Steven Zaloga

The T-80 tank was meant to be the ultimate Soviet main battle tank (MBT), entering the Soviet arsenal around the same time as the new NATO generation American M1 Abrams, British Challenger, and German Leopard 2. It was not a new design, but rather an evolutionary reconsideration of the T-64A tank. In the event, the T-80 proved to be deeply troubled, offering modest advances over the existing T-64A and T-72 tanks, yet being considerably more costly due to the use of a powerful but thirsty gas-turbine engine.