Polish PT-91 Twardy tanks in service with Ukraine armed with shells from India

Usually, the tanks are used to engage the enemy from closed positions or to fire at infantry.

Sep 16, 2024 - 08:00

Polish PT-91 Twardy tanks in service with Ukraine armed with shells from India

Polish PT-91 Twardy (hard) tanks in service with Ukraine use Indian shells to fire at Russian Armed Forces.

The use of Indian-made shells in Polish-supplied tanks demonstrates Ukraine’s ability to leverage diverse international support and adapt to equipment shortages. It underscores the global nature of the conflict’s supply chains and showcases Ukraine’s resourcefulness in combining military assets from different sources to maintain its defensive efforts against Russian forces as it waits for more Western support.

As reported by Militarnyi, tank crews of the 117th Mechanized Brigade are using these shells. The brigade has been using Polish PT-91 for a long time.

Usually, the brigade uses the tanks to engage the enemy from closed positions, or to fire at Russian infantry.

For this purpose, the brigade’s tanks are equipped with Indian SHELL 125 MM HE1A shells, which have a characteristic yellow color and English inscriptions. This 125mm tank ammunition is produced by the Indian company Munitions India Limited. They are a copy of the Soviet-era 3OF19 projectiles designed in the 1960s.

Indian SHELL 125 MM HE1A shells. Screenshot from: YouTube/Army TV.

Despite the age of its development, the projectile is still relevant due to its simple design and high power. The 90% lethal zone for infantry in the event of a detonation is 40 meters wide and 20 meters deep from the point of rupture in the direction of the shot.

The Indian-made tank shell weighs 23 kilograms and is loaded with a 60:40 ratio of hexogen and TNT. The explosive weighs 3.4 kilograms.

Polish PT-91 Twardy tanks

The Armed Forces of Ukraine have received at least 60 Polish PT-91 Twardy tanks. The PT-91 main battle tank of the Polish Armed Forces was made on the basis of the licensed version of the Soviet Т-72М1 MBT.

The tank is relatively new; the first prototypes were made only in 1993. The base variant was mass-produced at Bumar Labedy until 2002.

РТ-91 has a modern fire control and communication systems. Tank and crew protection is further enhanced by mounted reactive armor. The fighting vehicle is equipped with a PZL-Wola S-12U diesel engine with a capacity of 850 hp of its own production.

A video showing the Polish tank being operated by members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Zaporizhzhia direction, December 2023. Video from Militarnyi.

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