KHARKOV, May 6 (AVN) - The local tank producers and Jordan have agreed on joint modernisation of outdated Centurion tanks made in Great Britain, a spokesman for the Bronetekhnika Ukrainy (Ukraine's Ordnance) consortium said on Saturday.
The project involves the Malyshev plant and the Morozov design bureau, that have recently supplied Jordan with 50 modernised APCs, the spokesman told the Military News Agency.
The modernisation programme offered by Ukraine envisaged transformation of the Centurion tanks into infantry fighting vehicles (IFV). The room for the infantry will be provided by making the engine section more compact and powerful and changing the integration of the tank's inner components.
The possibility of sighing a tank modernisation contract was first announced by Deputy Director General of the Malyshev Plant Yuri Mirgorodsky in mid-April. Earlier, the tank builders specialised in modernisation of Soviet-era tanks, such as T-55 and T-72, he told reporters at an arms show in Jordan. Those programmes often involved Russian producers, Mirgorodsky added.