Well it’s T-64 vs T-72 debate Soviet priority was to achieve numerical superiority and loss of tanks (and crew) was acceptable. We can see that play out in Ukraine as well with Russian combat maneuvers.Pratyush wrote:This was identified during the first Chechen war. So not really surprising. What is surprising is the inability to fix it over the last 27 years.Baikul wrote:Interview on performance of the Russian T-80BVM on combat. Russian source. Translation.
Interestingly the tanker says they were aware of the now famous problem of the tanks blowing up spectacularly when hit by ATGM fire under the cupola.
https://telegra.ph/A-bit-about-the-T-80BVM-06-13
But Russia cannot afford to do that as it’s seeing a decline in population and also throw in $$ electronics on even T-72 you end up with tanks like T-90 while it’s cheaper than tanks like Arjun or M1a2. Buts it’s not 5x price difference you saw in Cold War and you are not going to achieve a large enough numerical superiority to outweighs its drawbacks.