| Type | state-owned company |
|---|---|
| Industry | arms industry, machine building |
| Founded | 1895 |
| Headquarters | Kharkiv, Ukraine |
| Products | tanks |
| Owner(s) | State of Ukraine |
| Website | http://www.malyshevplant.com |
The Malyshev Factory (Ukrainian: Zavod imeni V.O. Malysheva, Завод імені В.О. Малишева), formerly the Kharkiv Locomotive Factory (KhPZ), is a state-owned manufacturer of heavy equipment in Kharkiv, Ukraine. It was named after the Soviet politician Vyacheslav Malyshev. It produces diesel engines, farm machinery, coal mining, sugar refining, and wind farm equipment, but is best known for its production of Soviet tanks, including the BT tank series of fast tanks, the famous T-34 of the Second World War, the Cold War T-64 and T-80, and their modern Ukrainian successor, the T-84. The factory is closely associated with the Morozov Design Bureau (KMDB), designer of military armoured fighting vehicles.
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The factory was renamed several times. English-language sources variously refer to it as factory, plant, or works, from the Ukrainian zavod.
The Kharkiv Locomotive Factory (KhPZ) built about 20% of the Russian Empire's railway engines. After the Russian Revolution and the establishment of the Soviet government in Ukraine, the factory was put to work designing and building tractors, then tanks after 1927. The Bolshevik Factory in Leningrad and the KhPZ were the first two Soviet tank factories, modernized in 1929 with German assistance under the Treaty of Rapallo, 1922.
In 1928, a tank design bureau was established in the factory, one of several which would be responsible for the some of the most successful tanks ever built, and eventually become the Morozov Design Bureau. The KhPZ designed and produced twenty-five T-24 tanks, then nearly eight thousand BT fast tanks. It also built a handful of multi-turreted T-35 tanks.
Shortly before the German invasion of the Soviet Union the KhPZ started series production of the T-34, the most-produced and arguably the best tank of World War II. Series production began in June 1940 in Kharkiv, and later in the Stalingrad Tractor Plant and Sormovo Shipbuilding Plant. In 1941, due to German advances, the factory and design shops were evacuated to the Ural mountains. The plant was united with Uralvagonzavod Plant in Nizhny Tagil into one enterprise called Uralskiy Tank Plant No.183.
When Kharkiv was recaptured, it began production of the new T-44 tank in 1945, and the first prototypes of the T-54 were built. After the war was over, the design bureau and factory gradually transferred all operations back to Ukraine. T-54 production was started in the Urals and Kharkiv in 1947–48, and the move ended with the 1951 re-establishment of the Design Bureau, now called KB-60M, in Kharkiv. The Factory No. 183 designation was left in Nizhny Tagil, and the Factory in Kharkiv was now called Factory No. 75, renamed Malyshev Plant in 1957. The factory built tank engines, and later took up production of T-54, T-55 (1958, the most-produced tank ever), and T-64 (1967) tanks. The T-64 was also built in the Leningrad Kirov Plant and Uralvagonzavod Plant. In the 1960s the bureau also designed OT-54 and TO-55 flame-thrower tanks, for production at the Omsk Transport Machine Construction Plant. The T-80 tank, with a high-performance gas turbine engine was produced beginning in 1983, and T-80UD (more conventional diesel model) in 1985.
Finished tanks were assembled in several plants, but Soviet industrial planning was planned to prevent any region from being able to establish independent arms production. Components and subassemblies were produced in different factories, the Malyshev Factory specializing in engines and transmissions.
The Malyshev factory's million-square-metre facility produced 800 tanks in 1991, but underwent difficult times after the breakup of the Soviet Union, producing only 46 tanks until 1996, when a $650 M contract was signed to supply 320 T-80UD tanks to Pakistan.[1] Fulfilling the contract was difficult — the distributed nature of Soviet military industry forced reliance on Russian factories for parts, and Russian political interference forced the development of local capabilities, resulting in the T-84 tank design.
Like many Ukrainian industries, Malyshev was not allowed to negotiate contracts directly with foreign governments, but had to rely on Ukrspetsexport, a government arms-trading company. Although Malyshev was denied exporter status in July 1999, it was given this status by decree of President Leonid Kuchma in November of that year, a move seen to be an election gift to the Kharkiv Oblast (province). Malyshev joined as the leader of thirty-four companies to form an export consortium called Ukrainian Armored Vehicles.
Malyshev has demonstrated main battle tanks to Turkey, Greece, and Malaysia, and has entered into a contract to supply engines for Chinese-made Al-Khalid tanks for Pakistan. In September 2000, a deal was signed to modernize Soviet-made tanks and armoured personnel carries for the United Arab Emirates. The Malyshev factory also manufactures parts for Bizon, a Polish producer of agricultural combines.
In April 2009, the Malyshev Factory signed a contract to upgrade 29 T-64B [Т-64Б] tanks to T-64BM "Bulat" [Т-64БМ "Булат"] standard, for the Ukrainian Army for 200 million hryvnia ($25.1 million). Ten upgraded tanks have been delivered in 2010, and a further 19 are planned to be delivered in 2011. The T-64B tanks being upgraded were originally produced at Kharkiv in 1980.[2][3]