ArmouredBehemot

10/09/2023

Three vehicles of the same class yet so different in terms of armor geometry and external equipment placement.

I really admire how Leopard and Abrams keep vulnerable systems away from most probable hit areas

08/09/2023

Not only M1 I had occasion to take pictures of ^^

Wonderful images presenting K2 - most modern tank in Polish Army

07/09/2023

This year I have a unique opportunity to shot details of M1A1FEP.

Tanks of this type were recently acquired by Polish Army and displayed at MSPO. It is worth mentioning that specimen is equipped in rare RCWS - part of AIDATS systems.

Enjoy these pictures, while I gather some more info.

06/09/2023

Very surprising news

On MSPO exhibition Hyundai presented K2 model integrated with Trophy APS instead of Korean KAPS. As their employee state, its not a final design and is a subject of discussion / testing.

I suspect it might be influenced by polish acquirement of M1A2 also equipped in Trophy. Maintaining single type of APS even on two different platforms would simplify the process.

The real tank on the first picture represents the standard version of K2.

See You

24/07/2023

Possibilities are unlimited…

Second picture documents use of spare shell casings as an additional armor 😛
Other two show more standard yet still creative approach to composing special protection

03/07/2023

Pictures of K-1 protected Leopard 2A4 CAN were published recently. It shows a rather complex way of mounting additional armor, proving how valuable these tanks are for Ukrainian Army.

Note T-80U style rubber screens on the front of the turret.

30/06/2023

Turkish modernization of M60 tank offering a new turret system with an automatic loading system, remotely controlled machine gun station and composite armor.

Turret can also be fitted for T-72 family.

27/06/2023

Do You remember Burlak turret project for T-80 and T-72? It seems some new version was deployed in combat recently what makes it the very first combat appearance of such system.

Just to remind: Burlak was the project of creating below the turret ring crew turret system with autoloader placed in the special space behind.

05/10/2022

General dynamics decided it’s not time for just an upgrade. We’ve got a revolution here!

- unmanned turret
- hybrid power pack
- fully integrated Trophy
- autoloader
- new optical systems
- improved protection
- reduced mass
- M360 120mm gun

What a time to be alive 😊

02/10/2022

So what kind of protection do You want?
All of them.

01/10/2022

Very unusual mix of side skirts protection spotted on T-90M.
Armor is placed asymmetrically and consists of both light K-5 and Relikt.

I don’t see any reason why such a configuration could be created. The only reasonable explanation could be if there is some serious ERA shortage or this particular tank was taking part in combat earlier and it’s protection was damaged.

26/09/2022

Couple of months ago we’ve seen the “new Abrams” promotional graphics.

Now GDLS revealed this video showing a little bit more about the upcoming M1 upgrade proposal called “AbramsX”.

There isn’t much visible but for sure we can expect the narrower turret to be used in the X version. What immediately comes to my mind is a three man crew supported by the autoloader as it is done in KF 51.

It’s going to be the greatest premiere of the modern armored world!

24/09/2022

АЗ (AZ) lifts in T-90M and T-72B.

Both of these tanks utilize the same type of autoloader but in T-90M some of its design flaws were finally solved.

What flaws do I mean? Imagine that as AZ was designed for T-72 so for a cheap tank it had to be cheap itself and one of marks of it was its carousel inability to rotate both directions 😀

It was able to rotate clockwise only so if one had round of desired type in the next position counter clockwise the carousel had to make almost full 360 turn to reach it.

The other issue was the order of loading sequence. In older T-72 it was like:
-current shell being fired
-carousel selecting the next round
-lift and rammer loading the gun
The problem was that the carousel couldn’t select the next round before firing current shell (and it could take a while as I wrote above).
In newer upgrades AZ is capable of preselecting the next round.

Complicated matter as always.

23/09/2022

We’ve seen many weirdly armored Soviet tanks since the beginning of the conflict.

K-1 coverage was usually leading among other ways of providing additional protection to older vehicles and I believe that it actually might be quite reasonable despite its age.

Let me explain. I’ve got the theory that it is a general directive to cover vehicles using this kind of armor but no one really tells soldiers what is the real reason they are supposed to do it.

I believe while crews think it increase their chances to stay alive it’s actually meant to push UA anti tank operators to use more advanced, available in smaller numbers systems like Spike instead of RPG which theoretically wouldn’t guarantee a successful hit after K-1 in some circumstances.

It’s all about decreasing Ukrainian ammunition reserve 🤷‍♂️

Buffed T-80BV below ⬇️

22/09/2022

So apparently Russians have lost couple of very rare T-72B3 Образца 2014

This version of T-72 was in fact known only from taking part in the tank biathlon competition and could easily be distinguished by presence of ПК-ПАН commander’s panoramic sight

I never enjoy seeing such a small quantity equipment being destroyed 😞

https://twitter.com/uaweapons/status/1573015274055426048?s=46&t=7gKrzIvUMk-xbJQaXgpziw

22/09/2022

I’m not sure whether MSPO posting will ever end after this years event 😛

I had an opportunity to play Leopard 2 simulator with dedicated controllers and it actually gave me an interesting insight in what it feels like to operate the main gun.

