How long will the updated T-80BVM on European theaters last? Unanswered disadvantages and advantages of the English Channel XXI tank
On the eve of the celebration of Tanker’s Day, which fell on September 10 this year, official events were held on the territory of the 33rd combined arms training ground located near the city of Luga (Leningrad Region), including demonstration firing and the display of modern military equipment. Without a doubt, the most advanced concept can be considered the deeply modernized MBT T-90M, which was designed as part of the Proryv-3 development project. Here we see the non-standard elements 4C22 dynamic protection "Contact-5" installed on most drill tanks NE of Russia (T-72B3, T-80U and T-90A / S), and modern tandem modules 4C23 of the Relikt dynamic protection systems. Moreover, these complexes have passed a good stage of modernization, having received anti-cumulative gratings in areas of the wedge-shaped junction of 4C23 modules.
Firstly, it allows you to perfectly cover the vulnerable shoulder straps of the tank turret from cumulative projectiles. Secondly, it doubles the survivability of the “Relic” in the shelling of tandem cumulative ATGM type BGM-71 “TOW-2A” or RC-3 “Corsair”. Thirdly, tapered doubles EDZ 4S23 (unlike 4S22 "Contact-5») does not have gaps, to denude the front and side projection turret thin tungsten and uranium core kinetic energy penetrator, which greatly increases the survivability of the tank with a dense fire impact from the side of enemy tanks. In fact, this tank can be considered a radically modernized version of the Tagil T-90MS. On the top of the reinforced wedge-shaped mask of the 2А46М4 cannon and at the end of the gun one can see the radiating and reflecting elements of the metering device of the barrel bend (UUI), which increases the shooting accuracy 1,15 - 2 times.
Frontal armor plates of the turret of this machine are represented by standard combined armor using bags with reflective sheets, which are typical for the whole T-72B / 90 family. Its equivalent resistance from BOPS at angles 0-15 degrees from the longitudinal axis of the bore (taking into account the "Relic") approaches 1050-1200 mm, from KS - 1400 mm, which makes the tank almost completely protected even before the newest shtatovskimi armor-piercing shells M829AX-NUMNUM Despite this, the mobility of the tank remained at the same level (power density is of the order of 3 hp / t), because on the poster with the characteristics we see the same 21,5-cylinder 12-liter diesel with 38,88 hp. In addition to the Relikt plant, we do not observe any radical innovations in the T-1000M, although it was stated in the winter that the Nineties would equip them with the promising 90X2-82M guns, and possibly the KAZ Afganit.
Much more interesting is the consideration of the combat potential of the modernized “reactive” main battle tank T-80BVM, a prototype of which was also presented during the demonstration at the 33 combined-arms military range near Luga. History The early versions of these unique machines (T-80 / B / BV), called the English Channel Tanks for their intended ability to reach the coast of the Celtic Sea in just 2 weeks, began in the distant 1976 year, when the “Object 219 cn 2. The most interesting point was that at the beginning of a huge series, the cost of a gas turbine engine GTD-1000T alone was approaching 130-135 thousand rubles, which was about 95% of the cost of MBT T-64B. Each T-80B tank cost the Soviet treasury 480 thousand rubles (3 times more expensive than T-64B). Although the price was very biting (with extremely high gluttony of the GTD-1000T / TF), it was more than justified by the most important technical quality of the Eighties - mobility! It was precisely in need, that the tank brigades of the SV of Russia, in whose area of responsibility the western operational direction is located, will need and will continue to be needed. At that time, after receiving the Kontakt-1 hinged dynamic protection systems, the T-80Bs were perfectly protected from most Western anti-tank guided missiles equipped with single-piece cumulative combat units. Moreover, the equivalent stability of the frontal projection of the turret in 540 mm from BOPS allowed the “Channel” to “take a punch” of the American 105-mm armor-piercing shells M735, M774, M833, and also at that time the promising 120-mm BOPS M827, L23 UK) and DM-23 / M111 “Hetz-6” (Germany / Israel).
