Quote:
Originally Posted by Skybird
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On a side-note, Cobrabase has an extensive Youtube channel, 140 videos about SBP and tank-related stuff. He did two well-done explanatory videos where he compares the Leo-2A5 with the M1A1HA, and the frightening (in its time) frontal armour of the T-80U with Western weapons and Western tanks. I think he misses or ignores two or three points in the M1-Leo2 comparison, but in general I think he really got the stuff nicely and correctly together. Maybe there will be something like that for the Leopard-2A6 and the M1A2(SEP) in the future, I would really know what he has to say.
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Yet I think completely otherwise! T-80U frontal armor data are bad joke because this tank has second generation ERA called K-5 atop of its basic armor. But this comes with two main drawbacks:
- K-5 does not constitute any reliable defense against more modern APFSDS (KE) 120 mm rounds
- not all frontal T-80U arc is covered by Contact-5. It has better coverage than T-72BM/T-90 family of tanks but far from being perfect
I don't know if SBPro guys will finally implement proper ERA - tandem HEAT warhead interaction but lack of this feature makes all T-80U and other ERA equipped tanks very unrealistic vehicles in this game.
Anyway T-80U tanks appeared in larger (but not very large as older Soviet tanks!) numbers in the late 1980s. In this time US Army introduced tandem ATGMs of TOW-2A type (armor penetration ~800-900 mm RHA behind ERA) or even more potent top-attack TOW-2B missiles. So T-80U armor was not sufficient against best anti-tank weapon of American mechanized forces even then. As for Western tanks I would say if K-5 is not well suited to defeat more modern Western 120 mm APFSDS rounds, T-80U tank has to count only on its basic armor. It is not significantly "thicker" than T-80B frontal armor being in 500-600 mm range vs KE rounds. In sum at 1.5 km range 120 mm Western tank guns could destroy T-80U using M829A1 (IOC 1990), M829A2 (IOC 1993) and not fielded in Germany DM43A1 (R&D 1993) contemporary KE rounds with quite high probability, however HEAT rounds would be much less effective. Of course now T-80U is just sitting duck against modern Western APFSDS round of M829A3, DM63, M338 types.