The Troubled Legacy of the T-80 in the Second Chechen War
A Bad Reputation Earned
The T-80BV won a bad reputation during the first Chechen war. It was not a perfect machine, and its unarmored ammo carousel could easily be hit by a well-aimed RPG shot between the wheels, which always resulted in a detonation.
What cost the T-80 its reputation, however, was the incompetence of the Russian High Command and Russian officers. Reservist tank crews and militiamen who had been taught how to operate a T-72 (diesel-powered engine) were given T-80 tanks powered by gas turbines without additional training. The logistics to keep those behemoths fueled were also lacking. Many crews let the engine idle (this was winter) and ran out of juice. Isolated and stranded tanks were picked off by Chechen rebels.
Struggles in an Unstable Era
It is worth noting the Soviet Union had just been dissolved, and the Soviet Armed Forces had also just vanished. The newly created Russian Armed Forces were trying to (re)organize themselves when they were thrown into battle in the breakaway region of Chechnya.
When it was operated properly by a semi-competent crew, the T-80 gave a good account of itself and proved to be resilient to enemy fire. Its frontal arc was impervious to anything the Chechen forces could throw at it.
Modernization and Redemption
It was too late to save the T-80BV’s reputation, however, and it spent a couple of decades in purgatory. Modernized in the 2010s, the T-80BV(M) was earmarked for Arctic operations before finally seeing action in Ukraine.
-RBM
