Ukraine's Rare Homemade T-84 Tank is Better Than You Think 

Get Your Own Mini Replica Today! bit.ly/2OlOkHu These are the GOAT they're a fun conversation pieces for your place.

They are capturing tanks faster than they can build them, no need to build whole tanks when Russia keeps donating them

The abyssmal reverse speed is pretty unique to russian Tanks AFAIK. Its probably their biggest flaw because tanks easily get into trouble but Russian ones don't get out of it easily. Its either reversing at 4 kph or turning around thus exposing their rear. Both horrible choices on a modern battlefield

The main and most important feature in my opinion that was overlooked is the 360 thermal imaging system for the commander. This is painfully absent on almost every single soviet tank and their upgraded counterparts. It might not sound so crazy but the commander being able to properly survey the areas around the tank instead of having to use periscopes like on other soviet tanks helps immensely in situational awareness and in avoiding or responding to ambushes.

T-84U and BM Oplot are different vehicles, people always get them mixed up. Only 10 T-84s were ever produced, they were rather an "experimental" transition model. And when it comes to the whole AFV production history in post soviet Kharkiv, the real MVP here is KhBTZ, they were designing and producing vehicles while we at KhKBM were picking our noses, one of the reasons i quit working for them a long time ago.

Hey Chris! Thanks for highlighting ukrainian weapons! But you are talking about two different tanks: t - 84 Oplot(90-s tech) and BM Oplot, (which is a pretty deeply modernised t-84 - 2000s tech). T-84 indeed performed poorly during competition,but those made for Thailand were newer BM Oplot. Apparently the problem was solved long ago back in the 2000s. At least I haven't heard of problems with BM's autoloader.

To clarify the autoloader is not the problem/reason why russian tank turrets fly. its the ammo stored all around in the tank that causes the cook off the whole design of the autoloader is to (somewhat) make it harder to hit the ammo but storing ammo all around the autoloader negates that design choice.

It should be known that the Ukrainian tank crew that had manned the T-84 during the Tank Challenges for 2018 had been given the T-84 at the last second. It added to a number of tank operations failure.

Sadly he didn't mention "Zaslon" active protection that was supplied to the Turkish army and "Nozh", "Duplet" reactive armor that is far better than russian "relikt" and "contact-5"

I suspect the reason why we've rarely seen Ukraine using T-84 tanks in the conflict is probably the same as why Russia rarely fields BMPT or T-14. The T-84 is Ukraine's current, most advanced, self-produced main battle tank. However, owing to the nature of the conflict, the tactical contribution of an individual T-84 is negligible. However, the impact of its destruction (morale- and propaganda-wise) would be considerably more. Meaning, irrespective of its actual performance in combat, fielding T-84 at this time could be seen as being potentially more harmful than good.

T-84 Oplot and BM Oplot are different vehicles. The T-84 went to competitions in Europe, BM Oplot was delivered to Thailand. BM Oplot is much more modern and perfect in everything. T-84 is the same T-80 UD with most of its systems but with a new welded turret. This is a transitional version and about 10 of them were made. On BM Oplot, all systems are new.

Gaijin taking notes on what tank to add in the next update:

11:07 here you can actually see the professional engineers surveying the thank hull before continuing the work on it.

11:07 cats in a tank factory. For the win!!! 😻

Aside from T84, the Royal Thai Army also owns another model of rare tank: the Stingray tank (sometimes known as the Commando Stingray). It is an American light tank exported to Thailand, which remains the only user.

I was born and currently located in Kharkiv, seen these tanks on the streets recently, and they look awesome! We also call this T-84 tank: "Aegis"

Let me briefly correct you; The main gun is a 125mm cannon. Similar to T-72, T-64, T-90, and even the T-14 Arnata

Love the two tank engineers @11:08.

