Metinvest has started production of tank mine-sweeping gears for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
This was reported by the official website of the company.
As part of the Steel Front initiative, the company has launched serial production of tank mine-sweeping trawls similar in design to the Soviet KMT-7.
Before being sent to the front, the tank sweeps are tested by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine to confirm the declared characteristics.
The equipment is being delivered to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the National Guard of Ukraine and installed on armored vehicles used by the units.
The company’s representatives claim to produce five tank sweeps per month. It is also reported that the first tank sweeps have already been delivered to the front.
Tank sweeps are a purely Ukrainian product made from Ukrainian steel at Metinvest Group’s facilities in Ukraine. The need for tank sweeps by the Ukrainian Armed Forces is urgent due to the enemy’s dense mining of the territory along the entire front line, the company said.
An analog of the Soviet KMT-7 tracked trawlers was developed after a request from the Ukrainian military, which needed a large number of these demining systems. Unlike the original, Metinvest’s engineers improved the design to ensure better reliability and stability of the rollers’ running gear.
The cost of manufacturing one trawl is about UAH 2.5 million, including the additional equipment for tank crews required to install the device.
As the trawls are sent to the hottest sections on the frontline, the company has also launched the production of separate spare parts and components for their repair in the field. The repair kit for the sweep includes a set of wheels – three units per sweep, as these are the parts that are subjected to the greatest load and damaged during demining operations.
One set of rollers weighs 6.5 tons and measures 3.77 x 3.44 meters. According to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, one trawl must be able to withstand 4-5 anti-tank mine explosions. Since the trawls work in pairs, both must be able to withstand 8 to 10 explosions.
“Tank sweeps are an important component of counteroffensive operations. They not only protect the crews of Ukrainian tanks but also clear the way for infantry. The availability of such equipment, which can be manufactured by Ukrainian enterprises, is critical for the country during the war. It allows Ukraine’s security and defense forces to rely on a reliable rear, in this case, on Ukrainian metallurgists, miners, and engineers from Metinvest, whose work helped provide the military with reliable mine protection equipment,” Andrii Belyaev, Commander of the 23rd Khortytsia Separate Public Order Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine, said.
Over the year and a half of Russia’s military aggression, the company has already allocated UAH 2 billion to support the defense sector as part of the Steel Front initiative.
In particular, it includes 150000 bulletproof vests manufactured at our own facilities and purchased, more than 280 mobile shelters – “Kryivka”, 250 high-precision models of military equipment, more than 30 “lancet catchers”, as well as thousands of drones and thermal imagers, vehicles, communications equipment, and other military equipment purchased and transferred to the Ukrainian defense forces free of charge.
Militarnyi previously reported that Metinvest was supplying metal structures to Ukrainian units to protect against Russian attack drones.
The company has already started mass production with up to five units per week. It is reported that 32 sets of such protective structures have already been delivered to the military.
The protective structure is a mobile shelter 10 meters long, five meters wide, and five meters high, weighing about a ton. It consists of a steel frame and a camouflaged metal mesh stretched over it.