Russian Lancet Drone Takes Out Rare Ukrainian T-80 Tank in Kursk

The Russian Defence mInistry has released footage of a Lancet drone strike on a Ukrainian Army T-80 main battle tank in Russia’s Kursk Region, where Ukrainian forces and associated Western contractor groups have launched a major offensive. The tank was shown firing ant an unknown target when it was destroyed, with a hit behind its engine compartment causing it to catch fire and then explode. There were no sighs that the crew survived. The tank appeared to be part of a Ukrainian battle group positioned on a road. The kill against a T-80 tank is notable due to the vehicle’s status as one of the most capable in the Ukrainian inventory, and according to several sources the most formidable tank class the country fields. Ukraine notably fielded no T-80 tanks when hostilities with Russia firs escalated in February 2022, with the vehicles placed in storage due to their high operational costs. The most capable T-80 variant the country fielded, the T-80UD, saw almost all units sold to Pakistan in the 1990s. The result is that T-80s are relatively few and far between in Ukrainian service. 

The T-80 was the most capable tank class to enter service in the Soviet Army during the Cold War, and although enhanced variants of the cheaper and lower end T-72 were favoured over it for continued production in Russia after the USSR disintegrated, culminating in the development of the T-90M as a much improved T-72 derivative, the T-80 has been favoured by Russian forces on the frontlines in Ukraine. The tanks were inherited in considerable numbers by Russia, Ukraine and Belarus in 1991, resulting in them being fielded on both sides in the Russian-Ukrainian War. One of its most distinguishing features was its use of a gas turbine engine, was otherwise seen only on the American M1 Abrams tanks, while other tank classes including the T-72 and T-90 using diesel engines which were significantly cheaper both to manufacture and to maintain. With the tanks being deployed in growing numbers by the Russian Army, a decision was announced in September 2023 to restart production almost a quarter century after production lines closed.

Insight into the performance of the T-80 was provided by an unnamed commander of one of the tanks in the Russian Army in the Zaporozhye region, emphasising that the reliability and manoeuvrability of the vehicles was superior to other tanks such as the German-suppled Leopards being widely used by Ukrainian forces. "The same Leopards are drowning in the mud, they are constantly, constantly drowning. We can observed from drones how they are being taken out [of the mud]. Our vehicle has a gas turbine engine, it is not afraid of mud or slush, it flies over all potholes. This is the difference that allows our tank units to operate in any weather, support infantry and overcome enemy trenches and dugouts without slowing down," he observed. With Ukraine’s Western built tanks continuing to take unsustainable losses, the fact that its T-80s and lower end T-64s are also irreplaceable has boded ill for the future of its armoured warfare capabilities.