The Kharkov tank plant wanted to call the T-80UD the T-84 but according to Steven Zaloga, the Soviets didn't want to admit that they had 4 different MBTs in production at the same time due to clan battles in the Soviet tank industry. The 4 were: T-64 (the Kharkov tank), T-72 (the UVZ tank), T-80 (the Leningrad tank?), and the T-80UD with a diesel engine instead of gas turbine (also a Kharkov tank).

I'm amazed that Ukraine didn't rehearse the 2018 competition with similar or exact conditions to identify problems before hand. And I understand that when the USSR fell, Ukraine was stuck with thousands of Soviet equipment and given the economic down turn, it made sense they could replace many decades of Soviet equipment. Having said that, I would have thought that Ukraine would have wanted post Soviet occupation military equipment with NATO standards / equipment on a gradual basis. On the other hand, the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances of 1994 (three years after the fall of the USSR) provided security assurances by various countries. It's complicated, but security assurances by its signatories relating to the accession of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). The three memoranda were originally signed by three nuclear powers: the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States. China and France gave somewhat weaker individual assurances in separate documents, but it also prohibited the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States from threatening or using military force or economic coercion against Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, "except in self-defence or otherwise in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations." This in return for Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine giving up the USSR nuclear weapons in those countries, which they did. Fast forward to 2014 when Russia seized Crimea and parts of Eastern Ukraine. That was an overt violation of the Budapest Memorandum that Russia, the US, the UK agreed to secure the security of Ukraine to prevent them from joining NATO. 99.9% of the people in the US have no idea that before the Vietnam War there was the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization or SEATO. SETO was much like NATO where an attack on one was an attack on all of SETO countries. So when North Vietnam was actively supporting the Viet Cong in South Vietnam, that was a technical violation of the SETO treaty. There is a lot of controversy about the Gulf of Token incident where the US accused North Vietnam of attacking our Navy ship which triggered our entry into the Vietnam War. But behind the scenes were a number of political and strategic considerations. The US had intelligence that Russia wanted to use the South Vietnam Camron Bay for a Soviet submarine base to threaten the Straits of Malacca critical to the supply of oil to Japan and other US allies. It's too complex to go into a discussion here, but immediately after WW II the US had a doctrine of total annellation if attacked in any of our treaties with allied nations. But during the Korean War, the US realized that it wasn't going to use nuclear weapons to win a regional war and so the Korean War became a stalemate. Then the US policy was "Containment" meaning that we would contain Soviet expansion around the world regardless of treaties. And that wasn't working in Vietnam. so the US embarked on a war to stop Communist expansion to South Vietnam to to prevent the Soviets form using Camron Bay for Air and Submarine bases. I was a Marine infantry platoon commander in Vietnam 1968-69 and so I was interested in why we were fighting there with so many US casualties. What I discovered was that the US was so politically weak and indecisive that strategic and tactical decisions were being made at the White House and the Pentagon that had nothing to do with winning the war and everything to do with making it easier for our enemies to win. Did you know that our aircraft were prevented from destroying North Vietnam airfields because there MAY have been Chinese and Soviet technical personnel there. That meant that North Vietnam fighters were allowed to intercept our aircraft knowing that we would not bomb their airfields. Did you know that in order to prevent ANY civilian casualties in North Vietnam, we forced our attack aircraft to fly the same routes every day so the North Vietnamese could concentrate their anti-aircraft missiles and guns along those standard routes? Did you know that when President Nixon authorized Operation Linebacker to bomb North Vietnam with B-52's that the routes the B-52's were required to fly were the same every day and so North Vietnam was able to shoot down too many of our B-52's? Did you know that in the early days of my tour as a Marine platoon commander in Vietnam that too many of the Rues of Engagement were designed to give our enemy the advantage. I can only guess that the Rules of Engagement were crafted by lawyers who had never been in combat. One of the ROE's I was supposed to follow was to ensure that no one in my platoon had a magazine of ammunition nor a round in the chamber of their weapon UNLESS we were fired upon first AND we could positively identify our targets as the enemy. Well, the problem was that the Viet Con were civilians and so it was impossible to tell them apart from the real civilians. The other major problem was when in an ambush, you only have seconds to react or your are dead. The time it would take to put a magazine in the weapon, charge it so there is a round in the chamber---and you are dead. Did I every have my platoon follow those moronic rules of engagement? No. But not following them was a court martial offense. Did anyone in my platoon trun me in to be court martialed? No. Why? Because they knew as well as I did that most of the ROE's were total BS designed to get us killed. From what I can of the ROE's in the Middle East, not much changed until Trump became President and told the military to use there judgement in accordance with the Geneva Convention. BINGO, ISI suddenly was wiped out with very few civilian casualties. (Hint: it is impossible to fight a war and not have unintentional civilian casualties). I know. I was in 3 years of combat and we tried our very best to prevent civilian casualties. But sometimes they are in the crossfire and that was unfortunate and sometimes they were aiding the enemy. The reality is that it was impossible in a firefight near a village or urban area to tell who was friendly and who was the enemy because they all looked the same. I think the same was true in the Middle East. Our forces went into areas in which it was impossible to tell friend from foe. And we lost a lot of soldiers because we were trying to prevent civilian casualties. I don't think there is a right or wrong answer except for the leadership on the ground in the firefight. Only he and his subordinates can make those decisions--not the lawyers who have never been in combat.

