Russia’s Lightweight 45-ton T-80 Tank Hit in Ukraine — Too Vulnerable to Enemy Attack?

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington DC) In the 1970s and 1980s, the Soviet Union made a specific, Cold War-focused effort to build an upgraded main battle tank variant to extend beyond and improve the capabilities of the T-72. The T-80, as its called, incorporated and advanced many elements of the well-known T-72, yet added some critical attributes such as a “gun-tube launched anti-tank guided missile,” according to a 1995 Threat Update for U.S. Forces Command OPFOR Training Program, published in Red Thrust Star.

Building Up the T-80

The T-80 uses the same 125mm smoothbore main gun as the T-72 yet is able to fire hypervelocity armor-piercing fin-stabilized sabot rounds able as far as 4,500 meters. The tank can fire six to eight rounds a minute and carry 28 rounds in the autoloader, the text explains.

“The T-80 fires the same rounds as the T-64B and T-72. These ammunition types include Frag-HE fin-stabilized (FS), HEAT-FS, and HVAPFSDS. With the AT-8/SONGSTER, the T-80 can range targets out to 4,000 meters. The T-8OUD variant is equipped to fire the AT-11/SNIPER (Russian nickname Svir) laser beam-riding ATGM,” the Red Thrust Star paper states.

Moving beyond the T-72, the T-80U integrates an improved engine, additional enhanced armor, advanced dual-firing technology, and a computerized fire-control system able to destroy both stationary and moving targets.

While a FAS report makes it clear that these upgrades were added, there is little indication as to the functionality of capability of the computing.

For instance, computerized fire control would be critical should Russia integrate an active protection system into the T-80, also a true ability to track and destroy moving targets would depend upon the range, fidelity, precision, and guidance technology of its sensors and weapons systems.

The T-80 is a Lightweight

The T-80 also appears to suffer an additional deficit, such as its survivability. The T-80 is listed as having a weight of only 45 tons, a size much smaller than the 70-ton U.S. Abrams.