War is hell.
T-80, Second Chechen war.
The T-80BV won a bad reputation during the first Chechen war. It was not a perfect machine and its unarmoured 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 that had been taught on 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 behemoth fuelled was 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.
It is worth noting the Soviet Union had just been dissolved, the Soviet Armed Forces had also just vanished and the newly created Russian Armed Forces were trying to (re)organise 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 could throw at it.
It was too late to save the T-80BV’ reputation, however, and it spent a couple of decade in purgatory. Modernised in the 2010’s, the T-80BV(M) was earmarked for Arctic operations before finally seeing action in Ukraine.
-RBM.