Ima be honest the "random red circle" in the thumbnail made me laugh a little

The more I watched these, the more I think that Cappy was actually an intelligence officer.

The T-84 has been my favorite MBT for years. Being a smaller/faster design gives an advantage in the modern battlefield which they make full use of.

You’ve made great improvements in your Ukrainian pronunciation! Kharkiv, Kherson and Ukroboronprom sound from you almost like from my Ukrainian teacher. And great reporting, of course!

Hey Captain Cappy ! Love the videos. GREAT content. Interesting. Informative. Relevant. Lots of fact and some informed, educated opinion. Thank You and keep up the good work. Best to You and Yours + Happy New Year !

I used to have a TI 84. Amazing weapon.

There has been a huge increase in the quality of these videos in the last few months. Just wanted to say its noticed and appreciated - not always easy to do big improvement to the work when there's so much pressure to keep putting put content.

Greeting from Ukraine. We proud of our tank, we have also T-84-120 Yatagan and T-84 Oplot its modification, and this tank now fighting in Donbass !

T 84 is an excellent tank and also has a good balance between price and utility in its technological category. Unfortunately, there are 2 main reasons why there were so few of them at the start of the war in February 2022. They are both economic and related to Russia. In order to accumulate tanks you need either a developed economy to finance them or efficient production (achievable through large export contracts). In 1 case, the annexation and the creation of a smoldering conflict in the Donbas zone caused huge economic losses for Ukraine, not only from the point of disruption of supply chains and the loss of factories that were located there, but also the outflow of investments from the whole country due to increased economic risk. The second reason is Russia's lobbying in the arms market. Both countries use the same post-Soviet technological base, and if the Ukrainian T-84 was better in certain situations than the Russian counterpart, Russia could use its political influence or simply dump the price due to much larger production capacities. In general, it is a miracle that Ukraine was able to create and establish the production of a tank that is not inferior to the Russian T-90 in current conditions. And given the miserable results of Russia during the current conflict, there is reason to believe that the role of Russia will decrease in the arms market, which will allow the Ukrainian military-industrial complex to breathe more freely in future

Getting their hands on the T-80UD would have been exceedigly easy for the USA. South Korea got some as a payment from Russia after the USSR collapsed, but maybe there were some contractual obstacles or the Koreans demanded some replacement.

Me and my cousins love your videos, keep up the great work and I wish you a wonderful new year cappy and team

Ukraine's T80 upgraded tank:✅ Russian's T80 upgraded tank:❎ -Western media in a nut shell

I'm glad Chris is finally saying "Ukraine" instead of "the Ukraine."

