Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Even with its innovative technology and better armer protection

Even with its innovative technology and better armer protection, the T-44A still used an 85 mm ZiS-S-53 tank gun, Sony VGP-BPL15/S Battery
the same as the one fitted on the T-34-85 medium tank. The army needed a new tank armed with a more powerful 100 mm gun.[25] Two projects were started, both based on the T-44A and the development of the first one started in October 1944, and the designing stage was completed in December. Sony VGP-BPS15/S Battery
The prototype was ready in February 1945 and the trials conducted between March and April gave positive results and the vehicle entered service with the Red Army as the T-54.
The tank had almost the same hull and drive train as the T-44A. Sony VGP-BPS15 Battery
Differences included thickened front armour (120 mm on the upper section and 90 mm on the lower section) and a different hatch and vision slot for the driver. The turret had increased diameter to 1800 mm. The armament included the 100 mm D-10TK tank gun as well as two 7.62 mm GWT machine guns. Sony VGP-BPL15 Battery
The tank was powered by a new V-54 12-cylinder 38.88-litre water-cooled diesel engine developing 520 hp (388 kW) at 2,000 rpm. The fuel capacity was increased (530 litres in the internal fuel tank and 165 litres in the external fuel tank). Sony VGN-P series Battery
The weight was increased to 35.5 tonnes, which reduced the maximal road speed to 43.5 km/h. Further development of the T-44 was cancelled and all the attention was directed towards the development of the new T-54 main battle tank. Sony VGN-P11Z/Q Battery
With massive quantities of weapons and tanks from War World II, and the factories to produce them, the Russians exported them and built up client states which spread their influence and became involved in the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, Sony VGN-P11Z/R Battery
and economic competition existing afterwards known as the Cold War. The Cold War featured periods of relative calm and of international high tension – the Berlin Blockade (1948–1949), the Korean War (1950–1953), the Berlin Crisis of 1961, the Vietnam War (1959–1975), Sony VGN-P11Z/W Battery
the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), the Soviet war in Afghanistan(1979–1989), and various smaller conflicts in which Soviet weapons had significant impact, and we will focus on the Russian tanks.
nitially, North Korean armour dominated the battlefield with Soviet T-34-85 medium tanks designed during the Second World War. Sony VGN-P21S/W Battery
The KPA's tanks confronted a tankless ROK Army armed with few modern anti-tank weapons,[28]:39 including World War II–model 2.36-inch (60 mm) M9 bazookas, effective only against the 45 mm side armor of the T-34-85 tank.[29]:25 Sony VGN-P21Z/G Battery
The US forces arriving in Korea were equipped with light M24 Chaffee tanks (on occupation duty in nearby Japan) that also proved ineffective against the heavier KPA T-34 tanks.[29]:18
During the initial hours of warfare, some under-equipped ROK Army border units used 105 mm howitzers Sony VGN-P21Z/R Battery
as anti-tank guns to stop the tanks heading the KPA columns, firing high-explosive anti-tank ammunition (HEAT) over open sights to good effect; at the war's start, the ROK Army had 91 such guns, but lost most to the invaders.[30]
The North Korean invasion of South Korea in June 1950 was spearheaded by a full brigade equipped with about 120 T-34-85s. Sony VGN-P29VN/Q Battery
 Additional T-34 tanks later joined the first assault force after it had penetrated into South Korea.[31] They were pitted against the M24 Chaffee, M4 Sherman and M26 Pershing, but not the Centurion tanks of the UN forces.
