Posted on 04/28/2022 8:48:08 AM PDT by SpeedyInTexas
The most famous American tanker...
I was a project manager (among other things) with General Dynamics.
I think I remember this right the T34 suspension which gave it its superb maneuverability was designed by an American named Christie. Prior to his selling it to the Soviets the US Army rejected it as impractical.
I was just thinking of the book Red Storm Rising that i read back in the late 80’s.
One thing that book taught me was the fact that i would NEVER intentionally find myself in a tank during battle..
Outrageous comments by you!
You know that logic, reason, and civility are NOT allowed on threads related, in any way, to the Ukraine-Russo war...
Shame...
Shame...
Shame...
đ
During the development and design of the T-72, the chief of the Soviet Defense Ministry in 1976, Dmitriy Ustinov said that the T-72 represented a “step backward in Soviet tank development” and put a cap on production and development of the T-72 in favor of deploying the more modern T-64 and T-80 tanks with improved fire control and protective measures for units facing NATO in Germany. The T-72 would be envisioned for utilization by second line units and for export sales.
The soviets were well aware of the problems with the T-72 after the 1982 Lebanon War. The Syrians provided the Soviets with captured Israeli tanks and M111 APFSDS ammo fired from M48A5 tanks. The shocking test results led them to initiate a crash program to refit the T-72 with applique armor and other defensive innovations as a stop gap measure.
These “improvements,” their success with export sales, along with the cheaper cost of the T-72 caused the Soviets and later the Russian Federation to keep in in place and to elevate it to the status of a main line battle tank, having lulled themselves into a complacent sense of security by dint of these “modernizations.”
The Russkis have never considered ergonomic comfort, nor the survivability of their AFV crews as a prime consideration in their designs until the T-14. They have always seemed to rely on mass and brute force steam roller tactics to overwhelm their enemies.
According to the article they knew about it but the design made the tank lower and more difficult to hit. I guess they figured the trade off was worth it.
Actually, a human loader slamming a one piece fixed cartridge into a semi-auto sliding breech block is noticeably faster then a mechanical autoloader that has to load the warhead and the propellant charge into the breech in two separate actions due to space considerations, as in the T-72. (At least until he gets tired.)
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Iâm willing to bet youâve never served on the Eastern Front in WW2 with either the Soviets or Germans either. Your pointâŚif you have one.
A fun game.
We stuck with the Sherman as it was easy to build and ship across the Atlantic.
Yes sir played it a lot.
Ah, the memories!
Soviet doctrine. Tanks and troops were considered disposable.
Now Russia doesn't have the same kind of numbers as the USSR did so the doctrine erroneous but they haven't changed their ways.
A modern tank like the M1A2 Sep v3 or any other modern MBT vs a T-72, T-80, T-90 is like one of them against a T-34. No contest - the tech has changed so much. T-14s do not exist outside of a few prototypes
CNN shouldnât be putting out how our tanks are designed
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The Russians already know - just you are in the dark. M1A1s were used by various radical muslim groups as well.
How something is designed is not a secret, how to build it, the materials needed, and how to use it are.
For real low profile the Swedish S tank wins.Although aiming can be tricky.
Nope. Not old enough - but I spent some time inside a couple of T-34s (and T54/55s and one T-62) to know their engineering and their characteristics.
One of the fun parts of this forum is seeing all these âexpertsâ spout off about things they know very little about.
Thank you. Didn’t Ustinov get over-ruled on the T-64/T-72 decision? Nearly 40 year old memories of GSFG order of battle are of a decision to split the T-64s and T-72s assigned to the Soviet forces, with the 64s going to Soviet units in Czechoslovakia, while the 72s went to 3 of the 4 armies in GSFG. The 4th had 64s. My memory may be a bit off on that though. Except I’m positive that the 8th Guards Tank Army had T-72s as it sat across the IZB from V Corps. And the East German MRD we expected to do the initial attack had a mix of T-55s & T-62s. Prost!
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