Analyzing Russian Tanks in Ukraine: T-80 “Flying” Tank

this video was made possible by our patreon supporters as a follow-up to our last video mapping a small sample of russia's losses we're going to examine one tank model in particular and what it tells us about russia's invasion force since february 24th we've seen almost every russian tank model committed to the fight in one way or another from the oldest t72 avs of the 90th guards tank division to the t72 b3 and model 2016s of the second guard's motor rifle division the t80 is interesting because it's not nearly as prolific as the t-72 so it's a lot easier to identify units based on equipment alone it's also one of the few tanks both russia and ukraine field that look nearly identical the russians have three variants of the t-80 in service the t-80u and t-80bv are relatively old models from the mid-1980s essentially the spark notes of these variants is the t-80bv was an incremental improvement to the 1978 mark t-80b adding contact 1 explosive reactive armor while the t-80u was more of a comprehensive upgrade making it superior to the bv there were also some additional upgrades during the 2000s like the tadu e1 but the u and bv are the main designations from 2017 the bvs began to be upgraded into the new t80 bvm standard which essentially brought it on par with the more modern t72s this is the least numerous variant but was trickling into the force structure in company-sized batches prior to 2022 as far as distribution like the rest of the russian army the t-80s are clustered in the west and far east all t adus are subordinate to the fourth guard's tank division garrisoned near moscow its 12th and 13th tank regiments have three battalions of 31 t adus and ue1s each for a total of about 188 in the division counting regimental commander tanks as well while the 423rd motor rifle regiment has a 41 tank battalion of its own the 423rd initially had old t80bvs but received some deliveries of the t80bvms in the past couple of years its battalion likely now has two companies of t-80 bvms and two companies of the old bvs up north in murmansk the 200th arctic motor rifle brigade has a battalion of t-80bvms the platform is perceived as being superior in extreme cold climates due to its turbine engine which explains its stationing here out in the far east there are significantly more older bvs as it's a low priority area some of these units were previously equipped with t-72 variants but were sort of recently re-equipped with the bv's taken out of storage the 35th army near china has three battalions of t80bvs one per motor rifle brigade although one brigade the 64th has had most or all of its tank battalion re-equipped with a new bvm the fifth army to itself is in a similar situation with the 57th motor rifle brigade sporting a t-80bv battalion meanwhile the 39th motor rifle brigade stationed across from hokkaido the 155th naval infantry brigade in vladivostok and the 40th naval infantry brigade and petropavlos kamchatsky each have a battalion of t-80bvs as well on the other side of the fence ukraine also fields the t-80bv each of its six air salt brigades have a 10 tank company of bvs well at least one of its marine brigades has a 31 tank battalion these can be very hard to tell apart from the russian bvs so we're going to explain why we think the ones we showed here are russian perhaps the most dramatic equipment losses have come from the fourth guard's tank division operating on the sumi axis the fourth guards is unique in that it's the only division which has all of its maneuver regiments outfitted with a t-80 as of time of recording almost 40 t-80us have been recorded as destroyed or abandoned all from the fourth guard's tank division and they've also lost some t80 bvs from their infantry regiment as well well over battalion worth of tanks there are a few ways we know that these are from the fourth guards first the area between sumi and harkev is the first guard's tank army's area of operations which the fourth guards is a part of second the fourth guards is the only unit fielding the t-adu on mass and third the tactical markings unlike units near kiev harkev and crimea units near sumi don't appear to be painting big white v's or z's on their tanks however they do have other markings the common tactical marking for the fourth guards is two oak leaves which harkens back to the insignia of the world war ii era 4th guard's tank core this has been seen on several vehicles in the area however it appears that they've also applied a second marking a white hexagon with a red border and a black four in the middle most t-80s we've seen are using this hexagonal tack marker but some use both like this example abandoned on day two this connects the two markings to further prove that these are indeed the fourth guards look at this t-adu from around 2019 on the divisional training ground focus on this number two on the rear-most paneling and then look at this abandoned t-80u in ukraine same camel pattern and that distinct numbering on the paneling has obviously been covered up by the new attack marker so from this we can pretty well infer that the t-80s we see lying around this area with this tack marker are russian in the comments of the last video there was some questioning over this pair of t-80bvs in particular they could be ukrainian some might say because they don't have the z painted on them or whatever well first these things were found right behind a russian t-80u and they have the fourth guard's tack marker and their infrared searchlights but if that wasn't enough the insignia is also on their underwater snorkel storage as well relatively close by the ukrainians later took pictures of a destroyed t-80 bvm as well which probably belonged to the 423rd motor rifle regiment but moving on from the fourth guards other t80 units have been deployed as well for example near harkeev the 200th arctic motor rifle brigade is in action with their t80 bvms the 200th is basically an mtlb mounted infantry brigade with the t-80bvm battalion as support it's normally under the northern military district a navy dominant command but it's likely been placed under the operational control or opcond to the western military district for this operation this unit is notable for its use of yellow paint for tactical numbering and the common tack marker appears to be a yellow star with either a bullet or a letter in the center note the z in the box marking this unit as operating on the harkeev axis t-80 bvms have also been spotted north of kiev pictured here captured by ukrainian special forces this example is likely from the 64th motor rifle brigade normally stationed on the border with china the area north of kiev is partially under the operational control of the 64th parent 35th combined arms army which is by and large t-80bv equipped however the 64th in particular has at least two companies of the new bvms and possibly a full battalion set as of mid-2021 which would explain why it's been found north of kiev if we do end up seeing older t80 t-80bvs in this region they're likely from the 64th sister brigades in the 35th army if you enjoyed this video check out this dive into russian tank unit organization and equipment we'll see you over there

Channel: Battle Order

Views: 793,671

Keywords: TO&E, structure, organization, military

Id: 8VJNcE6hQu4

Length: 8min 10sec (490 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 13 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/etpof]

Why this USSR flag , at the beginning of the video ???