Modern Main Battle Tanks ( MBT )

In my opinion spec by spec comparison, the M1 Abram would be better, but each tank are built according to their doctrine and the T-72 fit its doctrine perfectly.

JayBird said:

From online military forums, the Russian members always claimed the Iraqi T-72 was just expert monkey version of their T-72. And that's the reason for it's bad performance during the Gulf War against the coalition forces. But I don't know how accurate their claims are. Maybe is true or they just don't want to admit the Russian tanks were just not as good as western tanks.

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I believe it to be true. Iraqi t72s the M1 fought against were crap versions. With that being said even the 'standard' T72 were probably still no match for the m1s.

Couple that with much lesser training, almost non existent c4isr environment and zero air superiority of any kind it's not a surprise at all the battles were so lopsided.

Up until that point the Iraqi army including the fame republican guards have never ever met any opfor with advanced training, superior weapons systems and elite tacticians before.

They were going head to head with an army who are experts in tank warfare, in maneuver warfare, combined arms etc. They were facing a force that has spent the last 25 years training and honing their skills to fight conventional Warsaw Pact armor, mechanized infantry and land forces rolling through Western Europe. Saddam's army never had a chance in any sort of conventional warfare.

kwaigonegin said:

I believe it to be true. Iraqi t72s the M1 fought against were crap versions. With that being said even the 'standard' T72 were probably still no match for the m1s.

Couple that with much lesser training, almost non existent c4isr environment and zero air superiority of any kind it's not a surprise at all the battles were so lopsided.

Up until that point the Iraqi army including the fame republican guards have never ever met any opfor with advanced training, superior weapons systems and elite tacticians before.

They were going head to head with an army who are experts in tank warfare, in maneuver warfare, combined arms etc. They were facing a force that has spent the last 25 years training and honing their skills to fight conventional Warsaw Pact armor, mechanized infantry and land forces rolling through Western Europe. Saddam's army never had a chance in any sort of conventional warfare.

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Not to mentioned that the US have OpFor Training

ahho said:

Definitely a good video. They detailed the advantage that the US had which is technology. (GPS, Thermal Sight, motorized turret with auto stabilizer). This video even gave credit to what the Iraq army did with their tactics and maneuvers. They even mentioned that T-72 was a good tank for its time, but what Iraq have was already obsolete.

I am curious, by 1991 I am pretty sure that the Russians have the same tech, how did Iraq not anticipate it. Auto Stabilized turret already came out for t-62. I am pretty sure Russian have thermal imaging and even GLONASS. With WW2 documentary, airplanes with land radar were doing triangular positioning (I not too sure if that was the right term) and they can locate where they are. How would Iraq not know this? They can navigate through the desert using the technology.

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Iraqis can anticipate it all but what are they gonna do about it? Clearly there wasn't much they could do about it in conventional combat. So come 2003 they adopted guerilla warfare/"people's war" but even with that there wasn't much they could do about anything in terms of combat. The overwhelming superiority demonstrated by US military technology in the 1991 Gulf War is indisputable, and we only looked at tanks here.

The US was already amassing troops and weapons in Kuwait prior to the 1991 Gulf War, giving Iraq ample warning. The fact that they confidently rolled into Iraq in a convoy, exposing their flanks to attacks defiantly, showed how lopsided the power of the two sides. Iraq had no chance.

IDF breaks 33-year silence on M48 Tamuz missile launcher

T-14 fire test !

T-14 and Plant to Nizhny Tagil

Too bad I didn't understand Russian, but I wonder if they mentioned why there was a stall on the T-14 during the parade.

T-72 Upgrade with Urban Warfare Kit displayed at RAE-2015 ( Photos )