RussiaSoviet UnionCold WarMain battle tank
T-80U
T-80U
Soviet counterpart to the turbine Abrams — with a three-man crew.
Specifications
- Crew
- 3
- Combat weight
- 46 t
- Engine
- 1250 hp
- hp / tonne
- 27.2
- Road speed
- 70 km/h
- Range
- 335 km
- Main gun
- 125 mm 2A46M-1
- In service
- 1985–present
GTD-1250 gas turbine, 1,250 hp
Armor: Composite + Kontakt-5; later Relikt on some rebuilds
Secondary: PKT, NSVT
Briefing scores
Relative 1–10 for teaching, not a wargame rating.
- Firepower
- 8/10
- Protection
- 8/10
- Mobility
- 8/10
- Awareness
- 7/10
- Logistics
- 4/10
Ammunition natures
APFSDSHEATHE-FragRefleks ATGM
History
Turbine T-80 from Leningrad, in rivalry with Kharkiv’s T-64 and Nizhny Tagil’s T-72. Grozny in 1995 was a massacre of poorly used T-80s in cities. Remaining U and BVM hulls are now among Russia’s better tanks.
Doctrine
The sprint tank of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany: turbine power to exploit a nuclear or conventional breach and reach the Rhine. Fuel use was accepted. T-80U added a proper fire-control suite the early T-80 lacked.
Strengths
- Turbine acceleration
- Kontakt-5 vs early APFSDS
- Gun-launched ATGM
Limits
- Fuel
- Carousel
- Urban vulnerability without infantry
Related hulls
23 of 25 in the atlas