The problem area of the T-80B / BV was only the upper front part of the case, which is protected from BOPS of order 430-450 mm. It could easily penetrate American armor-piercing shells with indexes M833 (with a uranium core) and M827 (with a tungsten core), German DM23 and British L23. Meanwhile, no special attention was paid to this problem, because, firstly, T-80B received 9K112 “Cobra” guided weapons systems for the destruction of enemy tanks with 3,5-4 km (before the start of the battle using BPS), secondly, all the hope was for the action of the “terrain screen”, which did not allow the tank to be easily hit in the lower portions of the frontal projection (WLD / NLD). After 12 years passed since the first T-80 was adopted, the Soviet army numbered around 6700 MBT T-80B / BV, most of which were located east of the Urals and smaller - in the GDR.
At the same time, by 1988, the enemy had achieved tremendous success in developing promising armor-piercing shells using depleted uranium and tungsten. Thus, in the 88 year, the armor-piercing feathered sub-caliber projectile M829, capable of piercing the 550-570 mm steel equivalent with 2000 m, appeared in service with the tank units of the US Army. Around the same period, a German BOPS with the DM-33 index appeared similar in parameters. "Eighties" lost all the advantages in the near tank confrontation, especially since the Germans were on the approach with a more advanced modification of the Leopard - A4, and the American General Dynamics Land Systems managed to roll out a modification of the Abrams M1A1HA, equipped with a combined Frontal armoring of the tower using a depleted uranium envelope. The equivalent resistance of the frontal projection of the tower from the kinetic armor-piercing shells in these machines reached 580-620 mm when viewed from 0 shelling degrees from the longitudinal axis of the bore; the resistance of VLD possessed similar indicators. Domestic 125-mm uranium armor-piercing projectile ZBM-33 "Vant", able to penetrate only 560 mm equivalent, such armor was too tough. The appearance of a deeply refined T-1985U machine ("80AS Object") in 219 smoothed the situation. Tower resistance from armor-piercing projectiles on the front (using DZ Kontakt-5) reached 780-900 mm due to the increased size of frontal armor plates and improved filler, but these machines produced no more 700 units.
At the time of the collapse of the USSR, the question of the protection of armored vehicles was of little interest to anyone. A decent amount of "reactive" "Eighty" went to Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Belarus and Azerbaijan. Moreover, with the use of dummy organizations and individuals in the ranks of the Russian army, where chaos also reigned then, the United States and Great Britain managed to get several copies of these machines to assess the dynamic qualities and to simulate duel situations on the battlefield with the participation of their Challengers-2 and "Abrams", as well as our T-80. About 2800 our T-80B / BV were placed on conservation. In the Ground Forces of the Russian Federation it was decided to leave only about 500 T-80BV / U. Rates were also made on such MBT options from Uralvagonzavod, such as T-72B (sample 1989 of the year), T-72BA, and then T-72B3. The armor protection of their frontal and onboard projections from BOPS was at the level of T-80BV (when using “Contact-1”) and at 15 — 20% exceeded it when installing EDS 4-22 “Contact-5”. At that time, the Eighties were extremely unprofitable for the barely living Russian economy of 90: the enormous voracity of GTD-1000T / TF and GTD-1250 gas-turbine engines (by 60 — 80% more than of diesel engines of equal power) forced the military leadership countries to look exclusively in the direction of the Ural tank builders from the UVZ, about the Leningrad and Omsk "Channel Channels" have been forgotten.
After the start of serial production of the first modification of the MBT T-90 (“188 Object”) in the fall of 1992, with a cast turret from T-72B, represented by containers with special armor from reflective sheets in the size of frontal armor plates, the focus of the whole Russian tank design shifted towards the development of new modifications these machines. The 1X45T Irtysh fire control system at the 188 facility was borrowed from the T-80U gas turbine and included: SAT 1A42, the TPN-4-4E “Buran-PAS” sight of the Buran-PA sniper, Ipid in a single line, Id- 4; Agat-S is also an 4K9 Reflex tank weapon system. An important advantage of the new CWS, unlike 119А1 (Т-40Б), was the absence of the need for constant manual introduction of ballistic and meteorological corrections to determine lateral anticipation angles that take into account the humidity of the air, the temperature of the charge, the atmospheric pressure, and the decrease in the initial velocity associated with channel wear. 72А2М-46 tools. Due to this, the crew of the “2 Object” was able to set the SLA necessary angles of lead in the elevation and azimuth planes many times faster than it did on the T-188B. The process of stabilizing the gun in combat took place through a fairly effective electro-hydraulic (in elevation) and electromechanical (in azimuth) stabilizer 72E2-42 "Jasmine", which is also used in the T-4 line starting with the modification "BA" ("72A Object ").