Sony VGP-BPS18 Battery
The T-34 tanks of the North Korean army rolled across the border and headed south where they brushed aside opposition with ease, such as when they came into contact with elements of the 24th Infantry Division in the Battle of Osan on July 5, 1950 during the first battle between American and North Korean forces.[32][33] Sony VGP-BPL18 Battery
 The American force, nicknamed Task Force Smith, was unable to repel the North Koreans' T-34 tanks. Ammunition and weapons designed to combat the heavily armoured tanks had not been widely distributed to U.S. Army forces in Korea at the time, and the Task Force only had a few rounds of effectivehowitzer ammunition. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ35B/B Battery
The Task Force's outdated equipment could not penetrate the North Korean T-34 tanks armor, which subsequently passed through their lines. The 24th Infantry Division would continue to fight in delaying actions such as this one for two more weeks until it was overwhelmed at the Battle of Taejon, Sony VAIO VGN-SZ54B/B Battery
where the North Koreans advanced on the town with the 3rd and 4th Divisions supported by over 50 T-34 tanks, and the Allies fell back into the Pusan Perimeter which was defined by the farthest advance of the North Korean troops during the Korean War. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ55B/B Battery
The Allies fought off the attacks in the Pusan Perimeter which served as an airhead for resupply and reinforcement until the Inchon landing, and the ensuing counterattack against the North.
Countering the initial combat imbalance, the UN Command reinforcement materiel included heavier US M4 Sherman, Sony VAIO VGN-SZ55GN/B Battery
 M26 Pershing,M46 Patton, and British Cromwell and Centurion tanks that proved effective against North Korean armour, ending its battlefield dominance. Unlike in the Second World War (1939–45), in which the tank proved a decisive weapon, the Korean War featured few large-scale tank battles. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ56 Battery
The mountainous, heavily forested terrain prevented large masses of tanks from manoeuvring. In Korea, tanks served largely as infantry support.
The Viet Cong, a lightly armed South Vietnamese communist-controlled common front, largely fought a guerilla war against anti-communist forces in the region with light weapons. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ561N Battery
The North Vietnamese Army (NVA), however, engaged in a more conventional war, at times committing large units and armour into battle. North Vietnamese tanks such as the PT-76 tanks and the T-54/T-55 tanks series which had become the main tank for armoured units of the Soviet Army, Sony VAIO VGN-SZ562N Battery
and exported to many other armies including the Vietnamese, along with the Type 59s and Type 63s, formed the bulk of the NVA armoured forces.
The first successful action of NVA armour was against the Lang Vei Special Forces camp on 6–7 February 1968.[35] Sony VAIO VGN-SZ57N Battery
 Thirteen PT-76s, of the NVA 202nd Armored Regiment spearheaded an assault against approximately 24 Green Berets and 500 irregulars. The defenders fought back with M72 LAWs (Light Anti-Tank weapons/66 mm), and requested support from nearby Khe Sanh, who were unable to help, as they too, were under siege.[35] Sony VAIO VGN-SZ58GN Battery
 The few survivors broke out, and were airlifted to safety.
The first tank-to-tank engagement occurred in mid-1968 when a US reconnaissance airplane observed a PT-76 being washed by its crew in the Ben Hai River in the DMZ (17th Parallel). Sony VAIO VGN-SZ58GN/C Battery
The Forward Air Control pilot radioed the tank's position to a nearbyM48 Patton tank unit of the US 3rd Marine Tank Battalion. With the FAC adjusting fire, the Patton fired three 90 mm rounds;[35] obtaining a hit with the third round. The tank crew abandoned their vehicle. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ58N Battery
Another tank engagement took place on March 3, 1969, again at Ben Het in Kon Tum Province near the Laotian border. In a night assault, the North Vietnamese with PT-76 tanks attacked a US Special Forces camp. The garrison, Sony VAIO VGN-SZ61MN/B Battery
which had been reinforced with a platoon of M48A3 main battle tanks from the 1st Battalion 69th Armored battalion, stood their ground. The North Vietnamese fired 639 artillery and mortar rounds into the camp, before a battalion from the 66th NVA Regiment supported by ten PT-76s and a few APCsSony VAIO VGN-SZ61VN/X Battery
