Osprey New Vanguard Series #152

T-80 Standard Tank: The Soviet Army's Last Armored Champion

by  Steven Zaloga (Author), Tony Bryan (Illustrator)

Reviewed By  Howie Belkin, IPMS# 16

MSRP: $17.95 ISBN-13: 978-1846032448 Website: www.ospreypublishing.com Until now, my best reference on the Soviet T-80 was the Main Battle Tank – T80, by Mikhail Baryatinsky. While that volume is good, I’d venture to say that IPMS member Steve Zaloga’s new T-80 Standard Tank: The Soviet Army's Last Armored Champion, published by Osprey, is even better. The T-80 origins come from the T-64 and T-64A tanks of the 1960s. The Soviet T-80 Standard Tank was the last Soviet tank, released just before the Soviet collapse. It lives on in the Ukraine and was developed into the successfully exported T-84, which included a major sale to Pakistan to counter the Indian Army's Russian T-90 tanks. A contemporary of our M1 Abrams, its design incorporated the Soviets most sophisticated armament, fire controls, and multi-layer armor. Like the Abrams, the T-80 used a controversial turbine power plant rather than a conventional diesel. The turbine engine proved expensive and unreliable, so the T-80B was also developed, with a diesel engine. Mr. Zaloga presents a technical, yet readable discussion of the T-80, T-80B (the standard Soviet tank in the early 1980s), their nominal service in the Chechen War, and use in the in the former Soviet Union regional conflicts in the 1990s. The T-80UD gained some fame in 1993 when six of them fired upon the "White House" in the dispute between Boris Yeltsin and political enemies. The collapse of the Soviet Union might have been the end of the T-80 story with the subsequent collapse in state funding, but Zaloga charts the T-80s against all odds history from the initial construction and development of subsequent variants, to the T-84 and Russia's enigmatic "Black Eagle Tank" and ‘beyond.’ Steve has traveled to the Soviet Union and some of the subsequent ‘new’ countries. His book gives us his years of first-hand study and experience. He brings us the culmination of many one-on-one interviews of key people involved in the T-80 and variants development, as well as the crews that relied on these vehicles and experienced training, security duty and even combat. His reputation as a respected journalist and historian has opened doors (and hatches) for him so that we can enjoy many rare photos of the tanks, inside and out, as well as the T-80B’s autoloading system, a cutaway of a reactive armor box, the T-80U’s four types of 125mm combat rounds, a cutaway of an 9M119 Refleks missile, color photos of the T-80U’s gunner’s station and commander’s station all add up to a must have for serious modelers. The book is full of photos and illustrations, mostly in color, that again, will make this a much used modeler’s book. Steve shares photos with us that we’ll never have the opportunity to take ourselves. These include a dramatic view of a T-80U at the Svetliy range near Omsk; colorful T-80BVs being removed from East Germany and another on display at a Milex exhibition; a T-80U at the Staratel artillery proving ground near Yekterinburg literally jet propelled; and an awesome paint job on a T-80U at the NIIBT Poligon, Kubinka, Russia’s main testing ground that looks like something a creative decal company like Decalomaniacs might jump on. And that just names a few. Information, photos and illustrations include not only the primary tanks and variants, but Zaloga also documents the "T-80 Follow On Tanks" as well. The detailed color cut-away illustration presents enough detail to keep the A.M.S. modelers amongst us quite busy replicating it. Finally, Mr. Zaloga provides a substantial list for further reading and a glossary that’s a ‘must’ for anyone trying to understand Soviet/Russian abbreviations. You knew that MRD stood for Motor Rifle Division, but did you know that NII Stali is the Nauchno Ispytatielniy Institut Stali (Steel Scientific Research Institute), the main Soviet/Russian research Institute for tank armor and advanced protection systems? If your interest includes modern Soviet/Russian armor, I highly recommend this book to you. The subtitle, "The Soviet Army’s Last Armored Champion" is misleading unless you realize there is no Soviet Union any more. The T-80 and variants rose from the dust of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Yes, it was the last of the Soviet Army but it is certainly alive and well and will be around for quite some time. This volume gives you a developmental history that is easy to read and understand, plus the many photos and illustrations chosen with the modeler in mind, make this a very valuable asset to every modelers library. It’s available in better hobby shops and bookstores. My thanks to Osprey Publishing for the review copy and IPMS/USA for allowing me to review it.