# M-84



## Milos Sijacki (Mar 18, 2008)

I know it is not an aircraft, but wanted to post it so here it is. The pride of our Armored Forces ( YEAH right....)

The M-84 is a modern 2nd generation main battle tank manufactured by the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The M84 is in service with the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatian Ground Army, Kuwaiti Army, Slovenian Armed Forces and Armed Forces of Serbia.

Development and production:

The M-84 main battle tank is a Yugoslav-produced version of the Soviet T-72. Some improvements over the T-72 include a domestic fire-control system, improved composite armor, and a 1000-hp engine. The M-84 entered service with the Yugoslav People's Army in 1984. The improved M-84A entered service a few years later.

In the late 1980s, a project for a replacement tank called the Vihor (Whirlwind) was started. Unlike the M-84, the Vihor was not a copy of a Soviet tank, but a new design from scratch. However, due to the disintegration of Yugoslavia, the Vihor project was abandoned.

The latest Serbian version of the M-84 is the M-84AB1, unveiled in 2004. It features a new fire control system, Kontakt-5 ERA armor, AT-11 Sniper anti-tank missiles, Agava-2 thermal sight, and the Shtora defensive suite. It is very similar to the Russian T-90S, both in appearance and in capability.

Croatia developed a highly modernized prototype version of the M-84 under the designation M-95 Degman. The M-84D will be the series production version, essentially an M-95 Degman with minor changes and upgrades to which standard all Croatian M-84s and T-72s will be brought to.

About 150 M-84 tanks have been exported to Kuwait. About $500 million was earned from the sale in 1990-91, representing the Yugoslav military industry's most successful export at the time. The disintegration of Yugoslavia in 1991 prevented all further exports. Kuwait, in fact ordered 215 tanks but the whole number never came. Croatia is now in negotians with Kuwait to modernize their fleet to the M-84D standard and to produce and sell another 65 M-84D tanks. This represents an interesting information because Kuwait rejected America's proposal to replace their M-84s with the M1 Abrams.

The M-84A is armed with a 2A46 125 mm smooth bore cannon. The gas cylinder positioned in the middle of the barrel is shielded with a thermal coating that minimizes deformation of the barrel from high temperatures and ensures it is cooled at the same rate during rapid firing. The M84 uses an automatic loader, which enables it to sustain a firing rate of 8 rounds per minute.

The cannon's ammunition is stowed in underneath the turret (40 rounds) within the hull of the tank, which makes the M-84 very vulnerable. This weakness was exploited by Croatian soldiers in the Croatian War of Independence and Slovenian soldiers in the Ten-Day War, to the detriment of the YPA's tank crews.

Along with its primary armament, the M-84 is also armed with one 7.62 mm M86 coaxial machine gun, and one 12.7 mm M87 anti-aircraft machine gun mounted on the commander's turret.

Equipment:

12 smoke grenades are positioned in front of the turret in banks of five and seven grenades. Thermal imaging and infrared guidance are positioned on the top-right side of the turret. The M-84 has a search light used in short-range combat situations.

The tank can ford 1.2 meters of water at any time, or up to 5 meters with a proper snorkel applied.

The M-84 Tank has excellent nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) prtection capabilities, and the engine filter is of very good quality.

The Armour of the M-84AB1 tank consists of cylindrical pad, high-hardness steel, titanium,Tungsten, aluminum, Nera, as well as modular Kontakt-5 reactive armour plates. Croatian M-95 Degman versions use improved armor protection with four layers of titanium, two layers of tungsten and three layers of ceramic armor giving protection of 592 mm against HEAT, APSF and Chemical attacks. In addition to this, the Degman is extensively covered with explosive reactive armour plating.

All versions of the M-84 have a crew of 3. The commander sits on the right side of the turret, the gunner on the left, and the driver sits centered at the front end of the vehicle. Like most Soviet derived vehicles, the M-84 series of tanks do not have a loader, due to the tank's autoloader.

Engine

The base M-84 engine is a 12-cylinder water-cooled V46-6 diesel engine, rated at 574 kW. The improved M-84A has a more modern and more powerful, V46-TK 735 kW (1,000 hp) engine. With maximum fuel capacity (1,200 Litres) the tank's range is 450 km, and with external fuel tanks, this range can be extended to 650 km.

The Croatian-made variants have enhanced power plants. The M-84A4 Sniper model has a German-built 820 kW (1,100 hp) engine, while the M-95 Degman has a 895 kW (1,200 hp) engine, the most powerful of all M-84 variants. Degman also has maximum fuel capacity (1,450 Litres).

Modernization:

In 2005, the Yugoipmort SDPR displayed its new MBT, M-84AB1 later M-2001, a largely modernized variant of the M-84AB tank. This new tank is equipped with an improved fire-control system with integrated day/night sight. The M84A1 gun was replaced with a similar but improved gun which, along with better control characteristics, enables easy and fast replacement of the cannon barrel in field conditions. The M-2001 tank is able to fire Anti-tank guided missiles with laser guidance through the barrel, which enables accurate engagement of enemy tanks up to 9 km.

The M-2001 is equipped with Non-explosive and non-energetic reactive armour (NERA) which offers protection against modern tandem cumulative warheads. Beside better armor, the new tank is equipped with modern electro-optical system for defense against wire and laser guided anti-tank missiles.

I will add types later.


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## HealzDevo (May 1, 2008)

Nice looking tank that Soviet one. Looks a little bit primitive on the outside but then probably has a few more smarts on the inside.


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