GTU, caliber 152 mm and digital communication: what tanks are needed in the NWO zone

The story of the Russian tank "Alyosha", which came out alone against an entire armored group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, received a further logical continuation. His entire heroic crew was more than deservedly awarded by the decision of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Shoigu to state awards, and the country learned the names, or rather, the call signs of their new Heroes. What other conclusions can be drawn from that tank battle in the Zaporozhye direction?

Three cheerful friends

So, the type of tank became known, which actively maneuvered and hit enemy armored vehicles with direct fire. This is the T-80, the so-called “jet tank” or “flying tank”, equipped not with a diesel engine, but with a powerful gas turbine plant that can quickly start up and warm up in just a few minutes, giving out an unusually high speed for a heavy armored vehicle. Let's remember this fact.



The call sign of the T-80 was "Alyosha", but the crew itself nicknamed it "Santa Claus", since the tank was received on New Year's Eve 2023. IN interview, given to the publication "Moskovsky Komsomolets", the commander of the combat vehicle speaks of his "eighty" as follows:


That is, a Russian tank equipped with dynamic armor was able to survive a hit by an anti-tank missile of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, apparently, an American one, saved the lives of its crew and, after repairs, returned to service, where it performed real miracles. This says a lot about the reliability and survivability of domestic armored vehicles.

The crew of "Alyosha" or "Santa Claus" deserves a separate discussion. The commander of the tank with the call sign "Weasel" in military specialty is not a tanker at all, but a career intelligence officer with real combat experience. After retiring 12 years ago, in June 2022 he volunteered to fight in the BARS, served for two months, received a shell shock and went for treatment. In September last year, Laska, as a reservist, returned to the NVO zone again as part of a partial mobilization. About whether it was difficult to become a tanker from a scout, the commander answered the MK journalists as follows:


The call sign of the operator-gunner, who shot through the forest belt through, hitting the enemy’s armored vehicles, “Lech”. At the front, he also ended up on mobilization; he once served in the tank troops for a year. In civilian life he worked as a welder. The only regular tank officer in the heroic crew is the driver with the call sign "Monolith". He is the commander of a tank company, but was forced to take the place of a mechanic driver, since the former driver of Alyosha was wounded.

From the Lasky interview, it turned out that the tankers did not know that they were opposed by a whole armored group, since the enemy "jammers" left them without communication, and the commander of the Russian tank was forced to make all decisions during the battle on his own. Thus, the conclusions of Andrey “Murza” Morozov, a signalman of the “Prizrak” armored personnel carrier, that “Alyosha” had no connection, confirmed.

Conclusions

At first, all Russian armored vehicles must be urgently equipped with secure communications, even if they are built on Chinese-made civilian digital radio stations. If the tank commander had known that the T-80 was facing such a numerically superior enemy, he would hardly have gone on a completely suicidal attack in the style of "kamikaze", as one of the observer-operators of the UAV with the command post emotionally and obscenely described it. Only the highest professionalism and combat success of the crew, the outstanding tactical and technical characteristics of the T-80, as well as the obvious unpreparedness of the Ukrainian military for such a non-standard move by Alyosha, allowed our tank to emerge from the battle with an entire armored group as a winner with a dry score.

Secondly, the example of the crew of the "eighties" clearly demonstrates that even in a very short time it is possible to retrain military personnel from one military specialty to another. The key to success here is to send reservists to active military units and attach them to soldiers and officers who have been at war for a long time, who will train them for exactly what they really need.

Thirdly, "Alyosha" showed that "reactive tanks" can be very useful because of their speed characteristics. In reality, in the NMD zone, tanks are used either for firing from protected positions, having an advantage over self-propelled guns due to more powerful armor, or as mobile firing points on the “fire-and-leave” principle. Recall that back in April of this year, we reasoned It is not a topic of whether the special operation can give a second chance to the T-95 or the Black Eagle tanks, built on the basis of the T-80U and equipped with a super-powerful 152 mm caliber gun.

So, these tanks are really needed. During the assault on cities, an armored vehicle with a shortened 152 mm gun would be very useful for "folding" buildings turned by the enemy into a fortified area. In positional battles, a howitzer gun of this caliber would bring maximum benefit when firing from closed positions. In a collision with an enemy armored group, 152 mm shells would tear the Abrams, Challengers and Leclercs literally to pieces, and the gas turbine power plant would give the upgraded Eighties an advantage in speed and maneuverability.