You're reading: Ukraine preparing to ship second batch of BTR-4s to Iraq

Ukraine is preparing to ship to Iraq a second batch of 62 BTR-4 armored personnel carriers, which were assembled at Kharkiv facilities under a large-scale contract worth more than $550 million for the supply of Ukrainian military equipment to the Iraqi customer, a source familiar with the implementation of the contract has told Interfax-Ukraine.

"The shipping of the second batch of 62 BTR-4s is scheduled for the nearest future: during its acceptance, the customer expressed his satisfaction with the technical capabilities of the new Ukrainian armored vehicles," the agency’s source reported.

"The cooperation of the sides under the contract is developing in a constructive way," the source said.The mass media recently reported the possible cancellation of the delivery of the second batch of BTR-4s to Iraq, because during acceptance of the machines, the Iraqi side found the technical defects in the firing systems, in particular, failures of new ZTM-1 automatic guns installed on BTR-4.

Commenting on reports by the media in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine, an expert from the Ukrainian Center of Army, Conversion and Disarmament, Serhiy Zhurets said: "Definitely a large-scale Iraqi contract is both important and difficult for Ukraine: none of the world countries has supplied new machinery to the consumer on such tight timetable yet. It’s rather understandable that there are signs of an information war going on around this project, since its successful implementation by Ukraine stings the interests of the big producers of military equipment."

"Taking into account the tight timetable to implement the contract, it’s possible to say that there are the situations, in which the consumer and producer are searching for compromises to improve technical nuances," the source said."The consumer won’t judge the quality of the whole batch on the private order of one gun: accepting the machinery, the consumer always has reasonable or unreasonable questions for the producer regarding technical parameters and capabilities of this or that component of the new product. It’s a standard world working practice, which is familiar to all producers and buyers of the armament," the expert said.

A contract worth over $550 million for the supply of the Ukrainian military hardware to Iraq was concluded in 2009 by a state-run subsidiary of Ukrspecexport – the Progress specialized foreign trade firm.The contract foresees the supply of over 400 pieces of military hardware, including BTR-4 armored personnel carriers, six An-32 light transport aircraft, and aircraft repair services for three to three-and-a-half years.

Among the key Ukrainian contractors are the Kharkiv-based Morozov design and engineering bureau, the Kharkiv engine design bureau, and the Malyshev plant, all of which belong to the Ukroboronprom concern, as well as Kyiv-based Antonov enterprise.

The first batch of 26 BTR-4s, two maintenance vehicles, and two BTR crew-training simulators were delivered to the Iraqi contractor in the spring of 2011.The first two An-32 aircraft were delivered in November and December 2011. Another two aircraft were supplied to Iraq in April 2012. The remaining two An-32s will be delivered to the customer in June this year.