Chapter 234 T-80 Tank

What is this? From a distance, Andre seemed to hear the roar of a jet engine.

After coordinating the cultural knowledge learning activities at the 4th Tank Division's headquarters, Andrei and Marshal Ogarkov went to the training range to observe the training of the 4th Tank Division on site.

As soon as he got off the car, Andre heard the familiar sound. However, this was a tank training ground, not an airport! How could there be the roar of a jet engine?

Through the telescope, a tank was moving at high speed on the shooting range. It had six pairs of road wheels and a low turret. From the outside, it looked almost the same as the T-64. However, this sound...

Andrei suddenly remembered that this thing was just a T-80 tank equipped with a gas turbine. It seemed that this tank was finalized in 1976. Although it was first equipped to the East German troops, the Moscow Military District, as the Imperial Guard, also had the right to obtain the best tanks.

"Marshal, General, the tanks conducting the shooting exercise now are the T-80 tanks equipped to our Fourth Tank Division last year. This type of tank, like the American M1 tank, uses a gas turbine as its power and has excellent mobility," Colonel Mironov introduced.

At this time, the T-80 tank was flying high from a small slope, the entire body of the vehicle was in the air, and then it fell to the ground again. A puff of black smoke came out of the engine at the rear, and the tank continued to accelerate.

Gas turbine! Until later times, there were only two types of tanks in the world that used gas turbines as power, one was the American M1, and the other was the Soviet T-80. The engine started quickly, had high torque, and was not easy to stall under high load. Unlike diesel engines, which needed to be preheated at low temperatures, it could almost start and go.

These are all advantages, but another thing about gas turbines is that they have a considerable drawback.

Fuel consumption! Under high operating conditions, the fuel consumption of gas turbines is similar to that of diesel engines, and their advantages are very obvious. However, under low operating conditions, diesel engines consume very little fuel, while gas turbines consume almost the same amount of fuel! Compared with diesel engines, this thing is a fuel-guzzling tiger!

This T-80 tank, with an external fuel tank, can only travel about 400 kilometers! The American M1 tank, with two tons of fuel, can only travel about the same distance as the Leopard 2.

Later, when the Russians attacked Chechnya, the tank troops had not yet attacked, but were just on standby. As a result, all the precious fuel was used up.

There is also the high price. The T-64 is already expensive enough, only 140,000 rubles, while the T-80 is as high as 480,000 rubles! In addition, the American tanks are equipped with automatic transmissions, which allows high mobility to be brought into play, while the Soviet T-80 is still a manual transmission. The operator's level of operation is not as fast as an automatic transmission, so the mobility performance is not very ideal.

In later generations, the Chechen War verified the poor performance of this tank, and the T-80 became unpopular with the Russian army and was discontinued.

This is not the tank the Soviets need! However, Andrei could only put this idea in his mind for the time being. The gas turbine tank had been studied since the 1950s, but the then Defense Minister Grechko was not satisfied. As a result, when Ustinov came to power, he put it into production directly!

This is the tank that Ustinov likes. Now, Andrei is embarrassed to point out the defects of this tank. After all, he still belongs to the Air Defense Force system. Now he comes to the Army to serve as a staff officer, which is already a bystander.

"Boom!" At this moment, the moving tank suddenly fired, deafeningly.

Along with the sound of artillery fire, a ball of fire came out from the barrel of the tank. In the distance, a small earthen slope a few kilometers away suddenly flew apart.

Even without a telescope, you can see it clearly with your naked eyes. It's spectacular!

"Well, our tank crew are good and well-trained!" Marshal Ogarkov nodded repeatedly. Being able to accurately shoot targets while moving requires strict training for tank crews and close cooperation from the crew. Even if the T-80 has a new fire control system, it still requires high-quality tank soldiers.

"This crew is our training model this year." Hearing Marshal Ogarkov's praise, Colonel Mironov was also very proud. Just when he was about to be modest, General Andrei next to him spoke: "Comrade Division Commander, what kind of armor-piercing shells are our T-80 tanks equipped with? Have the latest armor-piercing shells been distributed?"

Andrei was still concerned about the construction of the tank forces. He remembered that when he was in Hokkaido, Kartsev had visited the front line for inspection. After that, Andrei proposed to improve the existing armor-piercing shells and increase the aspect ratio.

Later, with the help of new types of ammunition, Andre successfully intimidated the Americans so that they did not dare to take the initiative to provoke a war.

Andrei was also aware of the competition between the two design bureaus. However, competition was competition. This new type of ammunition should be universal, right? They were all 125mm tank guns. Nizhny Tagil should not have kept them privately.

Hearing Andrei's question, the smile on Colonel Mironov's face froze instantly, and then in an instant he returned to his previous expression: "Yes, the new tungsten alloy armor-piercing projectile has been equipped to our tank troops, but..."

"Since we are equipped, give us an armor-piercing shot." Ogarkov interrupted Mironov: "Hit a steel target."

Hitting steel targets? And tungsten alloy armor-piercing bullets? Colonel Mironov's heart sank, and he immediately remembered something: "Report, our shooting range is short of steel targets, so let's forget about shooting armor-piercing bullets."

"Colonel Mironov, use your brain!" Andrei said, "These T-80s are new equipment, so there must be obsolete tanks, right? We can just use our obsolete tanks as targets and see if our new armor-piercing shells can penetrate our obsolete tanks."

Since the T-80 is equipped with it, the new armor-piercing projectiles must have been mass-produced. Andre can't wait to test the performance of his own armor-piercing projectiles.

But, this commander seems to have some difficulties? Look at this guy, the smile on his face is uglier than crying?

"Yes, drag out the obsolete T-62 in the warehouse and fire it!" Ogarkov was also itching to do so at Andrei's suggestion.

The breeze blew across the training range, and the entire range was silent at this moment.

"Boom, boom, boom." After waiting for a full hour, just as the sun was about to set, the roar of an engine was finally heard in the distance, and an obsolete T-62 in the warehouse started to move over.