T-80: The Newest IT Variant Fires a Laser-Guided Missile

The T-80, newest tank in the Soviet inventory, is also the latest addition to the Soviet Istrebitel’niy Tank (Destroyer Tank, Fighter Tank) series, with the capability of launching antitank guided missiles as well as firing conventional main gun rounds. First fielded in 1968, the IT series has made use of every Soviet medium tank since the T-55, firing wire-guided (for earlier models), infrared, and laser-guided missiles (for new model tanks). While every IT is thus a tank, every tank is not an IT. In fact, the overall number of ITS fielded in the Soviet tank fleet is relatively small - only one battalion per tank division. Tanks not configured as ITS can be modified to carry missiles in a short period of time. For the newer series of tanks (T-64, T-72, T-80) this modification centers around the installment of an optical tracking/designation system on the turret roof of the tank. The T-80 tank (as well as the T-64 and the T-72) can be modified to fire the KOBRA Tank-Launched Guided Missile (Tankoviy Upravlyaemiy Reaktivniy Snaryad - TURS). TLGMs are intended for the destruction of armored targets at extended ranges (3,000 meters and greater), when Soviet tanks are at a disadvantage against their western counterparts. TLGMs supplement - not replace - the tank’s main gun, which has greater effectiveness at near and medium ranges. This is because of the inherent disadvantages of TLGMs as they currently exist, disadvantages which have been discussed in Marshal of Soviet Tank Forces Babadzhanyan’s book Tanki i Tankovye Voiska (Tanks and Tank Troops) (Voennizdat, Moscow: 1980). This is the first 38

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Armor author Steven Zaloga’s provisional drawing of the Soviet T-80. Gun tube would appear longer if the tank was an IT variant and KOBRA missile was mounted for firing. Soviet military work to discuss TLGMs extensively. These disadvantages are: their slow speed in comparison to main gun rounds; their larger size, resulting in a reduced basic load of ammunition; the necessity of exposing the firing platform for long periods while the gunner tracks the missile onto the target; the requirement for a well-trained gunner who will not lose the missile during flight; the fact that missiles can only be used against targets vulnerable to shaped charges; and their great expense in comparison to main gun rounds. It is interesting to note that the increased sophistication and complexity of main gun rounds - all aimed at better penetration in the face of improved types of armor - has resulted in a significant increase in their cost, while the revolution in microcircuitry has reduced the cost of antitank guided missiles. It is small wonder that the Soviets believe that the future will see wide deployment, throughout every army, of TLGMs, due to their increased usability. Fieldedin 1978, theKOBRATLGM borrowed extensively from the technology used in the development of the French ACRA (Anti-Char Rapide Autopropulse), developed by GIATin the 1970s. (It is interesting to note that Soviet missile development draws heavily on French technology, with the Soviets seeing French antitank guided missiles as the best in the world.) The KOBRA is an externally loaded missile, being manually loaded into the gun tube from the muzzle end. Once loaded, a canvas muzzle cover, reaching to the bore evacuator, is put on to protect the missile from damage prior to use. As the missile protrudes from the end of the gun tube, this gives the appearance that the main gun is longer than the standard 2A46 main gun found on the T-80 tank. This protective cover “... One can well imagine the impact a well-placed TLGM can have on an armor formation. firing from 4.000 meters... # 8 are intended for the disruption and demoralization of enemy armor formations. The ITS are to stall enemy is removed when action is anticipated. The missile is activated by a blank round which boosts it out of the tube and ignites the rocket motor. This requires that a blank round either be manually loaded or in a specific location in the automatic loading system prior to launching a missile. The missile is laser-guided, riding a modulated beam. The laser designator is located in a n optical tracking/designation system located in an armored box on the right front side of the turret roof. The tank in the accompanying photograph has the optical tracking/designation system removed, but the mount is clearly visible. The KOBRA has a maximum range of 4,000 meters which it can cover in under 8 seconds, traveling in excess of 500 meters a second. Weighing approximately 25 kgs and approximately 1,200 mm in length, its armor penetration is between 600/650 mm of conventional armor. While there exists a number of shortcomings to the TLGMs presently fielded by the Soviet tank forces (to include external loading and storage of the missile prior to its use), the KOBRA minimizes these. Yet the Soviets themselves seem to feel that much remains to be done in TLGM development. We will soon see, no doubt, the fielding of a Soviet TLGM small enough to be internally loaded, with a corresponding reduction in weight. It, too, will be laser-guided, with a speed and maximum range similar to that of the KOBRA. Soviet ITS carry only a few TLGMs (probably 2 to 4 each). They movement long enough for conventional tank formations to close with and destroy the enemy, making use of the tank’s main gun at ranges where Soviet tanks are “unstoppable.” One can well imagine the impact a well-placed TLGM can have on an armor formation, firing from 4,000 meters, especially if the existence of ITS were not previously known by those under fire. Older model ITS - firing wire-guided missiles from the rear of the turret - are believed to be in service with the armies of East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Romania. Smoke-launching derivatives are in service with the Egyptian Army.

LAHERMOSA is assigned to the 73dArmor Regiment (Airborne), 82d Airborne Division as the battalion motor officer. He is an armor officer with a foreign area officer secondary, fluent in both Spanish and Russian, and has published numerous articles on the Soviet Armed Forces in ARMOR, MILITARY REVIEW, and JANE‘S DEFENCE WEEKLY. Captain Villahermosa’s articles are based on Soviet primary sources. He iscurrentlywork-ing on Istrebitel’niy Tank: The History of Soviet Missile-Firing Tanks, for submission to ARMOR. ARMOR: The Magazine of Mobile Warfare 39