Upgraded T-80BV tanks supplied to Russian Far Eastern brigade.

Upgraded T-80 main battle tanks were for the first time supplied to the 38th brigade in the Far East. They are fit for operation in the region. The tanks were previously deployed only in the European part of Russia, the Izvestia daily writes.

T-80BV main battle tank (Picture source: Army Recognition)

The Defense Ministry said a full battalion set of 40 T-80s was supplied to the brigade deployed in Yekaterinoslavka in the Amur region, 100 km from Blagoveshchensk. "T-80s are fit for the Far Eastern theater of warfare," expert Alexey Khlopotov said. "The gas turbine engine is very sensitive to dust and loses power in highlands. There are no such problems in the region. There are pure air and no mountains. The gas turbine engine properly starts up at low temperatures which are typical of the region in winter," he said.

The upgraded tanks were previously supplied to the 200th motorized infantry brigade deployed in Pechenga, in the Murmansk region. Before modernization, the T-80s were kept in warehouses as a strategic reserve. They were to become operational in case of a large-scale threat of war. Three years ago, the Defense Ministry decided to upgrade the tanks at Omsktransmash enterprise of Uralvagonzavod. The contract was signed at Army-2017 forum.

The T-80BV variant was created in the mid-1980s to fight armor, artillery, infantry, fire points and protected targets in a conventional or nuclear war. The upgraded T-80BV weighs 46 tons and is operated by a crew of three men. The 1,250 hp (very noisy) gas turbine engine makes it fast, with a maximum speed of 80 km/h. In contrast to the internal combustion engine, the gas turbine easily starts up at temperatures below minus 50 degrees, as the U.S. armed forces already experienced with their Abrams MBTs.

The tank is armed with a 125mm smoothbore gun, an NSVT antiaircraft 12.7mm machinegun and a coaxial 7.62mm PKT. Reactive armor and anti-cumulative bars protect it from adversary shells.

The tank carries modern fire controls Sosna-U with a thermal imager, laser range finder and target tracking unit. The tank can fire missiles due to its mounted Reflex system to fight not too distant helicopters or warships. The weapon uses a laser beam to guide the missiles launched from the gun. The range is close to 5 km, which is 2 km above the range of classic tank guns firing ordinary shells.

Soviet enterprises produced over 10,000 T-80s of various modifications. The first ones were made by the Kirov plant in Leningrad. At present, 3,000 T-80BVs are stored and 200 T-80Us operate in Kantemirovskaya division near Moscow, the Izvestia said.