The T-64BV is perfectly capable of beating even the newest Russian tanks. The new T-64BV variant boasts modern optics, including a passive infrared sight-no spotlight-plus tightly-fitting reactive armor blocks. The Russian invasion of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 motivated the Ukrainian defense ministry to revamp the T-64 fleet. Their guns, engines and autoloaders still worked just fine, but their optics-including a passive infrared sight that required a matching infrared spotlight-were outdated and their armor was lacking. The Ukrainian army for its part stuck with the T-64 and, to a lesser extent, a turbine-powered version of the T-80.Īfter five decades, the T-64s were on the verge of obsolescence. While the T-80 factory was in Russia, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Russian army gradually standardized on the simpler, cheaper T-72 and T-90. But the T-64 had Ukrainian DNA and, of course, was manufactured in Ukraine by some of the Soviet Union’s best engineers and skilled laborers. The T-72 meanwhile evolved into the T-90. As a bonus, the T-72 is made in Russia at the Uralvagonzavod factory in Nizhny Tagil.įrom the T-64’s introduction in 1963, the Soviet Union had two parallel tank lines. The resulting T-72 had a simpler but slower autoloader and a less complex transmission. So while some of the best Soviet formations re-equipped with the Ukrainian-made T-64, the Soviet army launched development of a cheaper alternative. The result was a fast, heavily-armed and thickly-armored tank that, on paper, at least matched contemporary Western tanks.īut the T-64 was complex, hard to build and expensive.
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