Your Survival Guy

Preparing your investments and family for when disaster strikes.

Disclosure

  • Home
  • Your Survival
    • Special Report: FOOD SHORTAGE: Crazed Hoarding Is Not Preparing
    • Your Survival Guy’s Super States
      • 2023
      • 2022
      • 2021
    • Constitutional Carry
    • EMP Threat
    • Tucker Explains
    • Newport Gas Outage
    • Water
      • Emergency Water Storage
      • Let There Be Water
    • Get Your Gun and Your Training Now
    • Satellite Phones
    • Navy SEAL Survival Kit
  • Your Money
    • Coronavirus Infects Stock Market
    • Looking for a Better America
    • You Invest, They Win
    • Where to Keep Your Cash
    • Paris
    • How to Buy a Boat
    • Dead or Alive? The Future of Long-Term Investing
    • Is Vanguard too Big?
    • Cryptocosm and Life After Google
    • The Last Intelligence Report
    • The Truth Behind the S&P 500
    • RAGE Gauge
    • How Many “Retirees” Will Keep Working?
    • Your Retirement Life
    • You’ll Love This if You’re Dreaming of an Active Retirement Life
  • Weapons
    • Self Defense
    • Every Family Should Own at Least One Shotgun: Here Are Three
  • About Me
    • Your Survival Guy: “Life on Main Street Hasn’t Been This Hard in a While”
    • Preparing for Times Like These
    • My Videos/Pics
    • Music
      • RIP Neil Peart: You Will Always Be Remembered as a “Modern-Day Warrior”
    • Your Survival Guy: Make Your Bed and The Hero Code
  • You
    • Our Cabin on Kodiak, Alaska
    • If You Are in Pain, this May Help. It Helped Me.
    • How to Save for a Grandchild
    • FIRE! Financial Independence, Retire Early
    • Compound Interest
    • Arithmetic of Portfolio Losses
    • Maximum Portfolio Withdrawal Rate
    • An Efficient Frontier
    • Retirement Compounders
    • Counterbalanced Total Returns
  • Survive & Thrive
    • June 2023: Your Survival Guy in Rome 30-Years A.B. (After Babson)
    • May 2023: “I’m Having Major Surgery Tomorrow,” He Said
    • April 2023: Will the Black Swan Usher in Digital Dollars?
    • March 2023: How Long Have You Been in the Investment Business?
    • February 2023: 4 Life Changing Words: “You Should Try This”
    • January 2023: Stacking Wood and Compounding Money
    • December 2022: Your Survival Guy Prefers Bombardier’s Global Express 7500
    • November 2022: Arriving in Style at Le Bristol Hotel, Paris
    • October 2022: Sink Your Teeth into These Bond Yields
    • September 2022: Do You Have the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People?
    • August 2022: “Watch This Boat off Our Stern,” My Dad Said “He’s Coming in HOT”
    • July 2022: MONEY TALKS: Your Survival Guy’s Best Service in Paris
    • June 2022: “I’ve Been with Richard Young for Over 30 Years Now”
    • May 2022: Survive “If You Fail to Plan, You Plan to Fail”
    • April 2022: Dream On! Fishing the Double Down in Key West
    • March 2022: Your Survival Guy Hears the Craziest Investing Stories
    • February 2022: Your Survival Guy’s 2022 Super States
    • January 2022: The Least Affordable Housing Market in the U.S.
    • December 2021: Listen Your Survival Guy is not “Mr. Peanut”
    • November 2021: Joe Biden is Weaponizing Your 401(k) Against You
    • October 2021: Time to Get Your Lazy Cash Off the Couch
    • September 2021: What’s Your Survival Guy Investing in Right Now?
    • August 2021: To Where Will You Flee?
    • July 2021: This Bubble’s Popped Baby
    • June 2021: Your Survival Guy’s Summer Job, Inflation & You
    • May 2021: You’re Telling Me Friends Ask You This Question
    • April 2021: Is There One Best Place in America for ‘Liberty Retirees?’
    • March 2021: America’s Growth Corridors
    • February 2021: Troops in D.C. & Your Authoritarian Virtual Panopticon
    • January 2021: Are You Ready for The Great Reset?
    • December 2020: Disaster Prep in Our Newport Bunker and Your Survival
    • November 2020: Election 2020 Edition: Stock Market is Predicting a Trump Win
    • October 2020: You Invest They Win, AGAIN
    • September 2020: Proud to be an American: Pro-Trump Parade Turns Rhode Island Red
    • August 2020: The Clock is Ticking: You Must Protect Your Family
    • July 2020: What Will Her Life Be Like Now?
    • June 2020: Your Survival Guy’s Home (and Money) Protection Plan
    • May 2020: Future Look at Covid-20, or the Next Deadly Virus
    • April 2020: Only Trump Saw the Risk in America’s Relationship with China
    • March 2020: Coronavirus Infects Stock Market
    • February 2020: Escape the City: Live Small, Cheap, and Safe in America
    • January 2020: Is Your Cash Safe? Probably not This Safe
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • Welcome

REVEALED: Russia’s T-72 Tanks Have a Deadly Design Flaw

April 22, 2022 By The Editors

By Steve Schneider

In Ukraine, destroyed T-72s are shedding some light on a calculated design flaw Russia made on its main battle tanks. Turrets from burned out Russian T-72s in Ukraine are often seen yards away from the body of the tank. They look like they’ve popped off much like a soda bottle cap after someone drops a Mentos in. The reason appears to be a design flaw in the location chosen for ammunition storage. T-72 ammo is stored inside the crew compartment, just below the turret. Unlike the Abrams tank, where ammunition is stored in a separate compartment with blow out panels, the T-72’s ammunition is stored with the crew. This design choice often proves fatal when the tank is hit by enemy fire. David Hambling of Forbes, writes (abridged):

If You’re Serious, Sign Up for My Email. But Only If You’re Serious.

