Advertisements

Land Systems / Battlefield

WZT ARV (Series)

Armored Recovery Vehicle [ 1970 ]

The Polish WZT represented a line of Armored Recovery Vehicles first built atop the chassis of the Soviet T-55 Main Battle Tank and progressively updated from then on - culminating in a modern version based on the PT-91 MBT.

Authored By: Staff Writer | Last Edited: 08/07/2019 | Content ©www.MilitaryFactory.com | The following text is exclusive to this site.

GO TO SPECIFICATIONS [+]

Like other countries under the sphere of Soviet influence during the Cold War (1947-1991), Poland benefitted (at least militarily) from its relationship with a superpower. From this relationship came access to various weapon designs running the gamut of small arms and aircraft to vehicles and combat tanks. As such, with access to the Soviet line of Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) like the T-55 and T-72 series, the Polish Army went on to adopt their Armored Recovery Vehicle (ARV) forms based on these original Soviet designs. The Soviet BTS-1, based on the T-54 MBT, was purchased by Poland in the latter part of the 1960s. This experience ultimately led the country to invest in a series of similar vehicles under the "Woz Zabezpieczenia Technicznego" (literally "Armored Recovery Vehicle") name, or abbreviated to "WZT".

Beyond the Soviet-inspired ARVs, the series was expanded to include ARVs based on the local Polish PT-91 "Twardy" MBT hull, itself based on the Soviet T-72M1. The series has since encompassed the WZT-1, WZT-2, WZT-3, WZT-3M and WZT-4 built upon the respective hulls of the T-55, T-55A, T-72M, PT-91 and PT-91M tanks. The WZT-1 was in service until 1978. The WZT-4 was developed for the Malaysian Army.

The Polish Army no longer relies on the older WZT ARV series forms though some existing hulls are used for other battlefield roles. It maintains some twenty-nine WZT-3M models as a standard ARV to operate alongside its standard MBT, the Twardy.©MilitaryFactory.com

Note: The above text is EXCLUSIVE to the site www.MilitaryFactory.com. It is the product of many hours of research and work made possible with the help of contributors, veterans, insiders, and topic specialists. If you happen upon this text anywhere else on the internet or in print, please let us know at MilitaryFactory AT gmail DOT com so that we may take appropriate action against the offender / offending site and continue to protect this original work.

Specifications

BASICS [+] MANUFACTURER(S) [+] OPERATORS [+] ROLES [+] DIMENSIONS & WEIGHTS [+] POWER & PERFORMANCE [+] ARMAMENT [+] AMMUNITION [+] VARIANTS [+] HONORS [+]

Advertisements