By the beginning of the XXI century, a more modern modification of the T-90A "Object 188A" was ready. This MBT has received a modern welded turret with 1,15-multiple increase in resistance from armor-piercing feathered sub-caliber shells, which was made possible by the use of external and internal dimensions of rolled armor plates. The survivability of the turret also increased due to the original distribution of welded joints between the main armored elements of the tank turret: they were partially or completely blocked by armor plates from the projectile-hazardous direction. Despite the highest level of bronze protection of the T-90А / С tanks from the enemy’s kinetic projectiles, which, using VDZ Kontakt-5 and Relic, increased to 1050 - 1150 mm, these machines cannot be considered as the perfect offensive weapons, because 1000-strong diesel engines B-92C2 provide all the same low power density and maximum speed in 65 km. Traction qualities of these engines also remain very mediocre in comparison with gas turbines. The large-scale production of the prospective T-14 “Armata” MBT is only planned for 2019, and a regional conflict in the European theater, requiring high speed and maneuverability from our armored vehicles in dueling situations, may well flare up in the next 2 - 3. That is why the Ministry of Defense and the Ground Forces tightly took up the development work on a radical improvement of the "jet tanks" T-80BV to the level of "BMP". What finally happened, we now consider.
As we managed to make sure in May 2017 of the year, with the current Ukrainian government, the Kharkiv Armored Plant practically lost all the “thinking heads” working in the defense industry until the arrival of the new, illegitimate “top”. This was reflected in the details of the T-80B / BV MBT restoration program, which were previously conserved. The machines did not receive exactly any modernization signs against the background of the 85 samples of the year. In particular, there are all the same mounted elements 4С20 DZ "Contact-1", not increasing the security of the tank from uranium armor-piercing shells "Vant". The frontal projection has not been protected from the Metis-M tandem ATGM or RPG-27 Tavolga anti-tank grenades. All that was enough for “engineering thought” was to “stick” the infrared searchlight to the right of the gun mask, which reduced the resistance from the single-block CS in 1,8 times. Now Ukrainian “jet tanks” participating in aggression against LDNR can be easily stopped even with the help of RPG-7, attacking to the frontal projection with the usual cumulative PG-7 “Luch”, not to mention the “Summary”.
With the Russian T-80BVM, the story is completely different. Here we can see the extremely dense overlap of the frontal projection of the tower with wedge-shaped elements 4 – 23 of dynamic protection “Relic” in the corners of safe maneuvering ± 40-45 ° from the course direction of the tank. The area to the left of the gun embrasure is also securely covered by a separate 4 – 23 module with a large elevation angle from the horizontal plane. Infrared searchlight moved to a rotatable combat module above the hatch commander. The on-board armor plates of the turret are covered with specialized advanced large-sized 4C24 “Relic” modules for light-armored vehicles, which are equivalent to the 600-mm steel plate during the shelling of the COP. Thin stern bronelist is protected by a lattice anti-cumulative screen in the 60 - 70 ° sector. We conclude that the total area of overlap of the T-80BVM tower with the built-in remote control complex "Relikt" surpassed that of even the experienced T-72B "Slingshot", which does not have large EDS for protecting the sides of the tower. Small elements of dynamic protection are also installed on the upper armor of the tower and partially obscure the reserved volume in the area of the commander and gunner seats. Now consider security in numbers.
It is known that the T-80BVM is equipped with a full-cast cast turret with a combined reservation, which without DZ possesses resistance from BOPS of the order of 520 - 530 mm and from cumulative shells - of the order of 560 mm. The equipment of the remote control complex "Relikt" increases the equivalent from armor-piercing shells to 800 - 820 mm and from KS - to 1050 mm. Consequently, the tank is protected from virtually all serial US and German BPS (M829, M829A1, M829A2 and DM53) when fired at safe maneuvering corners ± 15º. As for the armor-piercing feathered sub-caliber M829A3 and DM63 shells, with frontal shelling from a distance of 1500 - 2000 and frontal projection T-80BVM is unlikely to survive even with a relic, the probability of the latter approaches 830 - XNXX. This means that the priority of the crews of the upgraded “English Channel” tanks should be the destruction of enemy tanks through the integrated guided-weapons systems “Reflex”. Otherwise, T-850BVM should be equipped not with standard “frail” towers, but with thicker-sized products from MBT T-80. Relic will also protect the tank from the American anti-tank BGM-80E anti-tank missiles, which penetrate 71 mm behind dynamic protection.
