I though the exact same thing. Who is this moron reporter. By the 1980's the T-72 was well established, and the T-62 had replaced all of the T-55s left in service. The T-55 is the Soviet equivalent of the US M48 "Patton" tank. Well, same era, clearly an inferior tank though. :)
I am reminded of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer observing a village of a few Indian dwellings along the Rosebud River on June 25, 1876, along with a nearby group of about forty warriors. Ignoring orders to wait, he decided to divide his forces in thirds and attack before they could alert the main party, not realizing that the number of warriors in the village numbered three times his strength. Custer sent troops under Captain Frederick Benteen to prevent their escape through the upper valley of the Little Bighorn River. Major Marcus Reno was to pursue the group, cross the river, and charge the Indian village in a coordinated effort with the remaining troops under his command.
Custer hoped to strike the Indian encampment at the northern and southern ends simultaneously, but made this decision without knowing what kind of terrain he would have to cross before making his assault. He belatedly discovered that he would have to negotiate a maze of bluffs and ravines to attack. And found to his surprise that the enemy forces totaled 2500 or more warriors against his total 650 men, now spread into three smaller targets more easily dealt with.
Reno and Benteen eventually linked back up, and the Indians broke off the fight against their recombined force, having already bled them and annihilated Custer and the force from C,E,F,I and L companies that had remained under his personal command. Custers force lost 197, all killed; Reno's battalion of 134 lost 36 killed and 26 and Benteen's force of 125 had 11 killed and 29 wounded.
But aside from that one small miscalculation, things went pretty much as Custer had planned. He really shouldn't have disregarded the intelligence reports given to him by his scouts....