According to a military expert, an average age of all military hardware of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is at least 40 years.
Photo: mykharkov.info
During existence of independent Ukraine, the government purchased new models of military equipment in amount, suitable only for participation in parades, and an average age of all military hardware of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is not less than 40 years, the Ukrainian department of the RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing military expert Oleg Zhdanov.
“An average age of [Ukrainian] military equipment is 40+ [years]. That’s all that there is in the [Ukrainian] Armed Forces today. Since the independence, we have created several ‘parade’ detachments – the Oplot battalion, the Bulat battalion for all the [Ukrainian] Armed Forces. There is a squadron of new armored personnel carriers. There also was a platoon of the Dozors [military armored vehicles], but they were defective and were returned back. An average year of manufacturing of all the remaining [part] is 1970-1980,” Zhdanov said.
According to the expert, after storage in a warehouse, military hardware needs at least a major repair, replacement of all rubber technical goods, liquids etc.
“In 2014, with the beginning of active hostilities, we deployed 14 brigades, which had to be equipped with something. When [they] tried to equip them [with military hardware] from warehouses, the output of vehicles from storage bases was zero. As of today, Ukroboronprom does not offer anything of badly needed equipment models, but offers completely unnecessary hardware,” he added.
As an example, Zhdanov cited a situation with the Molot mortars, produced by the Mayak plant. According to expert, the new mortar was developed in order to spend money, allocated by the budget for development of new weapons. He stressed that the Molot is an exact copy of the PM-120 regimental mortar of 1938, and the Ukrainian Armed Forces have a complete set of such mortars.
He also noted that Ukraine does not have technologies of manufacturing of artillery barrels, as well as technologies of production of steel for these artillery barrels.