One small correction, most people think that Russia was the main source of tank technology and Ukraine inherited Russian designs. That's not correct. It was the other way around. T-64/80 design is from Kharkiv (Ukraine). T-72/T-90 design is from UralVagonZavod/UVZ (Russia). But... UralVagonZavod was actually created during WWII when a Kharkiv tank factory was moved to Russia. And the 3rd Soviet tank factory in Omsk (Russia), was also originally from Lugansk, Ukraine. So, all 3 Soviet tank factories trace its roots to UKRAINIAN tank factories! Ukrainian Donbas region was always a technological power hub (Kharkiv and Lugansk are there). Donbas is a major coal mining and steel-making region. In fact, Donbas stands for Donetsk Coal Basin

"Random red circle" Very meta, Chris.

At 1:40... I'll never get tired of footage proving that you CAN drift a tank.

There is another modification T-84-120 it has 120mm(seems like L44) canon which can use NATO ammunition. This tank seems really futuristic. It has autoloader but it is located behind the turret, not inside the tank as in all soviet tanks

Anyone else spot the cats working on the tank 11:09? 😆

These videos are great. Thank you and your team for making them. God is good and Happy New Years!

Thank you Cappy for making videos that are interesting to watch and not boring. I enjoy your videos and learn from each one. You explain things well and are very easy to understand. Hope you are staying safe and healthy.

Your videos are always fascinating. Thank you.

FORT IRVINE?! The US Army WISHES! Try Fort Irwin. That's like getting Palm Springs and Twenty Nine Palms mixed up. PS - love the channel, keep up the good work.

Former OpFor soldier here: It's Fort Irwin, not Irvine, 30 miles north of Barstow off the I-15. They haven't done OpFor tank battles there for years. Blackhorse! Allons!

Very interesting and informative material done in a professional way. Thank you!

10:24 - Mechanic: My hatch will slam sometimes, I'll be like Batman

Loved the vid! It was very informative. Can you make a vid about the Philippines' newest light tank, called the ASCOD Sabrah (not to be confused with the M60 Sabra), which was delivered just this December? Its the country's first ta- *ehem ehem* PROPER tank in decades and would love to see your thoughts about it. Philippine Defense Resource is a good website to learn about its history and updates.

Really a fascinating report, Cappy. I really admire how Ukraine opted to make the best of a bad situation (independence from USSR) by improving its own capabilities and technology. It's really had some setbacks but still seems to have finally developed a product that compares with (or at least can compete with) the best that's out there. One question: Can Ukraine upgrade captured tanks to the specs of the T-84?

Excellent information! Thanks for sharing.

Gotta love that Random Red Circle in the thumbnail

Redeffect has made many good videos on Ukrainian Tanks , both bad and good ones. Must give him a thanks.

Learned more from that random red circle then I did from school.

The random red circle in the thumbnail made my day

Love the cats just chilling in the factory, and walking around with the workers.

Some constructive feedback, I love this channel but I started caring less when the taglines like “better than you think”, or “chill out “ started popping up. Your channel is great and has it’s own Merit it doesn’t need Tic Tok headlines.

What's more interesting it's that 30% of all soviet industrial capacity was located in Ukraine. Especially the more high tech industries such as shipbuilding, aircraft engine, turbines, rocket engines etc.

There seems to be some confusion around names and designations. The original vehicle was T-84 (Obiekt 478DU9). Only around 10 of these were built around 1999 / 2000 and they were later also named as 'BM Oplot'. They were refurbished years later and took part in the Europe Strong Tank Challenge. Later, the much improved 'BM Oplot-M' appeared - Obiekt 478DU9-1 / 478DU10. The Thai vehicles. BM Oplot-T were a version of this.

“Random red circle” in the preview is pure poetry 💖🤣

The Ukrainian tank BM Oplot has active protection, cool Knife armor, a modern thermal imager and just a beautiful tank. In Thailand they appreciated 👍 (T-90M what's with the face? :)

Hey man, love your content from Ukraine! Keep up the good work and take care

Thanks for pointing out the random red circle. I had never noticed that before.