attacked the west hill held by a CIDG company supported by the platoon of M48s. The PT-76s drove into a minefield in which two were destroyed. Two more PT-76s and one APC were destroyed by the M48As. Six PT-76s were destroyed by artillery fire and air strikes. US casualties consisted of one M48 being lightly damaged.[ Sony VAIO VGN-SZ61WN/C Battery

The Easter Offensive, officially, the Nguyễn Huệ Offensive and also (Chiến dịch Xuân hè 1972 in Vietnamese), was a military campaign heavy with armoured forces and tanks conducted by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN, the regular army of North Vietnam) against the Army of the Republic of Vietnam 
Sony VAIO VGN-SZ640N/B Battery
 (ARVN, the regular army of South Vietnam) and the United States military between 30 March and 22 October 1972, during the Vietnam War.[39] This conventional invasion (the largest offensive operation since 300,000 Chinese volunteers had crossed the Yalu River into North Korea during the Korean War) was led by armoured forces. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ645P3 Battery
Two PAVN divisions (the 304th and 308th - approximately 30,000 troops) supported by more than 100 tanks (in two regiments) rolled over the Demilitarized Zone to attack I Corps, the five northernmost provinces of South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese moved out of Laos along Route 9, past Khe Sanh, and east into the Quảng Trị River Valley of South Vietnam. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ650N/C Battery
The PAVN advance was followed by antiaircraft units armed with new ZSU-57-2 tracked weapon platforms and man-portable, shoulder-firedGrail missiles, which made low-level bombing attacks against the columns of tanks hazardous. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ660N/C Battery
On May 9, 1972, the North Vietnamese tanks unwillingly participated in changing the story of armoured warfare.[34] On April 24, 1972, a US special experimental UH-1B helicopter team, consisting of two helicopters mounting the new XM26 TOWanti-tank missile Sony VAIO VGN-SZ670N/C Battery
 (Tube Launched, Optically Tracked, Wire guided), accompanied by technicians from Bell Helicopters and the Hughes Aircraft Corporation, arrived in the country. The team, labelled the 1st Combat Aerial TOW Team, deployed to the Central Highlands in Vietnam and commenced gunnery training. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ680ND Battery
From May 2, the team made daily flights in search of enemy armour. On May 9, NVA armoured units attacked the Ranger camp at Ben Het; the TOW team destroyed three PT-76s and broke up the attack.[34]
On May 26, 1972, the North Vietnamese Army moved with armoured forces on the city of Kon Tum. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ691N/X Battery
TOW aircraft were brought in at first light and found NVA tanks moving almost at will through portions of the city. Conventional air strikes would prove risky to friendly forces, but the TOW proved to be ideal for picking off enemy tanks.[34] At the end of the first day, Sony VAIO VGN-SZ71E/B Battery
the two TOW helicopters had destroyed nine tanks and damaged one more. Five of the destroyed tanks had been T-54/55s and the remaining four destroyed and one damaged were PT-76s. By the end of the month, TOW missiles launched from helicopters had 47 confirmed kills, of which 24 were tanks.[35] Sony VAIO VGN-SZ71VN/X Battery
But in the end, as South Vietnamese forces crumbled, it was a T-54 tank of the North Vietnamese Army that bulldozed through the main gate of the Presidents at 10:45 on 30 April 1975, ending the Vietnam War.
Prior to the Six-Day War, the Arab armies had fought with a mixture of weapons mostly British, Sony VAIO VGN-SZ71WN/C Battery
although Egypt acquired American M4A4 tanks and fitted them with the diesel engine of M4A2 and the FL-10 turret of the French AMX-13 light tank. Syria possessed at least one M4A1 chassis at some time during 1948-1956. But after the Suez Crisis in 1956 they built up their arsenal mainly with Soviet arms. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ74B/B Battery
It is known the Syrians got upgraded T-34-85's which they called T-34/55. This unit was a Syrian modernization of Soviet-made T-34-85s earlier with an anti-aircraft machine gun fitted to the commander's copula and other upgrades. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ750N/C Battery
The Syrians also acquired a T-34 tank conversions desinated a T-34/122 made into a self-propelled howitzer armed with a 122 mm D-30 howitzer.
