The T-80s future in the Russian Army

But that is also what was said against T-80.
It was criticized for the losses during the Chechen wars, when it was used in the wrong way inside an urban environment without other support, apparently without proper armor and with barely trained personnel.

lyle6 wrote:They're not. They are making new powerplants and drivetrains because these are consumables  but hulls and turrets they have more than enough to know what to do with them.

Before the war Russia probably had several thousands (up to 5000) T-80B, T-80BV and T-80U. I do not know if all of them could be modernised to the latest standard.

T-100: Americans learned about the newest Russian tank, which is cooler than the T-14 Armata, by Maxim Stroker for AvtoVzglyad. 05.09.2024.

The birth of a new car may happen after SVO.

Analysts from the overseas publication Military Watch magazine came to the conclusion that Russia is most likely developing a new tank, based on the experience of using its armored vehicles in the Northern Military District zone. The Americans even gave this super-weapon a name - T-100.

The publication in a foreign military publication about the upcoming Russian T-100 tank is based on the assertion that the experience of using the Soviet main tank T-80 during the SVO made a very good impression on the Russian command.

Let us remind you that this is the only combat vehicle in service with our army, where a gas turbine unit is used as an engine - as in the American Abrams M1. In particular, thanks to it, the T-80 has a high reverse speed of 25 km/h, which is comparable to similar indicators of NATO equipment.

For reference: the T-90, considered the best Russian tank in the Northern Military District zone, cannot move backwards faster than 5 km/h. Therefore, when a vehicle needs to quickly leave a position (so as not to receive a “response”, for example), tankers are forced to turn its weakly armored stern towards the enemy. You have to take risks for the sake of speed.

Military Watch magazine believes that the T-80 was by far the most combat-ready class of tank in the Soviet army. For this reason, despite the fact that it was three times more expensive than its contemporary T-72, the USSR Ministry of Defense purchased it in very large quantities in the early 1980s.

In the 1990s, amid the collapse of the Soviet Union and a severe economic crisis, the country's leadership, despite the resistance of the military, completely abandoned the T-80, preferring the T-72, which was cheaper to produce and maintain, with its diesel engine. Production of the T-80 was finally discontinued around 1996. And the most advanced version of the T-72 modernization eventually received the name T-90.

The publication recalls that since the late 1980s, work has been carried out at the Omsktransmash plant, which specialized in the production of the T-80, to transform the T-80 into a next-generation combat vehicle , known as the “Black Eagle”. It was conceptually similar to the T-14 Armata. The latter, according to Military Watch magazine, is produced in small series at Uralvagonzavod.

The successes of the T-80 during the Ukrainian campaign give the publication’s experts reason to believe that the project of deep modernization of this tank will be revived taking into account the conditions of modern combat. Moreover, the difference in capabilities between the existing T-80 and its future successor will most likely be much more significant than between the T-72B and the basic T-90 Proryv.

By analogy with the naming of the latter, the authors of the publication decided to conditionally call the tank of the future based on the T-80 the T-100. They believe that it will implement a number of design solutions of both the Black Eagle and the T-14 Armata, since both Omsktransmash and Uralvagonzavod are now part of a single military-industrial conglomerate.

https://www.avtovzglyad.ru/voennaya-tehnika/61096-2024-03-20-t100-amerikantsyi-uznali-o-noveyshem-rossiyskom-tanke-kotoryiy-kruche-t14-armata-/