For a British reader, the relatively recent range accident in which four charge bags were taken out of the bins and placed on the floor by the loader’s feet is an illustration of what happens if a charge bag is accidentally set alight. A tank like Challenger 2 has compartmentalised ammunition (stowage bins). The combustible charge bags were necessarily non-compartmentalised (or a conveyor carousel would not function). The more important consequence, however, was that the crew were now sitting on a bomb- an unaddressed design flaw which, several decades later, has proven devastating for Russian tank survivability in Ukraine. It constrained the size of the breech assembly and therefore the length of shot rounds (kinetic rounds, long rod penetrators, or technically ‘high velocity armour piercing fin discarding sabot’). The autoloader had important consequences. The carousel was a rotary device loaded with propellant charges, placed under the floor of the fighting compartment. The first tank to use a carousel autoloader was the T-64. Thousands of these tanks could be produced and indeed more than 20,000 deployed on the Central Front at the height of the Cold War. In effect, Russian design went down the route of medium tanks (a ‘clean’ T-72 is almost 20 tons lighter than a Challenger 2) with a powerful gun (uprating to 125mm calibre) and with basic stadiametric day sights and cheap infrared night sights (Western technology was migrating to the more expensive but qualitatively superior thermal imaging). At a stroke, Russian tanks could be lower, lighter and faster than Western counterparts. This was made possible by the incorporation of a conveyor carousel autoloader. In addition, the USSR spearheaded research into Explosive Reactive Armour (ERA) and gun launched missiles.īut the key change was the transition to three-man tanks.

Post-war Russian tank design was innovative.The Soviet Union produced the first tank with a rounded turret (the T-54/55) and the first with a 115mm calibre gun (the T-62). This article seeks to offer perspective on Soviet-Russian tanks and it examines possible factors accounting for the high losses. Some opinion views the losses as further evidence tanks have become obsolete on modern battlefields, a view challenged by counter-arguments. High Russian tank losses in the war in Ukraine have attracted debate.

T62M battle tank youtube