The Six-Day War was fought between June 5 and June 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt [known then as the United Arab Republic (UAR)], Sony VAIO VGN-SZ75B/B Battery
Jordan, and Syria. In the war, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq had over 2,504 tanks against Israel 800 tanks.[40] However, Israel completed a decisive air offensive in the first two days, which crippled the Egyptian, Syrian and Iraqi air forces, destroyed Jordan's Air Force, and rapidly established complete air supremacy. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ76 Battery
The Israeli Air Force pummelled the Arab armies, and with air supremacy, was able to destroy many of their tanks at will, but the Israeli armor also had tank on tank battles. Typical was the Battle of Abu-Ageila, where Egyptian forces with amoured forces included a battalion of tank destroyers and a tank regiment, Sony VAIO VGN-SZ770N/C Battery
formed of Soviet World War II armor, which included 90 T-34-85 tanks (with 85 mm guns), 22 SU-100 tank destroyers (with 100 mm guns), and about 16,000 men,[141] clashed with the Israelis with 150 post-World War II tanks including the AMX-13 with 90 mm guns, Centurions, and Super Shermans (both types with 105 mm guns). Sony VAIO VGN-SZ77N Battery
Combined forces of Israeli armor, paratroopers, infantry, artillery and combat engineers attacked the Egyptian position from the front, flanks and rear, destroying many tanks and cutting the Egyptian forces off. At the war's end, Israel had seized the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, Sony VAIO VGN-SZ780 Battery
the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria.
Egyptian amoured forces were by the time of the Six-Day War, mostly Soviet. Egypt had ordered 350 T-54s and 50 PT-76s from the Soviet Union and delivered by 1966 before the Six-Day War. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ78N Battery
Egypt lost 820 vehicles in the Six Day War including 82 T-55s.[25]:11-13 After the loses, Egypt rearmed and 800 T-54s were ordered in 1967 from the Soviet Union and delivered between 1967 and 1972. Another 550 T-55s were ordered in 1967 from the Soviet Union and delivered betweenSony VAIO VGN-SZ791N/X Battery
1969 and 1973 along with 200 PT-76s ordered in 1970, 50 T-54s ordered in 1972 and 750 T-62s ordered in 1971 from the Soviet Union and had begun to be delivered by 1972 before the start of the next conflict.
The Yom Kippur War, (Hebrew: מלחמת יום הכיפורים‎; transliterated: Sony VAIO VGN-SZ84NS Battery  
Milemet Yom HaKipurim or מלחמת יום כיפור, Milemet Yom Kipur; Arabic: حرب أكتوبر‎;transliterated: ħarb Aktoobar or حرب تشرين, ħarb Tishrin), also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, was fought from October 6 to 26, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of Arab states backing Egypt and Syria. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ84PS Battery
In the Yom Kippur War Egypt, Syria and Iraq used T-34/85, T-54, T-55, T-62 and PT-76, as well as SU-100/152 World War II vintage self-propelled guns. While Israel had M50 and M51 Shermans with upgraded engines, M48A5 Patton,M60A1 Patton, Centurion and about 200 T-54/55 captured during the Six-Day War. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ84S Battery
All Israeli tanks were upgraded with the British 105 mm L7 gun, prior to the war.
The Yom Kipur War began with a massive and successful Egyptian attack across the heavily fortified Suez Canal with tanks it had received from the Soviet Union, Sony VAIO VGN-SZ84US Battery
T-55s and T-62s tanks, RPG-7 antitank weapons, and the AT-3 Sagger anti-tank guided missile and using improved military tactics, based on Soviet battlefield doctrines. They drove the tanks over portable bridges laid across the Suez Canal, with infantry with portable and recoilless anti-tank weapons.[42] Sony VAIO VGN-SZ85NS Battery
Egyptian forces advanced, into the Sinai Desert with two armies (both corps-sized by western standards, included the 2nd Infantry Division in the northern Second Army) and by the following morning, some Egyptian 850 tanks had crossed the canal and prepared for the Israeli conterattack.[43] Sony VAIO VGN-SZ85S Battery
The Egyptian 2nd and 3rd Armies attacked eastward with armored forces consisted of 800[44]-1,000 tanks[45] however they moved eastward beyond SAM cover over the Suez Canal, where they came up against 700[44]-750[45] Israeli tanks. The Egyptian armored and mechanized attack, was a total failure. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ85US Battery
Instead of concentrating forces of maneuvering, they had expended their tanks and armored forces in head-on attack against the waiting Israeli brigades."[46] No fewer than 250 Egyptian tanks and some 200 armored vehicles[48] were destroyed. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ94NS Battery
