Does anyone have updated infos of T-94 or 95? The extracts below
if true could provide us wif viable options in the near
future.
Russia develops new main battle tank
Tuesday, April 11, 2000
USDEFENSE.COM | Russia has a new low profile main battle tank,
according to published reports, but officials in Moscow say the
tank, designated T-95, may not have enough funding budgeted in 2000
to make the transition from development to production.
The tank's design, developed at the Uralvagonzavod plant in the
Urals, was called "radical" by Russian Defense Minister Marshal
Igor Sergeyev, who saw a prototype of the T-95 on a recent visit to
the plant.
One of newly elected president Vladimir Putin's goals is to
strengthen the Russian military, perhaps by boosting
professionalism and cutting forces while modernizing primary combat
systems and phasing out older ones.
While all of the design information on the T-95 remains shrouded in
secrecy, one plant official told Jane's Defense Weekly that the
tank has been created from whole cloth, not simply based on an
upgraded version of an existing main battle tank design.
The T-95, if produced en masse, would succeed Russia's T-90, the
most modern of Moscow's main battle tanks and reportedly plagued by
performance and maintenance problems, though Russian military
officials have dismissed those reports as rumors.
Nevertheless, Jane's said, the length and width of the new 50-ton
behemoth is "believed to be similar to the existing T-72, T-80 and
T-90 MBTs (main battle tanks)."
The defense magazine said "the main feature of the T-95 is its
radical configuration with the main armament in a small unmanned
turret fed from a newly-designed automatic loader located below the
turret." The tank sports a 135 mm cannon, which is presumably
smooth-bored, and "is fitted with a new fire control system."
according to my sources the new revolutionary-designed T-95 MBT
will mount a 152mm cannon. This tank reportedly boasts armor which
is so strong that it cannot be penetrated from the frontal arc by
our Rheinmetal 120mm cannon (which I have personally fired on many
an occaision). This is made possible by the placing of all of the 3
crew members in a heavily armored pod in the hull, rather than the
turret as is the case on conventional tanks. The prototypes of this
tank were first sighted in 1994, but it has been in the planning
stages for much longer. Actually, all Russian MBTs now in service
boast ERA armor packs which they claim are proof against 120mm
cannon fire in the frontal arc.
The big difference with the T-95 is that has thick top-attack armor
to enable it to defeat top-attack missiles like the Javelin, which
with the abolition of our tank forces will be our most powerful
anti-tank weapon in service after 2012. Of course, the tank can be
expected to mount a follow on of the excellent ARENA top-attack
missile defense systems as all modern Russian tanks use today. The
US was rumored to be attempting to purchase this defense system
from the Russians for its Abrams tanks, but with Shinseki's foolish
plan to abolish the US tank fleet, this will probably not
happen.
We can all thank General Shinseki and his boss Bill Clinton for
implementing their radical and insane plan to abolish all of our
excellent M-1 Abrams tanks and all other tracked vehicles from the
Army by 2012 and replace them with armored cars, which are lightly
armed and armored. If this plan is implemented by a President
Bush-Gore as I suspect then the Russian tanks will essentially and
most ominously be impervious to US anti-tank fire.
Personally, I think the Russkies are going to kick our buttes in
the first post 2012 US-Russia war. I can see it now--our brave LAV
troopers with their 25mm peashooters staring down the barrel of the
T-95's 152mm gun/missile launcher only to be unexpectedly
dispatched by the Russian tanks HMG AP rounds as the Russians
refuse to waste a 152 round on so puny and non-existent a
threat.
1 Posted on 04/21/2000 06:02:30 PDT by rightwing2
