Jim Warford

One of the first good photos of a T-80BV to be released by the US/NATO back in the old days. When it first appeared, the story I heard was that in this particular case, a Soviet GSFG soldier wanted to show his girlfriend his tank...and allowed her to take photos of him in the driver seat. There is another version of this photo out on the Net with the boyfriend's face blocked-off. I can only imagine that there was hell to pay when this photo hit the street...    
 

 

It's like finding a photo of Bigfoot...
 
SU-122-54 in Roznava 1968:

A very nice scale model from MiniArt...
 

 
 

Two of my pics of Fury from Tankfest last summer...
 

 

 
 
 

Two of my pics of Fury from Tankfest last summer...
 

 

 
 
 

It's like finding a photo of Bigfoot...
 
SU-122-54 in Roznava 1968:

BRIXMIS photo...GSFG T-80BV:
 

 

Walter; that's actually my Master's Thesis I wrote while attending the Command and General Staff College. It includes some of the same info I used in that ARMOR magazine article. Blacktail is the worst kind of critic; one with no background or experience on the topic at hand, simply lashing out to generate a response. His writings and level of expertise are only embarrassing and have been disproven by layer upon layer of reaction and response by the tank and AFV community. I finally stopped responding to his nonsense when I realized that I was most likely responding to some kid on a laptop in his parent's basement.            

Four Ukrainian-supplied "T-80UDs" arrive at Aberdeen Proving Grounds (Dec 2003-Jan 2004)...
 

 

Jan 1, 1984: USMLM gained access to the T-64B...
 

 
 

First public confirmation of T-72s acquired by the US...
 

 
 

First public confirmation of T-72s acquired by the US...
 

 
 

First public confirmation of T-72s acquired by the US...
 

 
 

"Fury" from Tankfest 2018...

 
 

Here are the pics related to the Oct 1979 intel report on the T-80. The pic was actually taken "prior to 1976." The higher quality version didn't become available until much later... 

 

Here are the pics related to the Oct 1979 intel report on the T-80. The pic was actually taken "prior to 1976." The higher quality version didn't become available until much later... 

 

Walter; thanks...glad to be here! Yup, I'm pretty consistent in that regard. 
 
By the way, congrats on your website...it's grown into a must-visit place on the Net.    

"Fury" from Tankfest 2018...

 
 

"Fury" from Tankfest 2018...

 
 

Not true...that drawing was published in the 1981 edition of the Pentagon's annual journal, "Soviet Military Power." That journal was primarily a propaganda tool used by the US DOD and it included many hypothetical drawings over the years to include this infamous "T-80." While it's true that there was some confusion around identifying the T-80 exactly (which was finally corrected for the public in that unclassified journal in the 1986 edition), classified reporting regarding the T-80 had already been in use for many years before the published photo in 1986. A CIA report published in Oct 1979 (2 years before the release of the hypothetical drawing above), for example, confirms the first sighting of the actual T-80 with a photo. 

The ELKE test bed like many of its experimental cousins mounted the ARES "Super 75" 75mm main gun. This was an impressive gun with performance above and beyond what was expected from it's size. Here are a few pics of the Super 75 APFSDS round being live-fire tested against a fully loaded T-54...
 

 

 

 
  

That Type 59 is fitted with an unusual British 105mm main gun (along with other new components), as part of a British-Chinese upgrade project. Here's a better pic from Tankfest 2018 last week...