 After stopping the Egyptian attack, the Israelis then counterattacked at the seam between two Egyptian armies, crossed the Suez Canal, and encircled elements of Egypt's Third Army until the United Nations ceasefire resolution which was imposed cooperatively on October 25 to end the war. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ94PS Battery
In the north, the Syrians attacked the Golan Heights at the same time with armoured forces and initially made threatening gains against the greatly outnumbered defenders. At the onset of the battle, the Syrians came with three infantry divisions with large armour components comprising 28,000 Syrian troops, Sony VAIO VGN-SZ94S Battery
800 tanks and 600 artillery pieces and followed by two armoured divisions against the Israeli brigades of some 3,000 troops, 180 tanks and 60 artillery pieces. The Syrians had bridging tanks to cross antitank ditches, BRDM-mounted Sagger anti-tank missiles, SU-100 gun carriers, Sony VAIO VGN-SZ94US Battery
and had T-55 tanks equipped with a specially designed infrared nightscope and also T-62 tanks.[52] The Israeli forces did not have adequate optical equipment for night fighting, and had to gauge the position of the Syrian forces by their noise and artillery flares. Sony VAIO VGN-SZ95NS Battery
Israeli forces were worn down but were gradually reinforced over days and within a week, Israel recovered and launched a four-day counter-offensive, driving deep into Syria itself. However, Iraq had also sent an expeditionary force to the Golan, with 250–500 tanks mostly T-55s, Sony VAIO VGN-SZ95S Battery
and 700 APCs which threatened the Israeli flanks, but the war ended without the Iraqis becoming heavily engaged.[53][54][55]
The fact that the Arab armies' T-54/55s and T-62s were equipped with night vision equipment, which the Israeli tanks lacked, gave them an advantage in fighting at night, Sony VAIO VGN-SZ95US Battery
while Israel tanks had better armor and/or better armament such as the L7|105 mm L7 gun. Israeli tanks also had a distinct advantage in the "hull-down" position where steeper angles of depression resulted in less exposure. The main guns of Soviet tanks could only depress 4 degrees. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ121 Battery
By contrast, the 105 mm guns on Centurion and Patton tanks could depress 10 degrees. The coalition of Arab states and Egypt and Syria lost 2,300[56] tanks destroyed or captured 341[57]–514.
During Operation Desert Storm in 1991, the Iraqi armor was usually tanks of Russian design, which included the T-54/55, Sony VAIO VGN-TZ13 Battery
 T-62, Type 59, Type 69, and T-72. In the Battle of Khafji, the first major ground engagement of the Gulf War, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, tried and failed to draw Coalition troops into a costly ground engagements with his amoured forces and sent the 1st and 5th Sony VAIO VGN-TZ130N/B Battery
Mechanized Divisions and 3rd Armored Division to conduct a multi-pronged invasion toward Khafji, engaging American, Saudi and Qatari forces along the coastline..
Most non-Republican Guard armored units had older tank designs, Sony VAIO VGN-TZ131 Battery
but the 3rd Armored Division had a number of T-72 tanks, the only non-Republican Guard force to have them,[59]while the other armored battalions had T-62s and upgraded T-55s.[60] During the battle of Khafji, these upgraded T-55s survived impacts from Milan anti-tank missiles.[61] Sony VAIO VGN-TZ132/N Battery
As the units moved to the Saudi border, many were attacked by Coalition aircraft. Around the Al-Wafrah forest, about 1,000 Iraqi armored fighting vehicles were attacked by Harrieraircraft with Rockeye cluster bombs.[62] Another Iraqi convoy of armored vehicles was hit by A-10s, Sony VAIO VGN-TZ132N Battery
which destroyed the first and last vehicles, before systematically attacking the stranded remainder.[63] The air raids destroyed many tanks and support vehicles and prevented the majority of the Iraqi troops deployed for the offensive from taking part in it, allowing Saudi and Quatari forces to retake the city. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ150N/B Battery
In the launch of the main Allied ground attack, the Iraqi tanks engaged the M60A1 tanks of the U.S. Marines which were fitted with add-on explosive reactive armor (ERA) packages. However, the weakness of Iraq's older Soviet-era tanks, was most evident against the US M1A1 tank. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ150N/N Battery
The M1A1 tank was superior to Iraq's Soviet-era T-55 and T-62 tanks.