Is the "random red circle" in the thumbnail supposed to fool the YT algorithm? Impressive. Very nice.

I always liked the Yatagan 120 even if it never entered production.

11:10 two famous Ukrainian combat cats inspecting the T-84 production line seemingly satisfied with their new fighting vehicle

I like that random circle there helps me a lot

In WW2 the Italian main battle tanks had 1 forwad gear and 8 reverse gears. The forward gear was in case the enemy attached from behind.

Mr. Chris, I have to correct you. T84 and BM "Oplot" are outwardly similar and completely different cars in the middle. The transmission, its location, and the principle of operation are completely different. Another engine, gearbox. There are a lot of differences. Therefore, one BM "Oplot" costs more than T-84 Oplot.

When I'm eating while watching informative and whitty videos like this, it means I like it. And yes, this is my new go to watch videos while I gouge on food and I tell ya, it's a good feeling. I've just learned a bunch of new stuff regarding tanks I seriously did not know of. Keep this up and this channel eill be godly amongst military youtube channels! 😊👍👍

Always brilliant stuff... thank you

Interesting you mention the US Army has a force that specialises in role playing as Russian tank forces for training purposes. I used to talk online a lot to a retired US tanker who was a woman and she was a tank commander in Russian tanks. She pointed out to me also that the percentage of women crew in the "Russian" forces tanks was above average for the US military as a whole. Part of the reasoning is because Russian tanks are pretty cramped for space and Russian tankers do tend to be average sized or smaller, but also the Russian autoloaders are quite favourable for female crew personnel. She also pointed out that generally they stuck to Soviet battlefield doctrine with the tanks. Sometimes, they also "cheated" too. Especially, if they felt they had been mocked by the force they were on exercise against, because of having inferior equipment to use and other somewhat obvious attributes of the "Russian" roleplay force. As she said we were doing this job because we were good at it. So it was only fair to remind them we are the ones training them. Also, She didn't have a lot of positive things to say about Russian Tanks other than they are quite fast, low profile and the autoloader ensured a fast rate of fire if you needed it. However she doubted the reliability of the Russian tanks in real life warfare because theirs were very well maintained and often spares would be "manufactured" in the US to a higher standard than the original part fitted. She also noted that you would not want to be confined to their tanks for more than 24hrs due to a chemical or nuclear attack. She said 8 hours was bad enough in them in normal circumstances.

16:00 Thats an optimistic idea, but sadly untrue. Both Kharkiv tank factories got hit very, very thoroughly in the siege of the city in the early days of the war. I am sure they salvaged something for a repair shop or 2, but we can safely assume the vast majority of those factories and machines to be destroyed.

SUPERB narration. Thank you.

11:07 I love the cats walking on the tank shells

This is a very good tank. It has the same protection ability as the M1A2. It is a pity that Ukraine does not have the economic strength to equip it in large quantities. If they have thousands of T84s, the course of the war will change.

T-84 oplot and BM oplot are two different tanks. Yeah it kinda confusing that they gave same nicknames for different tanks but bm oplot is waaay better than t-84 oplot. It’s pretty easy to tell which one is which. Bm oplot got that big “bucket” on the turret ( it’s panoramic scope for a commander.

There are a lot of inaccuracies in the text, but the main thing is that there are 2 tanks: T-84 and BM Oplot. They are essentially very different, but the author does not share them.

The ability to move at ridiculous speeds in reverse reminds me of a quote by Donald Sutherland's character "Oddball" in the movie "Kelly's Heroes". Paraphrasing here when Clint Eastwood's character inquired about the mechanical state of the tanks: "We can move just as fast in reverse as forward. We like to know that we have the ability to back OUT of trouble just as fast as we drove INTO it!" This was in addition to a PA system and a sleeve over the barrel to make it appear as if they had something to the effect of a 100mm barrel, lol.

Came for the meme thumbnail, stayed for the Cappy.