*I wrote something wrong here so edited it out 😛 *

21/09/2022

Minor upgrade spotted on some M1s is rear mudguards addition. They seem to appear in many options like solid rubber sheets or rubber strings on one or both sides.
It’s role is probably to give protection from dirt buildup over fragile systems like an infantry phone.
But why wasn’t it present before one may ask. My assumption is that earlier problems caused by European soil weren’t fully discovered.
Here how it was made in MSPO Abrams

19/09/2022

Now this is a great picture!

On the right is a standard T-64BV, nothing uncommon in this war.

On the left though we can see the very early T-72 with searchlight placed on the left side of the gun. This tank still utilizes the coincidence rangefinder 😀 and K-1 coverage has to be the field upgrade.

I really wait for T-55 now

19/09/2022

A very significant moment has come and I couldn’t be happier to be able to see the interior of T-90M.
Ukrainians managed to capture this tank after it lost it’s track.

UA tank mechanic review of this unit in comments

15/09/2022

TPN-1-49-23T thermal sight. Yes it isn’t ТПН because I mean the Polish sight enclosed in the old soviet casing. During last days of MSPO I found a very surprising exposition - PZO (Polish optical factories) presented their proposition of brand new thermal sight possible to be mounted in T-72 tanks without need of any changes either in turret nor gunner station.
In the future I may prepare some more information about this and other products they make.

13/09/2022

Leopard 2PL was officially released a while ago but still remains an interesting vehicle. As it received the new commanders thermal optics I was curious how does it perform in comparison with the original gunners thermal imager. It’s known that WBG-X (old gunner sight) is an old, first generation solution, so in terms of image quality Asteria (new commander and gunner) delivers far better performance. But I was intrigued by other factor - zoom values. WBG-X offers x4 and x12 magnification and according to conversation I had during MSPO, Asteria for both commander and gunner offers magnification of x5.8 and 18.2. However tho there’s also x2 and x4 achieved by digital zoom. Pretty interesting 🤔

12/09/2022

It’s absolutely horrible how many people are associated with spreading false information relating to the Ukraine defense. Just here we can see someone trying to put the newest M1 in the main role of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Don’t be like this. Help M1 page admin and share his post like I did 🤞🏻

FAKE NEWS

Let´s stop the disinformation, guys, this is a photoshopped photo of an U.S. Army´s M1A2 SEP v3 Main Battle Tank from 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, participating in a training exercise the past month at Fort Stewart, Georgia, in the United States, not in Ukraine.

Not a single Abrams Tank has been sent to Ukraine and you can be sure none will be sent anytime soon.

First of all: the Ukrainian Tankers have no experience nor training in western Main Battle Tanks, but on Soviet/Russian style tanks. You simply cannot learn how to fully operate an Abrams Tank in just 1 week.
Second: The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and General Dynamics Land Systems already have a plenty of pending orders of Abrams tanks from other countries like Australia, Kuwait, Poland, and Taiwan to name a few, there is also an ongoing modernization of the U.S. Army Abrams Tank fleet whose deliveries of SEP v3´s are being prioritized over the deliveries of Abrams Tanks to other countries. Even if a sale or donation of Abrams Tanks to Ukraine is approved, their delivery could take years.

Here you can find the original photo which was uploaded by the guys from Black Wolf Company, 3-67 AR, 2ABCT, 3ID:
https://www.facebook.com/BlackWolfCompany/photos/pcb.1410878902767216/1410873109434462

08/09/2022

Today I was talking with Hyundai employee about the newly presented K2NO model. It appears to be influenced by Norway trials but still a very early vision of the project.
According to the information I got Norway ministry of defense didn’t form final requirements K2NO will be build around.
Below are pictures of each K2 variant: K2, K2PL and K2NO

07/09/2022

Korea really seems to be into Polish partnerships, not seeing Poland only as a potential buyer of their machines. Interesting especially after Polish ministry of defense decided it won’t really request a serious changes in K2PL variant

07/09/2022

Very interestingly we have a wrecked T-72B here. Wonderful opportunity to take detail shots of it!

06/09/2022

As You may know the MSPO just started. During upcoming days I’ll post news related to this event ^^ for now thought here are pretty nice pictures of every major Leopard version serving Polish army

22/07/2022

250 M1A2SEP v.3 and 116 M1A1SA and it’s still not the finish of Polish ministry of defense armor purchases streak 😛
Today’s morning minister Mariusz Błaszczak publicly confirmed Polish army bought 180 K2 tanks. It isn’t known whether machines will be provided in native Korean version or adjusted to Polish needs.
What’s gonna be next? Challengers? :D

15/07/2022

Maybe You remember the Polish Abrams contract nobody really believed in? There is another one 😂
Mariusz Błaszczak from ministry of defense confirmed that Poland wants to acquire also older M1 versions to refill empty positions after providing T-72 to Ukraine 🇺🇦

21/06/2022

There will be a crazy event hosted in Warsaw in the upcoming future. Exposition of destroyed Russian tanks currently displayed in Kiev will be carried around Europe starting with Polish capital city.
Will keep You updated

13/06/2022

Recently the promotion banner for new Abrams upgrade was leaked and just today new Leopard got released.
Insane how much is going on in matter of armored weapons