On CNN, Soviet Generals Looked On in Shock as U.S. Forces Destroyed Their T-72 Tanks скачать в хорошем качестве

On CNN, Soviet Generals Looked On in Shock as U.S. Forces Destroyed Their T-72 Tanks

In January 1991, Soviet generals watched CNN footage of the Gulf War with mounting dread. Their T-72 tanks were being destroyed with surgical precision by an enemy Iraqi crews couldn't see. American M1 Abrams tanks were engaging at ranges thought impossible, at night when combat was supposed to be blind work. The Abrams was born from crisis. By the late 1960s, American tanks were obsolete, and the Soviets were fielding superior designs in overwhelming numbers. The failed MBT-70 program left the Army desperate. The solution came through three revolutionary technologies: thermal imaging that made night transparent, British Chobham composite armor that dispersed kinetic energy through layered materials, and a German 120mm gun firing depleted uranium penetrators that self-sharpened as they penetrated. Desert Storm proved the concept. At the Battle of 73 Easting, American tanks destroyed over a hundred Iraqi armored vehicles in twenty-three minutes through sandstorms and darkness. Iraqi T-72 rounds that did hit American tanks failed to penetrate. Some Abrams took multiple direct hits and kept fighting. American units achieved kill ratios exceeding fifty to one. The implications were inescapable. Soviet doctrine relied on overwhelming NATO through acceptable losses and numerical superiority. The Abrams shattered that mathematics. When one American tank could kill dozens before being destroyed, numbers became irrelevant. Matching this technology would cost hundreds of billions of rubles the collapsing Soviet economy didn't have. The generals understood what politicians took years to accept. The technology gap was unbridgeable. The arms race was lost. By December 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist.