T-80

The T-80 is a third-generation main battle tank (MBT) designed and manufactured in the Soviet Union. A development of the T-64, it entered service in 1976 and was the first production tank to be equipped with a gas turbine engine for main propulsion.[nb 1] The T-80U was last produced in a factory in Omsk, Russia, while the T-80UD and further-developed T-84 continue to be produced in Ukraine. The T-80 and its variants are in service in Belarus, Cyprus, Kazakhstan,Pakistan, Russia, South Korea, and Ukraine. The chief designer of the T-80 was the Russian engineer Nikolay Popov.

Development history 

The project to build the first Soviet turbine powered tank began in 1949. Its designer was A. Ch. Starostienko, who worked at the Leningrad Kirov Plant(LKZ). The tank was never built because available turbine engines were of very poor quality. In 1955 two prototype 1,000 hp (746 kW) turbine engine were built at the same plant under the guidance of G. A. Ogloblin. Two years later a team led by the famous heavy tank designer Ż. J. Kotin constructed two prototypes of the Ob'yekt 278 tank. Both were hybrids of the IS-7 and the T-10 heavy tanks, powered by the GTD-1 turbine engine, weighing 53.5 tonnes and armed with the M65 130 mm tank gun. The turbine engine allowed the tank to reach a maximum speed of 57.3 km/h (35.6 mph) but with only 1950 liters of fuel on board, range was a mere 300 km (190 mi). The two tanks were considered experimental vehicles and work on them eventually ceased. In 1963, the Morozov Design Bureau designed the T-64 and T-64T tanks. They used a GTD-3TL turbine engine which generated 700 hp (522 kW). The tank was tested until 1965. At the same time in Uralvagonzavod a design team under the guidance of L. N. Karcew created the Ob'yekt 167T tank. It used the GTD-3T turbine engine which supplied 801 hp (597 kW).

In 1966 the experimental Ob'yekt 288 rocket tank, powered by two aerial GTD-350 turbine engines with a combined power of 691 hp (515 kW), was first built. Trials indicated that twin propulsion was no better than the turbine engine which had been in development since 1968 at KB-3 of the Kirov Plant (LKZ) and at WNII Trans Masz. The tank from LKZ equipped with this turbine engine was designed by Nikolay Popov. It was constructed in 1969 and designated Ob'yekt 219 SP1. It was renamed the T-64T, and was powered by a GTD-1000T multi-fuel gas turbine engine producing up to 1,000 hp (746 kW). During the trials it became clear that the increased weight and dynamic characteristics required a complete redesign of the vehicle's caterpillar track system. The second prototype, designated Ob'yekt 219 SP2, received bigger drive sprockets and return rollers. The number of wheels was increased from four to five. The construction of the turret was altered to use the same compartment, 125 mm 2A46 tank gun, auto loader and placement of ammunition as the T-64A. Some additional equipment was scavenged from the T-64A. The LKZ plant built a series of prototypes based on Ob'yekt 219 SP2. After seven years of upgrades, the tank became the T-80.

Service history 

Soviet Union 

T-80 MBTs were never used in the way in which they were intended (large scale conventional war in Europe). They were deployed during the political and economical changes in Russia in the 1990s; In August 1991 communists and allied military commanders tried to overthrow

Mikhail Gorbachev and regain control over the unstable Soviet Union. T-80UD tanks of the Russian 4th Guards Kantemirovskaya Tank Division drove onto the streets of Moscow but the Soviet coup attempt failed.n 1985 there were 1,900 T-80 MBTs overall.According to data publicized in Russia, 2,256 T-80 MBTs were stationed in East Germany between 1986 and 1987. NATO realized that new Soviet tanks could reach the Atlantic within two weeks and because of that started to develop counter methods that could stop them. This led to a sudden increase in development of anti-tank weapons including attack helicopters. In 1991 when the Soviet Union was breaking up the Soviet Army operated 4,839 T-80 MBTs in several different models.

Russia 

While a number of T-80 MBTs were inherited by Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan, Russia had possession of the majority of the tanks.

In 1995 the number of T-80 tanks increased to around 5,000 but was reduced in 1998 to 3,500.

The Russian Army currently has 3,044 T-80s and variants in active service and 1,456 in reserve.There are at least 460 T-80UD in service with 2nd Guards Tamanskaya Motor Rifle Division and 4th Guards Kantemirowsk Motor Rifle Division.A T-80BV is on display in Kubinka Tank Museum and a T-80U is on display at an open air museum in Saratov. The T-80Us have recently been seen at arms expos in Russia such as VTTV.

During the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis Boris Yeltsin ordered the use of tanks against the Supreme Soviet and the Congress of People's Deputies which opposed him. On 4 October 1993 six T-80UD MBTs from 12th Guards Tank Regiment, 4th Guards Kantemirovskaya Tank Division took positions on a bridge opposite the Russian parliament building, and fired on it.

In July 1998, a T-80 commanded by Major Igor Belyaev was driven into a square in front of the administration building of Novosmolenskand its gun aimed at the building in protest of several months of unpaid wages.

First Chechen War 

T-80B and T-80BV MBTs were never used in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Instead, they were first used during the First Chechen War. This first real combat experience for T-80 MBTs was unsuccessful as they were used for capturing cities, a task for which they were not very well suited. The biggest losses were suffered during the ill-fated assault on the city of Grozny. The forces selected to capture Grozny were not prepared for such an operation while the city was defended by, among others, veterans of the Soviet War in Afghanistan. The T-80 tanks used in this operation either did not have reactive armour (T-80B), or it was not fitted before the start of the operation (T-80BV), and T-80 crews lacked sufficient training before the war.

The inexperienced crews had no knowledge of the layout of the city while the tanks were attacked by shoulder-launched anti-tank rocket-propelled grenade launchers operated by the defenders hidden in cellars and on top of high buildings. The fire was directed at the least armoured points of the vehicles. Each destroyed tank received from three to six hits. Each tank was fired at by six or sevenrocket-propelled grenades. A number of vehicles exploded when the autoloader with vertically placed rounds was hit: in theory it should be protected by the road wheel, but when the tank got hit on its side armour the ready-to-use ammunition exploded. Out of all armored vehicles that entered Grozny, 225 were destroyed in the first month alone, representing 10.23% of all the tanks committed to the campaign.The T-80 performed so poorly that General-Lieutenant A. Galkin, the head of the Armor Directorate, convinced the Minister of Defence after the conflict to never again procure tanks with gas-turbine engines.After that T-80 MBTs were never again used to capture cities and instead supported infantry squads from a safe distance. Defenders of the T-80 point out that the T-72 performed just as badly in urban fighting in Grozny as the T-80, and there were two mitigating factors: after the breakup of the Soviet Union poor funding meant no training for new Russian tank crews, and the tank force entering the city had no infantry support, which is considered to be suicidal by many major military strategists of armored warfare.