IDEX 2021: Pakistani tank upgrade looms for Ukroboronprom

23rd February 2021 - 12:03 GMT | by The Shephard News Team

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Contract to upgrade T-80UD tanks for the Pakistani Army is signed at IDEX, more than four years after an MoU was announced.

Ukroboronprom is to overhaul the Pakistani Army fleet of T-80UD MBTs, the Ukrainian state-run defence conglomerate announced on 22 February during the IDEX trade show in Abu Dhabi.

Apart from this $85.6 million contract for its subsidiary Ukrspecexport, signed during IDEX, Ukroboronprom CEO Yuri Gusev said that the two parties discussed new orders for 6TD-1 and 6-TD2 MBT diesel engines (the 6TD-1 is the powerplant for the T-80UD).

According to Shephard Defence Insight, there are 320 T-80UDs in the Pakistani Army inventory, with an out-of-service date of 2041.

As far back as December 2016, Ukrspecexport announced a T-80UD upgrade MoU with Pakistani state-run company Heavy Industries Taxila.

At IDEX, Gusev also met Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to discuss joint projects and priority areas for future cooperation.

‘In the near future we will intensify bilateral military-technical cooperation between Ukraine and the UAE,’ Gusev said.

On 14 February, exactly one week before IDEX began, the Ukrainian and UAE governments signed a collaboration agreement to facilitate the exchange and development of advanced technologies between UAE-based Edge, Ukroboronprom and Ukrspecexport.

At the time, Ukroboronprom noted the agreement includes ‘the prospect of investments worth more than $1 billion’.

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