The crews of the T-80U of the twentieth armored Brigade of the National Guard of the Republic of Cyprus conducted live firing exercises at a training ground near the settlement of Kalo Horio.
Russian-made combat vehicles made a rapid march to the area of the battle with a conditional enemy. Small water obstacles were overcome while driving over very rough terrain.
Together with the "eighties", Leonidas-2 tracked armored personnel carriers purchased in Greece were also involved.
At first, shooting from the spot was practiced. Then the tanks began to hit targets already in motion. Some experts were confused by the distance at which the targets were located, it was relatively small. The fact is that during these maneuvers, the military tried to comply with security measures as much as possible, since local residents have an extremely negative attitude to this defense facility and have been demanding its closure for a long time.
Then the equipment was loaded onto car trawls, after which it was delivered to the place of permanent deployment of the brigade.
Currently, more than eight dozen T-80U and T-80UK are still in operation in Cyprus.
These upgraded versions have received thermal imaging sights "Plisa" and can use long-range anti-tank missiles with laser guidance. Local personnel are highly qualified to keep them in a combat-ready state. In particular, they independently service 1250-horsepower gas turbine engines GTD-1250.
Alexey Brusilov