Located on the sides of the tower, the bulky-sized EDS “Relict” increases security from BOPS to 600 mm (in the front of the sides) and to 350 - 450 (in the rear), because the physical dimension of the sides of the tower gradually decreases from the front to the back. These sites are able to penetrate almost all Western BOPS (from 105-mm M774 and M833 to the first 120-mm M829). These sectors are also vulnerable to tandem cumulative anti-tank weapons with a penetrability beyond the DZ more than 300 - 350 mm. More simply, the T-80BVM is designed for a lightning offensive throw, a short tank duel with active maneuvering and the use of the TUR “Reflex” at distances beyond the limits of the BOPS. The X-NUMX-2BM crew can conduct a close tank battle at 3 km with the hope of high speed and maneuverability, as well as the fact that the enemy does not begin to use modern M80A829 and DM3 projectiles, and this is an extremely negative signal. The most pitiful outcome of the collision with “Leopards-63A2 / 5” and “Abrams” M6A1SEP can be observed if during the intense battle “reactive” T-2BVM loses several elements of 80СХNNXX on the frontal projection of T-4BVM losing several elements of 23СХNNXX on the frontal projection of T-530BVM losing several elements of 829СХNNXX on the frontal plane of the tower: XNUMX-mm armor will be bare and the tank will be destroyed by the very first outdated MXNUMX BOPS.
Parameters of a television sight doubler PDT-7151
Let us proceed to the consideration of booking the upper frontal details of the T-80BVM case. There has also been noticeable progress in contrast to the "half-naked" WFD Ukrainian T-80BV. The continuous built-in plate from 12 elements of dynamic protection "Relic" with an envelope of about 70 - 80 mm catches your eye. It increases resistance from kinetic projectiles from 400 to 600 and from “kuma” to 750 mm. This allows you to protect the plot of the driver from the American armor-piercing shells M829 and German DM43, while protection is not provided against more advanced shots. This moment is extremely “painful”, especially if the enemy is at a low altitude relative to T-80BVM: in this case, the VLD cannot be protected by a “terrain screen”; total understandable.
It is worth noting another extremely expressive disadvantage of the T-80BVM - the complete absence of cover for the strip of the tower epaulet. Thus, on Ukrainian T-64BM “Bulat” and Russian T-72B2 “Slingshot” the tower shoulder strap is partially protected by rubber plates attached to the “wedges” of the EDZ Knife and Relikt, respectively, and the specialists from the DPR managed to develop for Own T-72AB / B is a unique set of combined DZ “Contact-1 / 5”, where thick rubber skirts with 5-4 dynamic protection elements “Contact-20” mounted on the ends are installed on the tower “wedge-pairs” of dynamic protection . This design perfectly protects the turret chase from cumulative RPG rocket grants, single-piece cumulative anti-tank guided missiles and various artillery shells in caliber up to 1 mm.
Donbass approach to increasing the security of the tower
The “valid” technical moment implemented in order to increase the security of the onboard projections of the T-80BVM hull is the developed anti-cumulative screens that securely cover the vulnerable vertically oriented ammo pack in the central part of the hull. Placed in their lower part, the rubber skirts reach the axes of the rollers, while on the Ukrainian T-80BB PKE reach only the circumference of the rollers, baring 80-mm side armor plates that can be “stitched” with modern western 40-mm armor-piercing shells of the family L-70 "Bofors".
The situation with insufficient booking of the turret and the BWD is slightly smoothed by the modern multichannel gunner sight Sosna-U and the TV double-substitute PDT-7151, which allow aimed fire both at night and during the day at a distance of 3 or more km. Also, the disadvantages of armor are partially compensated by the unique speed of the machine within 80 — 85 km / h, thanks to which it becomes much easier to get away from enemy fire. However, without a modern welded turret, similar to that installed on T-90А / С, or a more “powerful” cast tower, the road “to the club of tanks of the XXI century” is closed for T-80BVM.
Information sources:
http://ursa-tm.ru/forum/index.php?/topic/250095-modernizirovannyj-tank-t-80bvm/
http://www.btvt.narod.ru/4/t-80.htm
http://militaryrussia.ru/blog/topic-294.html
Information