Omsktransmash


Omsktransmash is a wholly state-owned engineering company based in the city of Omsk, Russia. The company was best known in the West during the Cold War period for its production of armoured vehicles such as the T-80 tank. The design bureau of the company, KBTM, was also responsible for the BTR-T, TOS-1 and 2S19 "Msta-S".

History

The beginnings of the organisation were in 1896 with the creation of a railway engineering workshop. The plant expanded in 1942 and gained its current importance when factories in the Ukraine and Leningrad were evacuated to beyond the Ural mountains during the second world war. During that period the plant produced the T-34 tank.
Tractor production began in 1993.
In the post-Soviet Union period the state's decision to fund tank production at Uralvagonzavod in Nizhny Tagil at the expense of the Omsk factory caused financial ruin for the company. The organisation had designed a new prototype tank, named Black Eagle but it did not enter production. Although the plant received work modernising T-62 and T-72 tanks this did not provide sufficient income and in 2002 the company went bankrupt.
In 2004 the design arm of the business was absorbed into Uralvagonzavod.
The military production at the plant was acquired by JSC KBTM in 2007
In 2008 bids were taken for the sale of the non-military part of the enterprise, the winner being ChTZ-Uraltrak. However, the transaction was disallowed by the monopoly commission Federal Antimonopoly Service due to complaints from Uraltrak's creditors Sverbank that they had not been paid.
In December 2009, JSC KBTM purchased the second part of Omsktransmash using funds provided by the Federal government.

Products and facilities

As well as formerly manufacturing tanks and other military vehicles, the company also produces a variety of wheeled industrial vehicles in both two- and four-wheel drive based on a 'tractor' chassis:
Other products include "Омь-1,5" and "Омь-2,0" washing machines, gate valves for pipelines, jacks, conveyors and other general industrial machinery and tools.