Actually, they knew it since the invention of the Tank. They don’t care about the crew, just the outcome and as we can see to some degree, the outcome is not so good when your tank army is being decimated by ATGM/ATMs. You see, the west care enough about the crews (because they are actually the weapon, the tank is just the tool) to make them safer and well enough armored not just at the glacis and turret front, but pretty much everywhere. Our tanks have long had blast compartments and access doors that expose the crew to ammunition risks only when opened and then only for a brief moment.
Funny how the M1 Abrams doesn’t have that problm.
Amen. The T-72 had a porcelain liner in the tank somewhere. Autoloader too, so if it jammed, there was no one there to unjam it.
“You see, the west care enough about the crews”
Hah. I think you’re the first guy I ever heard who said that about the army. Not what my buddy said when they sent him into the Parrot’s Beak in ‘71 with only 30 rounds because “we don’t want you to get into it with the NVA”!
It’s clearly a design trade, but one made without considering the weapons they face now - these are 80’s or even ‘70’s designs. And in Russia, the attitude is “what, you aren’t man enough to take the risk?”.
It’s all quantity with them, not quality. They just think they can swarm the enemy with a bunch of mass produced “good enough, Ivan” machinery.