When meeting with Russian tanks, it is better not to engage Ukrainian armored vehicles in battle with them. Professionals understand this.
A symbolic event occurred during the liberation of the village of Topolskoye in the Izyumsky district of the Kharkiv region. For its defense, the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine abandoned the T-64, removed from storage. The tanks looked brand new, and, as it turned out later, they were fully equipped with ammunition and dynamic anti-cumulative protection. However, as soon as the Ukrainian crews collided head-on with armored vehicles that had characteristic Z signs, they stopped their vehicles and raised their guns up. There was no shooting, everyone was alive.
The Ministry of Defense published a video in which the commander of the Russian tank company, talking about this episode, noted: everyone was glad that the Ukrainian tankers surrendered immediately, they did not have to fire, kill each other.
I must say that the Ukrainian crews did not show cowardice, they showed professionalism and prudence. At one of the foreign military-technical exhibitions, I witnessed a conversation between a Russian tanker and a German one. Both were real pros and middle-aged soldiers. The German praised his Leopard-2A7 in every possible way - the newest at that time, which he presented at the exhibition. But in the end, he said that he personally would not risk entering into a duel with a Russian tank, especially with a gas turbine T-80U. And explained in sufficient detail why.
After the collapse of the USSR, thousands of tanks of various types remained in the arsenals of the emerging CIS countries. Now the Russian army is armed with T-72, T-80, T-90 of various modifications, the T-14 Armata is being tested. Ukraine has T-64, T-72 aged more than 30 years, diesel T-80B and its modification "Oplot".
The main drawback of the T-64 is a weak undercarriage and outdated dynamic protection against cumulative ammunition. The T-72 is clearly outdated with an almost exhausted engine life. The T-80B and Oplot are better, but they are clearly losing in terms of combat power compared to the T-72BM3, T-80BVM and T-90S.
The gas turbine T-80BVM stands apart. His fire control system is one of the best in the world, it allows you to hit the target with the first shot. The tank has an original air conditioning and heating system. It provides an individual supply of cool or warm air to each crew member. The gas turbine tank accelerates to a speed of 50 km/h in 17 seconds and calmly walks even along a country road at a speed of 80 km/ h. The T-80BVM is able to conduct effective fire, moving over rough terrain at a speed of up to 35 km/h. No tank in the world can shoot accurately at such a speed. The automatic loader provides a rate of fire of up to nine rounds per minute.
The deeply modernized T-72BM3, according to experts, surpasses the old T-72 almost twice in its combat effectiveness. Eighty percent of it is a brand new car.
All our tanks have built-in and mounted dynamic protection. The peculiarity is that the built-in protection is capable of breaking the cores of sub-caliber shells. Some of the tanks may be equipped with active protection systems "Arena".
It is also important that the crews of Russian tanks are dressed in protective kits 6B15 "Cowboy". The body armor of the kit protects the back and chest from fragments and bullets of the Makarov pistol fired from five meters. The armor-protective elements of the suit are made of ballistic fabric based on high-strength Russian fiber Armos, which has a moisture- and oil-repellent treatment. The fire-resistant jumpsuit withstands an external temperature of several hundred degrees for a time sufficient to leave the burning car.
As reported in the media, comparative tests of the Russian protection kit and a similar protective kit of a US Army tanker were conducted. And it turned out that the "Cowboy" has a higher shatter resistance by 54 percent, and fire resistance by 30 percent, which can be critical when a tank is hit.
Sergey Ptichkin