Sometimes in modern warfare it is not possible to tell whether a vehicle has been damaged or destroyed, as the only sign may be a small hole with burn marks. But this is certainly not the case with Russian T-72 tanks in the war in Ukraine: in many of the images shared online the vehicles are completely shattered, with the turret thrown some distance from the body of the tank. This is not because of some super-powerful anti-tank weapon. The catastrophic losses are the side-effect of a calculated design decision.

Most Western tanks, including the most modern M1 Abrams, have a crew of four: commander, driver, gunner and loader. The autoloader manually takes rounds from a stowage compartment and loads them into the Abrams’ 120mm main gun. Of the four crew roles in the tank, loader is the simplest and the easiest to automate, and that’s what the Russians did with the T-72 series and later tanks.

T-72 crew: 1-driver; 2-commander; 3-gunner; 4-auto-loading system. By Alexpl @Wikipedia

The autoloader reduces the number of personnel needed by 25%, as well as significantly reducing the space needed inside the turret as rounds are not being manhandled. It makes the turret smaller, and contributes to the much lower profile of the T-72 – at almost a foot shorter than the Abrams, it can take cover and remain unseen more easily (unless it has one of those ridiculous cope cage armor add-ons welded to the roof that the Russians have employed in Ukraine).

In addition autoloaders are supposed to be faster and more efficient than humans, as well as cheaper.

One disadvantage of having an autoloader is that it reduces the crew available for field maintenance and repairs. Another is that while the French Leclerc tank has an autoloader ammunition stored in a bustle away from the crew, the Russians opted with the the T-72 to have their ammunition storage in the form of a carousel in the body of the tank immediately under the turret.

Wait what 🇷🇺 pic.twitter.com/E8T9Y42nor

— Oryx (@oryxspioenkop) March 25, 2022

This means there is no barrier between the crew and the stored ammunition. The Abrams ammunition storage is separate to the crew compartment, and is fitted with special blow-out panels so that if the ammunition explodes – as seen here – the panels blow away first so the blast goes outwards rather than through the closed crew compartment. The crew generally survive without serious injury when this happens.

The torn off turret of the Russian T-72B3 tank clearly resembles ☠️ Only death awaits Russian tankers in Ukraine. #WARINUKRAINE #UkraineRussianWar #T72 pic.twitter.com/oY2EmLS5Oj

— Ukraine NOW (@ukraine_ll) April 17, 2022

With the Russian design there are no blow-out panels, because the ammunition is in the same space as the crew. Any penetrating hit in the turret or hull can set off the ammunition, with a result sometimes describes as Jack-in-the-box effect: the force of the blast from the ammo tears the tank apart from inside, often detaching the turret with such force that it is thrown clear. Such events are instantly fatal to the crew.

If you enjoyed this post, email it to a friend:

  • Email
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp

Related Posts

Money 101

Trending

  • A Three-Week International Research Trip to Paris via Rome
  • “Tell Me,” How Are You the Millionaire Next Door?
  • Two More States Nearing Passage of Permitless Carry Legislation
  • Your Survival Guy in Rome 30-Years A.B. (After Babson)
  • Letter to the Federal Reserve Chairman from Your Survival Guy
  • The ESG Cartel
  • What Does That Have to Do with Your Dividend?
  • “I Came from Nothing,” He Said. “I Mean Nothing.”
  • Insurers Now Fleeing the Net Zero Insurance Alliance
  • When Did You Become Serious about Your Money?

Must Reads

  • A Three-Week International Research Trip to Paris via Rome
  • Some Lessons You Just Can’t Get from a Textbook
  • Your Survival Guy in Rome 30-Years A.B. (After Babson)
  • You Aren’t Getting These Yields from Your Bank Account
  • Hey, Where’s Everyone Going? Follow the Money Kid
  • GAME ON! Lessons from Street Hockey on Baker Lane
  • Tom Brady Is Proof You Shouldn’t Retire if You Still Love Your Work
  • This State Leads America in Gun Ownership
  • Your Survival Guy: Emerging Food and Energy Crisis
  • “Talk to Me, Goose!” Time Flies in Top Gun: Maverick

Recent Posts

  • Survive and Thrive June 2023: Your Survival Guy in Rome 30-Years A.B. (After Babson)
  • Birth Rates in France Worst Since Post-WWII Era
  • Your Survival Guy Felt Like a U.N. Worker in Rome
  • Social Security: Declining Italy Needs a Bambino Boom
  • ATTACK ON THE IVAN KHURS: Unmanned Vessels Changing Naval Warfare
  • The Future of the American City is This…
  • Happy Memorial Day: Your Survival Guy: Proud To Be an American
  • Your Survival Guy in Rome 30-Years A.B. (After Babson)
  • Insurers Now Fleeing the Net Zero Insurance Alliance
  • A Three-Week International Research Trip to Paris via Rome
Only if You’re Serious
Crazed Hoarding Is not Preparing
How to Save Rainwater Effectively
Your Survival Guy in Paris
Key West Insider Guide
Your Survival Guy's Fishing Stories
Financial Independence, Retire Early
Money 101
Pandemic Creates Virtual Panopticon
Emergency Water Storage
Find Freedom in America
Second Amendment
How Can You Save Money for Your Grandchild
Great Reset
See Who's Missing the Boat
Richard  Young Reports
How You Can Save Money for Your Grandchild
Why Fidelity is Number One
The Best States for Survival
You Invest, They Win
Escape the City
Why Vanguard is Too Big for YOU
Island Life

Copyright © 2023 | Terms & Conditions

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.