea to the Sattahip Naval Base.

The Oplot MBT is developed by Kharkiv Morozov Machine Building Design Bureau (KMDB) for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The Royal Thai Army ordered the special variant of Ukrainian tank with some minor modifications to meet local requirements and called Oplot-T (Thailand).

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The Oplot-M main battle tank is armed with a 125 mm fully-stabilized smoothbore gun, fitted with a carousel-type autoloader. The protection system of Oplot MBT integrates passive armour, explosive reactive armour and tank protection means. The MBT is fitted with Duplet (Nozh-2) built-in Explosive Reactive Armor (ERA) of new generation, that protects against tandem warheads. The Oplot tank can withstand an explosion of up to 10kg trinitrotoluene (TNT) under the tank track and up to 4kg TNT under the driver’s compartment.

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Also, Thailand placed the VT4 order with NORINCO in 2016 following a delayed and disrupted contract with Ukraine for the Oplot MBT. Thailand ordered 28 tanks from China last year. The VT4s will form part of the MBT fleet that will replace the ageing US-built tanks that remain in service with the RTA as well as increasing the size and capabilities of the force.