As one grows older and learns more and more about how things work, one eventually realizes that much of what happens in terms of military hardware procurement is really more political than it is based on the capabilities of the item being procured. Nowhere is this more prominent than in the development of the T-80 main battle tank.

This was the last tank developed under the Soviet system and its development is rife with political in-fighting and posturing. Much of what went into the tank was due to to the desires of those who happened to hold power in regard to tank development. This meant that once that person passed on, things changed. As an example, the T-80 was developed as the Soviet Union's first turbine powered tank. The addition of what is basically a turboshaft engine, provided the T-80 with incredible amounts of excess power. However, it came at a cost. The engine was over ten times more expensive than the usual diesel. It consumed fuel at a prodigious rate, whether driving the tank or at idle. It was difficult to maintain and repair parts were equally expensive. It was also prone to relatively low time between overhauls and its operational life was shortened even more if operated in a dusty environment. While many T-80s were delivered with the turbine, cooler heads prevailed once the driving force for the turbine was gone, and a diesel was installed in many later variants.

Despite all of this the T-80 turned out to be a vehicle that had to be reckoned with. It had an excellent gun, good armor protection, and would have been a very effective adversary had NATO been required to battle it in a European war.

Author Steven J. Zaloga is a master of things armored and does a great job of telling the story of the T-80. It starts with the need for a better medium tank than the T-64, and since Soviet armor tends to be evolutionary, there is quite a bit of T-64 in the early T-80. The book then goes into development of reactive armor for the T-80B and then into post-turbine power with the T-80U. It was at this time than the Soviet Union collapsed and tank production pretty nearly ceased as some factories were now in Ukraine. It was there that the T-84 was developed. Meanwhile, there were upgrades to the tank's protection and this included several active systems. Finally, there is a section on the derivatives of the T-80 that include self propelled guns, recovery vehicles and missile launching systems to name a few. Thanks to the superlative selection of photographs and the excellent art work of Tony Bryan, both enthusiasts and modelers will have a reference book that provides the best material under one covers.

If you are an armor fan, then this book is one that just has to be in your library.

February 2009

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