Russia calls its upgraded T-80 a stealthy ‘assassin’ tank

Russian state defense conglomerate Rostec has described its T-80BVM main battle tank as an “assassin,” claiming the gas turbine-powered vehicle is quiet and well camouflaged enough to make fast, unnoticed flanking moves on the battlefield.

In a promotional statement, Rostec said the modernized tank can play several roles: a “steel battering ram” that breaks through enemy defenses while firing under swarms of FPV drones, a “sniper” that works with a spotter drone to hit targets about 10 km away with a couple of shots, and an “assassin” that relies on its engine and camouflage to slip around enemy flanks.

“It’s also an assassin which, thanks to a quiet and powerful gas turbine engine and camouflage, can make fast and unnoticed flanking maneuvers,” Rostec said, in remarks translated from Russian.

Rostec also called the T-80BVM a “flying” tank, a reference to the T-80’s well-known jumps off dirt ramps at Russian military shows, and said that same ability reflects the tank’s mobility, speed and performance on difficult ground.

The T-80BVM is an upgrade of the Soviet-era T-80BV and it is powered by a GTD-1250 gas turbine engine rated at 1,250 horsepower and armed with a 125 mm 2A46M-1 smoothbore gun, and Rostec listed a modernized fire control system, new all-around armor protection and guided missiles fired through the gun barrel among its main features. The company did not give further details, saying it would describe other features later.

Rostec’s claim that the gas turbine runs more quietly than diesel engines is the company’s own assessment. Gas turbine engines give the T-80 strong acceleration and help it start in extreme cold, but they burn considerably more fuel than the diesel engines used in Russia’s T-72 and T-90 tanks, and the T-80 family has long been criticized for its high fuel consumption.

The “sniper” role Rostec describes, in which tanks fire at targets well beyond line of sight with corrections from drones, has become common in the war in Ukraine, where both sides often use tanks as mobile artillery to avoid being spotted and destroyed by drones at close range.

Russia has used the T-80BVM extensively in Ukraine, where the T-80 family has suffered heavy losses to drones, anti-tank missiles and mines.

The open-source monitoring group Oryx, which counts only losses confirmed by photos or video, has documented 1,311 T-80-series tanks destroyed, damaged, abandoned or captured, including 264 T-80BVMs: 150 of the standard version and 114 of the 2022 model. The total also includes 712 older T-80BVs, 148 T-80BVs of the 2022 model, 107 T-80Us and 53 T-80s whose exact variant could not be identified. Uralvagonzavod, Rostec’s main tank maker, has continued to upgrade stored T-80BV hulls to the T-80BVM standard and deliver them to Russian forces, and Rostec has not said how many it has built.