T 80 U (Sweden)

Description

Following the end of the Cold War, and a subsequent de-escalation of the hostilities, Sweden planned to modernize its tank battalions. Trials were undertaken between 1991 and 1994. The T-80U, alongside the T-72M1, and other NATO tanks such as the M1A1, the Leclerc, and the Leopard 2A4, participated in these trials. The T-80U however joined very late to the trials, and was not properly evaluated unlike the other designs. The tank suffered from poor visibility and mobility, specially during night time where its optics were deemed much inferior to those fitted by western designs. However, the tank did have excellent protection, it was relatively easy to operate, it had a very powerful engine, and a good transmission that allowed very high top speeds without much crew discomfort. But in the end, the tank was not incorporated; instead, the Leopard 2A4 was adopted as the Strv 121.

Introduced in Update "Fire and Ice", the T 80 U was a contender in Swedish trials for a possible adoption of new tank in the 1990s, the T-80U is not too dissimilar from the Soviet T-80U. The most significant difference is the lack of 3BM46 APFSDS round for the cannon. While it lacks the most powerful kinetic round, it still has the same armour and mobility performance for players used to the T-80U playstyle to quickly acclimate to. It has also the same vulnerabilities: weak ammo racks, and a poor mobility at least compared to western designs. It uses a carousel autoloader, which means that the rounds are very exposed inside the vehicle.

General info

Survivability and armour

Just like any other Russian MBT, the ammunition is in the turret basket, the middle of the hull. Therefore ammo hits are extremly critical. The gunner and commander are inside the turret which is autoloaded. The commander can take over gun controls if the gunner is taken out. The driver is surrounded by fuel tanks as well as the engine and a part of the ammo stowage. Due to it's bad reverse speed it is relatively restricted when it comes to retreat.

Armour type: The whole Hull: High Hardness Armor, Inside armor: Front: Contact-5 ERA and composite armor | Turret: Cast Homogenous Armor, Contact-5 ERA on the turret face and upper back side of the turret, inside: composite armor | Sideskirts: High Hardness Armor (17 mm), Contact-5 ERA | Rubber sideskirts (10mm) | Some (not necessary) parts made of construction steel

Notes: The armor thickness varies a lot. The effective armor values are often higher than the actual part(steel) is thick.

Suspension: Suspension wheels are 20 mm; the tracks are 20 mm, the suspension itself is also 20 mm

Mobility

Motor: Klimov GTD-1250, Gas turbine | Power: 1106 horsepowers, 3154 rotations per minute

Gearbox: 9 gears forward, 1 gear backwards | Max speed forward: 70 km/h ( 43.5 mph) | max speed backwards: 11 km/h (6.8 mph)

Modifications and economy

Armaments

Main armament

Ammunition

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the T 80 U (Sweden)

Notes:

• The T 80 U (Sweden) uses two-piece ammunition, composed of projectiles (yellow) and propellant bags (orange). Both have separate racks.
• Projectiles and charges are modeled individually and disappear after having been shot or loaded.
• The T 80 U's first stage ammo rack consists of a mechanized carousel at the bottom of the turret which carries 28 propellants and 28 projectiles.

Machine guns

Usage in battles

The Swedish T 80 U plays just like its counterparts in the Russian tree, albeit without access to the more powerful 3BM46 APFSDS round. It is mobile and can fulfill the role of a good all-round MBT, and can serve as a good backup to the Strv 122s at top tier. It is worth noting that top APFSDS rounds that have close to 600mm of penetration can penetrate its front plate.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Ability to use ATGMs
• Has access to 1st generation thermal sights and a laser rangefinder for spotting and sniping
• Effective armour at its BR, protected by ERA effective against non-tandem ATGMs and some APFSDS rounds
• Effective acceleration in muddy terrain
• Consistent 6.5 second reload rate regardless of remaining crew and crew skill
• Lower BR gives it more favorable matchmaking

Cons

• Does not have access to 3BM46 unlike its Russian counterparts
• Slow reverse speed compared to its contemporaries in the Swedish tech tree
• Sluggish vertical targeting speed
• Frontal armour on the underbody of the vehicle does not protect against APFSDS projectiles at all
• Thermals are a separate mod from NVDs like its Russian counterparts

History

At the end of 1993, following the de-escalation after the end of the Cold War, the Swedish army created a programme for the procurement of new MBTs, and held a competition between different tanks. Both NATO and Russia participated, Russia was specially interested in securing a contract with the Swedish Army, since it had been forced to reduce its military spending after the Cold War.

The T-80U arrived late to the competition and was not able to directly compete with the M1A1 Abrams presented by the USA, the Leclerc by France, and the Leopard 2 by Germany. At the end of the competition, the government announced that the Leopard 2 would be acquired and would serve as Sweden's main battle tank during the following years. Thus the Leopard 2A4 was adopted (and later more modern versions) with some Swedish modifications and entered service as the Strv 121.

While some reports remain classified, some information about the reports was made available for the public.

• The results concluded that the T-80U was easy and quick to prepare for shallow fording.
• Its ability to reposition was severely limited thanks to its low reverse speed compared to NATO MBTs.
• The crew had good visibility during daytime but the driver struggled a lot when driving in darkness.
• Compared to the Strv 104, it was much faster to accelerate and had a much higher top speed. Its suspension was also very good and allowed high speed movement without much crew discomfort.
• Performance against obstacles was good, although limited by the lack of self-cleaning tracks, so it tended to lose traction.

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the T 80 U (Sweden) from live.warthunder.com.

See also

• T-80UK
• T-80U

External links

• [Wikipedia] T-80
• [Swedish Tank Archives] - Report from terrain trials with T-80U
• [Defense Express] - Why T-72M1 and T-80U Tanks Lost to Leopard 2A4 during 1994 Tests in Sweden