In the Battle of 73 Easting, which was a decisive tank battle fought on 26 February 1991, during the Gulf War, between American–British armored forces and those of the IraqiRepublican Guard. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ160CB Battery
Superior American night vision equipment turned the poor weather into a U.S. advantage.The 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment (2nd ACR), mainly a reconnaissance element of VII Corpsalong with the corps's vanguard the American 3rd Armored Division (3rd AD) and 1st Infantry Division (1st ID), Sony VAIO VGN-TZ160N/B Battery
and the British 1st Armoured Division (1 AD) enganged and smashed Iraqi forces and tanks.
One of 2nd ACR's cavalry units, G- ("Ghost") Troop, Sony VAIO VGN-TZ16N Battery
initially destroyed several Iraqi armored personnel carriers and three enemy tanks. Reaching 70 Easting, the lead cavalry troops of 2nd "Cougar" Squadron knocked out a screen of eight Iraqi T-72 tanks. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ16GN/B Battery
The 2nd ACR surprised the enemy and penetrated the Iraqi positions so quickly that they were unable to recover. E-Troop attacked forward and destroyed the Iraqi tanks at 73 Easting at close range. The Iraqis stood their ground while their tanks and armored personnel carriers of the Sony VAIO VGN-TZ16N/B Battery
Tawakalna Division attempted to maneuver and fight. E-Troop destroyed more than 20 tanks and other armored vehicles, a number of trucks and bunkers, and took a large number of prisoners with no losses to themselves. Other 2nd ACR Troops, I- ("Iron"), K- ("Killer"), and G- ("Ghost"), Sony VAIO VGN-TZ17/N Battery
joined the fighting at 73 Easting and engaged several waves of Iraqi T-72and T-55 tanks advancing directly into G-Troop. G-Troop lost one M3 Bradley to Iraqi IFV fire and one soldier, ending with most of the engaged Iraqi elements burning or destroyed. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ170N/B Battery
The 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division of the British Army, engaged the Tawakalna Division, while the Medina Division was attempting to maneuver against 1st Armoured Division. The British responded decisively with MLRS fire, cannon artillery, Sony VAIO VGN-TZ170N/N Battery
and air strikes and destroyed 40 enemy tanks and captured an Iraqi division commander. The 2nd ACR's three squadrons, along with the 1st Infantry Division's two leading brigades, destroyed two Iraqi brigades (18th Mechanized Brigade and 37th Armored Brigade) of the Tawakalna Division. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ17GN/B Battery
The 2nd ACR alone destroyed about 85 tanks, 40 personnel carriers and more than 30 wheeled vehicles, along with several anti-aircraft artillery systems during the battle. The equivalent of an Iraqi brigade was destroyed at the Battle of 73 Easting, in the defeat of the Republican Guard tanks and armored forces. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ17N Battery
At the same time, Iraqi troops began retreating from Kuwait, and a long convoy of retreating Iraqi tanks, vehicles and troops formed along the main Iraq-Kuwait highway. Although they were retreating, this convoy was bombed so extensively by Coalition air forces that it came to be known as the Highway of DeathSony VAIO VGN-TZ18/N Battery
 as Iraqi tanks and other vehicles out in the open were destroyed by Allied planes as they fled, along with hundreds of Iraqi troops who were killed.
