Thread by @partizan_oleg

A T-80U thread. Russia inherited 600~700 T-80Us from the Soviet Army in 1991. According to SIPRI some 125 were exported to Cyprus and South Korea (among which 74 were exported before 2000). No recorded battle losses before Feb 2022.

The "T-80U" in this thread refers to the original T-80U, the T-80UD and the T-80UE-1.

The T-80Us were firstly introduced to the 4th Guards Tank Division in late 1980s and later the 2nd Guards Motor Rifle Division in early 1990s. Both divisions were very active during the 1991 Coup Attempt and the 1993 Constitutional Crisis.

As of Jan 1, 2000, some 495 T-80Us remained in service in the 2nd GMRD and the 4th GTD, Moscow MD. Some may serves in the Far Eastern MD but I can't confirm. The 2nd GMRD transfered its T-80Us assumedly to the 3rd MRD after the arrival of T-90As since 2005.

The Russian Military Reform started in 2008 and the introduction of T-72B3 series also saw a rapid shrink of T-80U numbers from the Russian Order of Battle. As of July 2016, some 190-230 T-80Us remained in service (in the 4th GTD).

With the 423rd Guards Motor Rifle Regiment reequipped with T-80BVs from unknown time period, the 4th GTD participated in the war with two regiments (12&13th GTR) of some 189 T-80U tanks (of which 4 BTG worth of 126 tanks were committed in the first period).

Among them 101 (53.4%) were confirmed lost by @oryxspioenkop . If we add the "unknown tanks" and the fact that only some 80% of actual loss, the loss ratio would be [101+206*101/(1845-206)]/(189*0.8)=75.3%(!) This is not surprising since the 4th GTD f*cked up a lot.

My wonder is, however, after a whole year of battle, there is still no evidence that any T-80Us were reactivated for service. It is logical to introduce the tank of the same type to an unit that is familar to it. But it didn't happen.

The most reasonable explanation is that these retired tank are mainly T-80UDs with Ukrainian 6TD-1 diesel engine that Russia can not manufacture. Another explanation is that it mainly served in high readiness units in which its motor hour was rapidly depleted.

Among these "disappeared" T-80U pieces, the fate of some are known. Many were simply scrapped in the 206th Armor Tank Repair Plant (BTRZ) in Primorsky Krai, before the plant was bankrupted in 2012.
primamedia.ru/news/242392/

Some were destroyed as target vehicles in maneuvers.

https://twitter.com/80bvm/status/1438947432092553216

Back in March 2022, there was unconfirmed reports by the Ukr MOD that the commander of RU 13th GTR committed suicide on discovering 90% of his reserved tanks could not be used. But this is never officially confirmed.
mirror.co.uk/news/world-new…

My assumption is there is simply no T-80U storage anymore for the Russian Army and the Russian T-80U fleet has effectively been non-exist. end/