The once-proud Soviet juggernaut now looks like a glaring weakness in the fighting in Ukraine: the Russian T-80 tank.
Derived originally from the Cold War period T-64, the T-80 was meant to be an advanced, high-mobility main battle tank. The reality, however, has been somewhat different.
The T-80 was a development of the T-64, using a GTD-1000T multi-fuel turbine engine, which had a power of 1,000 hp.
It was expected to resolve problems with the unfaithful 5TD diesel engine used in the T-64.
However, excessive fuel consumption stood out as a major weakness in the T-80, which made its range very limited.
Thousands of these tanks were produced by the time the Soviet Union began to crumble, and Russia and Ukraine had a sizeable number of them.
Russia has utilized this tank extensively since the beginning of the Russo-Ukraine War, but to its misfortune, suffered huge losses. The age-old technology of the tank and large fuel requirement makes it vulnerable to the modern portable defense measures in existence.
News of hundreds of losses of T-80 tanks for Russia evinces the issues involved in using the older armored vehicles in war today.
The human cost to Russia has been humongous in addition to the destruction of tanks. A declassified US intelligence assessment says that Russia has lost 87% of its active-duty ground troops since the invasion started.
That leaves 315,000 casualties out of 360,000 troops comprising the pre-invasion ground force of Russia. The destruction reveals a two-thirds share of pre-invasion tanks destroyed: 2,200 out of 3,500 tanks destroyed.
That has come despite heavy losses accrued, with Russian President Vladimir Putin remaining firm to continue the war. The assessment calls to attention that the conflict has “sharply set back 15 years of Russian effort to modernize its ground force.”
Russia has resulted in easing recruitment standards and using Soviet-era stockpiles of older equipment to maintain its war efforts.
The political atmosphere in Washington complicated things even more. On one hand, some Republicans are opposed to supplementing funding, and on the other hand, there’s pressure from the Biden administration to seek supplemental funding.
There has recently been a visit to Washington by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to obtain necessary military and economic aid which is required in preventing the Russians from invading Ukraine.
The war has seen brutal and grinding combat, and modern defense means have proven effective against older tanks, such as the T-80. Heavy losses of men and equipment speak to the monumental challenges Russia faces in pursuing territorial gains in Ukraine.