Post war analysis showed that the majority of Iraqi armored forces still had old Soviet-made T-55s from the 1950s and 1960s, Sony VAIO VGN-TZ180N/RC Battery
and some Asad Babil tanks T-72 (along with some Chinese Type 59s and Type 69tanks). These machines were not equipped with up-to-date equipment, such as thermal sights or laser rangefinders, and their effectiveness in modern combat was very limited. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ185N/WC Battery
The Iraqis failed to find an effective countermeasure to the thermal sights and sabot rounds used by the Coalition tanks. This equipment enabled them to engage and destroy Iraqi tanks from more than three times the range that Iraqi tanks could engage coalition tanks. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ18GN/X Battery
The Iraqi tank crews used old, cheap steel penetrators against the advancedChobham Armour of the U.S. and British tanks, with ineffective results.
he Soviet entry into the Afghanistan conflict was on December 27, 1979, when 700 Soviet troops dressed in Afghan uniforms, Sony VAIO VGN-TZ18N Battery
including KGB and GRU special force officers from theAlpha Group and Zenith Group, occupied major governmental, military and media buildings in Kabul, including the Tajbeg Presidential Palace.
The Soviet Zenith Group destroyed Kabul's communications hub, paralyzing Afghan military command and the assault on Tajbeg Palace began; Sony VAIO VGN-TZ190N/B Battery
as planned, president Hafizullah Amin was killed. The Soviet military command at Termez, Uzbek SSR, announced on Radio Kabul that Afghanistan had been liberated from Amin's rule. According to the Soviet Politburo they were complying with the 1978 Treaty of Friendship, Sony VAIO VGN-TZ190N/BC Battery
Cooperation and Good Neighborliness and Amin had been "executed by a tribunal for his crimes" by the Afghan Revolutionary Central Committee. That committee then elected as head of government former Deputy Prime Minister Babrak Karmal, and said that it had requested Soviet military assistance. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ191N/XC Battery
Soviet ground forces, under the command of Marshal Sergei Sokolov, entered Afghanistan from the north on December 27. In all, the initial Soviet force was around 1,800 tanks, 80,000 soldiers and 2,000 AFVs. In the second week alone, Soviet aircraft had made a total of 4,000 flights into Kabul.[66] Sony VAIO VGN-TZ195N/XC Battery
With the arrival of the two later divisions, the total Soviet force rose to over 100,000 personnel. The war with mujahideen forces supported by secret aid from the CIA dragged on from the initial Soviet deployment of the 40th Army in Afghanistan on December 24, 1979 till the final troop withdrawal which started on May 15, Sony VAIO VGN-TZ198N/RC Battery
1988, and ended on February 15, 1989 under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
The civil war continued in Afghanistan after the Soviet withdrawal. In April, 1992. Afghanistan leader Najibullah and his communist government fell to the mujahideen, Sony VAIO VGN-TZ250N/B Battery
who replaced Najibullah with a new governing council for the country. With the government institutions either collapsing or participating in the factional fighting, maintaining order in Kabul became almost impossible. The scene was set for the next phase of the war which led to the rise of and the take over of the country by the Taliban regime. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ250N/N Battery
The massive stockpiles of heavy weapons such as T-62 and T-55 tanks, were tanken over by the various Afghanistan warlords and along with vehicles such as BMD-1s from the war with the Soviet Union, they were then used in fighting other factions or warlords. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ250N/P Battery
Some tanks in the Afghanistan military or military vehicles were left behind for them by retreating Soviets and some were derelicts left by the Soviets all over Afghanistan and brought back to working condition. Since there wasn't any kind of care taken as to what variant an individual tank may be, many T-55s have mixed parts from a number of different variants. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ27/N Battery
On October 7, 2001 the United States military began operation Operation Enduring Freedom, which was launched by the United States and United Kingdom in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. The purpose for the entry into the Afghanistan conflict was stated to capture Osama bin Laden, Sony VAIO VGN-TZ270N/B Battery
destroy al-Qaeda, and remove the Taliban regime which had provided support and safe harbor to al-Qaeda. In the war, both the Taliban and forces allied with American troops had access to a wide array of Soviet tanks that fell into their hands, when the central government which had ordered them, Sony VAIO VGN-TZ27N Battery
collapsed after the Soviets left. 50 T-54s and 50 T-55s were ordered in 1961 from the Soviet Union and delivered between 1962 and 1964 (T-54s were previously in Soviet service). 200 T-54s were ordered in 1978 from the Soviet Union and delivered between 1978 and 1979 (the vehicles were previously in Soviet service). Sony VAIO VGN-TZ28/N Battery
705 T-55s were ordered in 1978 from the Soviet Union and delivered between 1978 and 1991 (the vehicles were previously in Soviet service).[41] 50 Pt-76 light tanks were ordered in 1958 from the Soviet Union and delivered between 1959 and 1961. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ285N/RC Battery
1,000 T-54s, T-55s, T-62s and PT-76s were in service on 1 April 1992.[68]Currently 600 T-55s are in service with the Military of Afghanistan but are to be replaced with M60 Pattons.