I wonder if America kept all those modernised M60 tanks? Ukraine needs tanks and they would do fine. Anyway, just an idea, thanks Chris.

As usual, quality deep dive. But that little nugget about the M1A2 Abrams coming in 7th at the 2018 Euro Tank Challenge is something that I would love you to explore. Do we have something to be worried about???

I love the thumbnail says "random red circle"

*Random red circle* I really appreciate your honesty 🤣🤣

08:11 you have to love the fact that the US Tanks got a result closer to the Ukrainian tank than to the top-placed Leopards :D

In what is my favorite Clint Eastwood film, Kelly's Heroes, Oddball, a Sherman tank commander played by Donald Sutherland, states that his tanks go as fast in reverse as they can go forward. He reasons that he wants to get out of trouble as fast as he can get into it. Gadda love the Ukrainians! My older brother was in the Army Tank Corps at Fort Knox when the Abrams replaced the T-60. He said he could hit anything while going at top speed.

“Random red circle” lol, that in the thumbnail got me

Guys remember difference between T84u Oplot and BM Oplot

Random red circle 😂 I saw what you did there Chris. Nice one

It's Fort Irwin National Training Center, not Fort Irvine. One of my roommates from Germany went there 41 years ago. Now he says he should have listened to everyone who told him not to go. By the way, Fort Irwin NTC is in the Mojave Desert. That's a good enough reason for me to never want to go there. I have a lower heat tolerance than a polar bear.

This list of results from 2018 is interesting. 8 participants, 4 of them with a Leopard 2 variant *). And the Leopard 2 variants on places 1 to 3 and 5. Leopard 2 cleared all the medals. And another thing that stands out, speaking English is apparently not the best prerequisite for being able to deal well with tanks. Being at home in the Alps or north of them does make up for that. *) A leopard remains a leopard, even if some call it a chariot - that applies at least to the 29 who have "Bairisch" as their mother tongue and we also allow the 91 Viking replicas to do the same.

Props for the random red circle clickbait ! 😝 Fun fact: The first tanks shown at that competition are T64BV not Oplot, and those were sabotaged by damaging cables done by russia-friendly workers at the Kiev plant at the time (after crimea annexation). The stuttering turret sequence though shows Oplot, two Shtora anti-missile systems clearly visible.

I think the oplt m variant is close to the t90m in performance. Some of the best ERA that can basicaly completely cancel the effect of high angle sideshots, and an excelent modern fcs. Considering the way higher reverse speed its probably even better in some scenarios.

The NTC is at Ft Irwin, Ft Irvine. Easy slip of the tongue. Really enjoy and appreciate your videos. Thank-you!

did he say "Yukon Abromb Pomb??" Nice, Cappy! He's always coming up with new words and I approve!

When the T-84 at home that mom talks about is better than the real one.

Hey Chris.... once again an excellent and very comprehensive presentation. Keep up the good work !!!

This video's subtitles is one of the few times in the last 2 years that I've read "T-series"

From what I understand the tank competition is mostly designed for close combat forest and city and not open and long range spaces the Abrams excels in. But I could be wrong.

This is actually incredible tank especially if its have "Nozh" ERA.And i think the BM Oplot is one of the best tanks of world and best in all post-soviet country

I was lucky enough to take a trip to Kharkiv in October of 2021 before all this started, and, being prior, US Army myself the soon to be my former Ukraine girlfriend as she unfortunately perished in the attacks on Kharkiv around July before we could get her and her family out. Took me to go see a bunch of military facilities in the area, and number one was these factories. I got to take with a bunch of the workers, and they took great pride in the work they do and were proud of the T-84 despite some of the inherent problems the platform was dealing with. Even though I was a M270 A1 MLRS Crewmember, I wanted to be a tanker and have always had a fascination with tanks, so being able to see the T-84 from the source was a sight to behold that I will never forget.

Love your videos. Keep it up

I really enjoy their t64 it's really modernised and that's gotta matter