Название: T-80 Standard Tank
Автор: Steven J. Zaloga
Издательство: Osprey Publishing
Год: 2009
Формат: pdf
Страниц: 52
Размер: 21 mb
Язык: английский

The Soviet T-80 Standard Tank was the last tank fielded before the Soviet collapse, and the most controversial. Despite having the most sophisticated fire controls and multi-layer armor ever fielded on a Soviet tank, its turbine power plant (rather than a conventional diesel) remained a source of considerable trouble throughout its career.

The T-80 tank was meant to be the ultimate Soviet main battle tank (МВТ), entering the Soviet arsenal around the same time as the new NATO-generation American Ml Abrams, British Challenger, and German Leopard 2. It was not a new design, but rather an evolutionary reconsideration of the T-64A tank. In the event, the T-80 proved to be deeply troubled, offering modest advances over the existing T-64A and T-72 tanks, yet being considerably more costly due to the use of a powerful but thirsty gas-turbine engine. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, there was fierce competition between surviving tank plants to win the contracts for a standard tank for the new Russian Army, and the rival T-90 was selected as the next Russian tank. Curiously enough, the T-80 fared better in Ukraine, where a locally manufactured version called the T-84 entered production. There were attempts to push the T-80 in new directions, including the mysterious Molot program and the more recent Black Eagle, and improved versions of the T-80 are likely to form the armored backbone of the Russian and Ukrainian armies for decades to come.