Russia's Tank Biathlon

siegecrossbow

General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Oh well... I stand corrected then.
Either way they were given a close inspection of a T72 upgrade and most of the teams that were there were users of older model T72.

During the 2013 Tank Biathlon, United States and some other NATO countries sent delegations and they all ended up using T-72s. I wonder if they had to overcome a learning curve.
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Depends on the unit, Members of the US 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment based at Ft. Erwin have access to a number of Russian and Chinese built military vehicles that are occasionally mixed with modified American vehicles for Opfor training.
The German Army had tons of Warsaw pact surplus left post Reunification I would imagine that a number of there tankers would still be familiar with the T72.
Poland still operates T72 models as there main MBT.
 

delft

Brigadier
I don't think you would ever have seen M1 or Leopard or Challenger 2 competing, of all the Nato forces I would have to say in the Military to Military relations maybe the French might have been interested... Maybe.
The US government even before the breakdown of relations tried to keep relations between Governments limited mostly to nuclear disarmament and Space technologies. The British government has other issues with the Russians because but seems to have a very very narrow focus on the Mil to Mil
The Germans and most of the Leopard 2 states seem more a civilian relationship less Mil to Mil. The French by contrast were more then Happy to sell Russia hard ware until The EU and NATO sanctioned Russia.
Also remember the Canadian Trophy I mentioned? A NATO wide competition to see who had the bed tanks and Crews? The Last full competition was in the 1990s since then the competition has dropped to just the US and Canadian teams. Sending a tank to competition is not cheap and most of NATO seems happy with what they have. Competing against each other has fallen out of favor since the belief that tank on tank was dead set in in the early 1990s, even today its hard to change that back.
And if NATO was looking to complete your probably not likely to see the Nato states looking to join a Russian tank marketing stunt or allowing close inspections by Russian military of top of the line Tanks.
perhaps but again a nation with some issues with the Host nation, a limited budget for competition and publicly stunts who only recently opened up to the potential of mil to mil exports and using a tank that is still sporting the factory sticker.

The Russian Chinese Mil to Mil relationship is strong currently that's part of the reason why China participates, getting Chinese Tanks into Russia is easier then European or American thanks to rail lines and political ties as well as budgets.
the tanks sent are known factors with known tech and not top of the line secret laden models, and the PLA is more then happy to show they can keep up with there inferior tank model well still being confident in the T99 back home.
I agree with much of what you say but I want to remind you of the railways from Western Europe, and UK - Channel Tunnel, to Russia. They have the same trouble with the rail gauge, 1520 mm in Russia, 1435 mm in the other countries.
 

mobydog

Junior Member
Hey, the biathlon started 2 days ago.
2 and half hour of boring reporting from static point and distant screen grab.

But for the life of me. I didn't see and type 96a anywhere, nor was i able detect any chinese personnels around. Not even at the hq area.

Did the chinese participate at all ?

Looking at some of the obstacle, i suspect type 96a power comes at a disadvantage. Mainly, The deep water trench that eaten 3 t-72 , the 2nd steep hill and the meter plus high step wall. I suspect the obstacle course was designed for t-72 advantage.
 

Tyloe

Junior Member
No the Chinese team wasn't in this round. This was one race with teams from Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Mongolia and Angola. Type 96As will be racing sometime in these coming days. Also the biathlon teams are classifed in groups. Group one is Armenia, India and China, group two: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Kuwait, and group three: Venezuela, Nicaragua and Serbia.
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
A horrific incident with Kuwait's team when their tank lost control and rolled over. No news on the condition of the crew members yet...
And that is why you do not Drift in a Tank... I have no Idea how they pulled that off but it's obvious they were moving very very fast ( for a Tank) and side ways at that the vehicle then came to a sudden stop and it's top heavy nature cause it to flip.
 
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