From the beginning of the war, the bulk of the resistance had been conducted by regular army units, Sony VAIO VGN-TZ28N Battery
equipped with older tanks such as T-54/55 tanks and T-62s. One division armed with the older tanks that faced the US forces were the 6th Armored Division of the Iraqi Army.[69] It was equipped with T-55s and BMP-1s defending the control of key bridges over the Euphrates River and the Saddam Canal at Nasiriyah. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ290EAB Battery
Its tanks were decimated by US Marines with M1 Abrams, and the division as a unit rendered incapable for combat during the Battle of Nasiriyah in March 2003, during the invasion.
In addition to the T-54/55 and T-62 tanks that Iraq had, the most feared to US amoured forces were the T-72 tanks in the Iraqi forces. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ290EAN Battery
Only Republican Guard divisions were equipped with Iraqi-modified T-72s. Many of the Iraqi T-72s were dug-in or hidden in groves, and then used to ambush the US or British tanks. In the war, the Iraqi T-72s were the preferred target for Apache helicopters and A-10s, Sony VAIO VGN-TZ290EAP Battery
in an attempt to diminish the combat power of Republican Guard divisions. The only chance for the Asad Babil T-72s against American tanks was to lure them to close range combat, or trying to ambush them from dug-in positions.
But even in those conditions, the M1s usually prevailed, Sony VAIO VGN-TZ295N/XC Battery
as proven in circumstances like the Battle of Baghdad, and the drive to the capital, where dozens of Iraqi MBTs were obliterated,[71] or near Mahmoudiyah, south of Baghdad, April 3, 2003, (Iraqi Freedom) when US tanks engaged their counterparts from just 50 yards, shattering seven enemy Sony VAIO VGN-TZ298N/XC Battery
T-72s without losses.[72] These encounters also exposed the very poor marksmanship of the Iraqi gunners, in part due to the shortage of modern night-vision and range-finder assets.[73]The Iraqis, however, had no idea they could be detected and destroyed at a range of nearly 2 miles (3.2 km) by the M1 Abrams, and the Challenger. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ33/B Battery
The Lion of Babylon T-72 was utterly outclassed by the M1 Abrams, the Challenger and by any other contemporary Western main battle tank during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[74] The last operational Asad Babils were destroyed by the successive waves of American armored incursions Sony VAIO VGN-TZ33/N Battery
on the Iraqi capital[75] or abandoned by their crews after the fall of Baghdad, several of them without firing a single shot, after the collapse of the regime.
The T-24 was a Soviet medium tank built in 1931. Only twenty-four tanks were built, and was not used in combat. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ33/W Battery
This was the first tank produced at the KhPZ factory in Ukraine, which was later responsible for the very successful T-34 and T-54 Soviet tanks. The T-24's suspension was used successfully in the Soviet Union's first purpose-built artillery tractors. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ350N/B Battery
The T-24's main armament was a 45 mm gun. It had a ball-mount 7.62 mm DT machine gun in the hull, another in the turret, and a third in a secondary turret atop the main turret. The tank was well-armoured for its time, but suffered from problems with the engine and transmission. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ350N/N Battery
The T-26 tank was a Soviet light infantry tank used during many conflicts of the 1930s and during World War II. It was a development of the British Vickers 6-Ton tank and is widely considered one of the most successful tank designs of the 1930s.[76] Sony VAIO VGN-TZ350N/P Battery

It was produced in greater numbers than any other tank of the period, with more than 11,000 produced.[77] During the 1930s, the Soviet Union developed approximately 53 variants of the T-26, including other combat vehicles based on its chassis. Twenty-three of these were mass-produced.[78] Sony VAIO VGN-TZ370N/B Battery

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