Ukrainian Paratroopers Prefer Their Speedy T-80BV Tanks

Pressure is mounting on the German government to sign off on various European countries’ proposals to donate German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

But German officials told The Wall Street Journal they wouldn’t approve the Leopard 2s unless U.S. officials agreed to give Ukraine some of America’s own M-1 tanks. Think of the U.S. tanks as diplomatic cover for the Germans.

There’s one main reason Ukrainian forces might prefer Leopard 2s, however. The gas-turbine-powered M-1 drinks 80-percent more fuel than the diesel-powered Leopard 2 does over the same distance.

That inefficiency isn’t a deal-breaker for every army. The U.S. Army for one could afford to expand its logistics in order to transition to a turbine tank force. The Ukrainian army might do the same in the event the United States offers M-1s.

It’s worth noting that Ukrainian troops do have some experience with gas-turbine tanks, albeit in limited numbers and in niche roles. The Ukrainian army’s airborne corps prefers the turbine T-80BV over diesel tanks owing to the T-80BV’s superior acceleration and speed. And the corps apparently doesn’t mind the T-80BV’s relative inefficiency.

The 42-ton, three-person T-80BV has a 1,000-horsepower turbine engine that normally burns aviation gas but can, in theory, burn any liquid hydrocarbon fuel. Even kerosene. The 70-ton M-1 can pull the same trick.

The turbine gives the T-80BV a top speed of around 50 miles per hour on-road—up to 10 miles per hour faster than the diesel T-72. But the T-72 can range 300 miles on internal fuel, whereas the T-80BV runs out of gas after 200 miles.

Choose one: range or speed. Ukraine’s airborne corps chose speed. The corps assigns a company of around 10 T-80BV tanks to many of its 10 or so brigades. The speedy tanks lend firepower to brigades that otherwise mostly ride around in nimble, but lightly-armed, wheeled armored vehicles.

We can confirm T-80BVs in the force-structure of the airborne corps’ 25th, 46th, 79th, 80th, 81st and 95th brigades—as well as in an apparent new unit that began forming around November.

It’s worth asking where the T-80BVs came from. Ukraine’s Kharkiv tank plant mostly produced diesel-powered T-80UDs—and these generally for the export market. But the factory did manufacture a few small batches of the turbine T-80BVs starting no later than 2015.

Still, the turbine T-80BVs were rare enough that, as recently as early 2022, the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London didn’t list any of the tanks in the Ukrainian order of battle.

In any event, Russia’s wider war on Ukraine actually has represented an opportunity for the Ukrainian airborne brigades to boost their tank holdings. Russia’s own airborne forces brought hundreds of T-80BVs to Ukraine, and have abandoned nearly 80 of them. The Ukrainians meanwhile have lost around 40 T-80BVs of their own, for a net gain of 40 turbine tanks.

The T-80BV nevertheless is a relative rarity in an army with many hundreds of diesel T-64s and T-72s plus a growing number of ex-NATO diesel tanks—M-55Ss, Challenger 2s and Leopard 2s—that are on the way.

Turbine tanks might get a lot less rare in Ukrainian service if the United States ends up donating some of its thousands of surplus M-1s.

The thirsty American tanks could tax the Ukrainian army’s logistical system. But having sustained the equally thirsty T-80BV, the Ukrainians at least know what they might be getting into.