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Send a HeroBox Care Package Today!ANALYSIS – Video and photos from the battlefields in Ukraine have been showing an unusual number of Russian heavy tanks with their turrets blown clean off, sometimes being hurled away from the rest of the destroyed tank in a massive explosion.
What is causing this devastation to Russia’s vaunted armored forces?
Western anti-tank weapons such as the Javelin which strike the tanks from above are one factor.
But armor experts explain this devastating effect is primarily caused by ‘sympathetic detonations’ when all the tank’s ammunition explodes, ignited by a shock wave, or impact of primary or secondary blast fragments.
Some simply call it the ‘jack-in-the-box effect.’
And this is due to Soviet and Russian tank designs which focused on mass-producing armored vehicles in great numbers, but that are simply less survivable than their American or NATO counterparts.
Task and Purpose notes:
Russian-made T-72 and T-80 tanks are particularly susceptible to being destroyed in this manner, in part because they both have autoloading mechanisms that store tank rounds in a carousel at the base of the turret, said Steven Zaloga, an expert on Russian and Soviet armor. Those autoloaders typically store about 20 rounds when fully loaded.
Task and Purpose continues:
…but there is another problem: The autoloaders only hold roughly half of a Russian tank’s ammunition, said Zaloga, a senior analyst with The Teal Group, a defense and aerospace consulting company.
A fully loaded Russian tank can carry up to 40 rounds, many of which are stored in parts of the fighting compartment that are not protected against anti-tank weapons, Zaloga said. Moreover, the internal volume of Russian tanks is very small when compared with their western counterparts.
“If you get a penetration to the interior of the tank, there’s a high probability you’re going to hit something,” he said.
In comparison, U.S. tanks are designed to be far more survivable: “…the U.S. military’s M1 Abrams tanks store their ammunition in a way that protects the crew if any of the rounds or propellant explode, Zaloga said.”
Task and Purpose notes:
The M1 was designed to take hits because the U.S. military expected to have to face superior numbers of Soviet and Warsaw Pact tanks in Central Europe, said Army Maj. Mike Liscano Jr., chief of tactics for the service’s Armor School’s 2nd Squadron, 16th Cavalry Regiment.
Because the M1’s ammunition compartment is separated from the turret by blast walls, the crews are protected if tank rounds start to cook off, Liscano said. Even if the tank is disabled, the crew should still survive so they can jump into another tank and keep fighting.
This Russian ‘jack-in-the-box’ effect should also concern all those countries like China and India who continue to buy or reproduce Russian tank designs.
Bottom line is that in a war where mass formations of Russian tanks aren’t producing any operational advantage, expect many more invading Russian tanks to be getting their turrets blown clean off.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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Paul Crespo is the Managing Editor of American Liberty Defense News. As a Marine Corps officer, he led Marines, served aboard ships in the Pacific and jumped from helicopters and airplanes. He was also a military attaché with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at U.S. embassies worldwide. He later ran for state and federal office, taught political science, wrote for the editorial board of a major newspaper and had his own radio show. A graduate of Georgetown, London and Cambridge universities, he brings decades of experience and insight to the issues that most threaten our American liberty – at home and from abroad. To read more go to: paulcrespo.com.
I was a 7 year tank crewman (Commander) in the US Army in M 48 Tanks during the 50’s. I often thought about being surrounded by high explosive, 90 mm ammunition as it was stored carousel-like around the turret floor. I was happy to see that our tankers were more protected in the Abrams Tank when they stored the ammo in a separate compartment. Those blown Russian turrets show why I feared the worst!
That is quiet a story. News for Paul, when a combat tank’s main load (rounds stored inside the crew compartment for the main gun) detonate, the turret comes off, no matter who designed or built the tank (even US tanks). As for the “blast walls” that protect the crew from explosive cook-offs when not in combat, the gunner has to open the “blast walls” during combat operations so as to access the ammunition during combat ammunition, so the ammunition compartment becomes exposed. A lot also depends on what the combat tank’s ammunition basic load consists of, % of HE, HEAT, SABOT (tungsten or DU penetrator) WP, and illumination. And don’t forget that all rounds come with hefty propellant charges. Once a round penetrates the interior of the combat tank, you have the spalling effects from the defeated armor and fire from the burning hydraulic lines; all bad for the crew and ammunition. The major problem with the alleged performance of Russian tanks is not in their design but poor crew training and combat performance, poor maintenance, and Russian military tactics.
It seems that the Russians learned nothing about tank design in the aftermath of the First Gulf War when Iraqi T-72s lost, often catastrophically, to American Abams and British Challenger tanks.