TR1 wrote:If they had T-90s in that situation, the result would not have been much different honesty.
AFAIK the T-90s were only in combat once (apart from maybe on the Indo-Pakistan border); but when they were it was pretty much exactly that same situation - AFAIK a section of T-90s were cut-off in Dagestan by Chechen rebels and took to the advance and tore through Chechen lines. I don't think there was a single T-90 knocked out. 1 of them took something like 7 RPG hits but was still in operation. Presumably the others took some too but all the tanks tore through; none were knocked out or broke down.
T-64 is outdated, but then again so is the workhorse of the Russian army, the T-72B.
The T-72B, upgraded to T-72B3 standard is the equal of earlier modifications of the Leopard 2, M1 Abrams.. quite the equal to the Challenger II, Leclerc, Merkava III.
Inferior to the K2, Type 90, Merkava IV, later Leo 2s and M1s but the differences here are not huge.
The main difference is crew survivability in case of penetration - but then it has its own advantages too. Lower profile, greater manueverability, fording capability, lower weight.. at the end of the day the T-72B3 is in Russian service and only really needs to work well in Russian conditions. Export customers get their pick of T-90s instead.
If you attempted to put any of these other tanks into Russian conditions though - they'd break down, run out of fuel or get bogged down into the mud like Panthers in Operation Zitadelle.
TR1 wrote:The T-72 also has vulnerable ammunition from the side. Yes, it is smaller, no, it is not a giant difference.
Big difference. It's a small target, is protected by a lot of armor, and is seperated from the crew cabin with a metal shield, so sparks won't ignite the propellant.
I remember some pics of the T-80 insides.. it looked like the propellant/ammo wasn't actually seperated from the crew compartment at all.
The target is larger and because of that there is also a wider range angles to take a shot at it from, including some spots that will be protected with weaker armor. The chance of making such a shot intentionally is pretty small but when you take the statistics, it becomes clear - the T-80 propellant is easier to target and easier to penetrate through to.
In combat we have seen T-72s torn apart and blowing up left and right as well.
A lot more rarely. The main danger seems to be if they're hit from above. That way the chance of the round hitting the propellant is greater, as the ammo area is perpendicular to the angle of fire and thus represents a much larger target, from my understanding.
But really, hitting any tank from above is sure to cause mayhem.
T-72s in Chechnya 1.0 did fine. When without infantry, many were lost but they proved themselves survivable nontheless. They're doing well in Syria too - plenty of videos with them just soaking up rocket after rocket. Of course, the vids where a T-72 explodes are widely publiscized, but given the scale of the war and the amount of T-72s involved; it's bound to happen.
In the 2nd Chechen war, they were used methodically, with infantry support.. I don't think any were lost at all, or if they were then they were recovered and put back into operation later. Actually very few tanks were lost in Chechnya 2.0.
The difference in survivability is not nearly as great as you make it out to be. Do I really need to post photos from something as recent as Georgia, when T-72 turret flew dozens of yards away upon ammo detonation?
What's that supposed to prove? Yes it happens, just not very often.
BTW do we know how that Georgian T-72 got knocked out? It seemed to be parked in front of the Peacekeeper HQ. It probably got hit by their weapons, then from the weapons of the advance units of the Russian reinforcements.. it had a very bad day basically.
T-72s have been in dozens of conflicts. It should be easy to find popped-off turrets if they were that common. Yet I don't recall any pics; maybe only in Iraq, with their crappy Saddam knock-off of the T-72M1 (itself a knock-off of the T-72A), and the god-awful 'Asad Babil', which was a knock-off of the Saddam knock-off of a knock-off!!!
In fact that's how they told the difference between these deathtraps. The T-72M1s when they were knocked-out, were usually more or or less whole and could be put back into operation, even if the turret popped off. The Saddams were usually destroyed beyond all repair, turret miles away, all insides blown apart. And of the Asad Babils - there was basically nothing left of them at all.
Incidently - you'll see that T-64s we've been seeing are mostly on Saddam level - they're cooked and chared, nice and good. Won't be putting them back into operation. Although at least they didn't vaporize.
If the T-64 is a deathtrap, then so is the T-72, only slightly less so.
The T-64 has been getting involved in some serious carnage during the conflict - it always seems to come the worse off. Of course, when it comes to incompetent leaderships ordering full-steam ahead into some clever rebel ambushes with semi-modern ATGMs & RPGs and so on, any tank will have problems.. the Israeli Merkavas got their asses kicked in Lebanon by older weapons.
Any tank will also have problems if some Spetsnaz lads laser-designate them for some 152mms over the border to rain down nice thick shells onto their top armour. That sort of thing will wipe any column out.
But still, the amount of jack-in-the-box turrets with the T-64; just seems to me to be more than I've seen with the T-72; considerably more. Coupled with the stories of T-80 survivability in Chechnya (which has the same autoloader design as the T-64) - and I think some conclusions can be drawn. The T-72 for sure isn't perfect in crew survivability, but it's not bad really. At the very least, missing turrets and unrecoverable vehicles are rare.
The T-64 is not a bad tank (Soviets didn't make any genuinely bad tanks, they knew their stuff) - it just needs some upgrades, and to be used more carefully.
Last edited by flamming_python on Tue Jan 20, 2015 12:24 am; edited 1 time in total