Why Russian tanks are vulnerable to catastrophic explosions

Russian tanks are considered armoured coffins for a reason. A relatively small internal damage can lead to a massive explosion. Here's how it's possible.

The video below shows a lightly smoking tank from the T-80 or T-72/90 family, which explodes with tremendous force shortly after. After the fact, little remains of the machine and the turret, thrown several metres into the air, fall a few metres away.

Russian tanks are designed based on requirements from the Soviet nuclear experiment described by Łukasz Michalik. Due to these design requirements, Russian tanks from the T-64, T-80, T-72, and T-90 families are equipped with a carousel autoloader. However, some differences exist between the Malyshev Factory designs in Kharkiv and the Uralvagonzavod in Nizhny Tagil.

In the Malyshev Factory designs, the autoloader is more complicated and provides slightly higher firing rates combined with a larger ammunition reserve (28 rounds). It is also worth noting that the rounds are placed horizontally while the propellant charges are vertically.

On the other hand, in the T-72 and T-90 machines, the autoloader is slightly simpler, resulting in a lower firing rate and a smaller ammunition reserve (22 rounds). In these cases, both the rounds and the propellant charges are laid out horizontally.

However, the ammunition magazines in both designs are not isolated from the crew, and in the event of an explosion, it does not matter much whether the crew is sitting on top of the ammunition or surrounded by it. Furthermore, the rounds in the autoloader represent only about half of the maximum ammunition reserve, as the rest of the rounds and propellant charges are scattered in holders throughout the tank.

This lack of ammunition isolation and the inability to vent the explosion force outward means that any fire within the tank or the penetration of a cumulative jet into its interior guarantees an immediate, or delayed by a few seconds, huge explosion resulting in the turret being torn off.

This is a different approach compared to modern Western tanks like the Leopard 2, M1A2 Abrams, or Leclerc, where the ammunition is placed at the back of the turret and isolated from the crew by a steel plate. Additionally, the ammunition magazine in these tanks has weak points that, in the event of an ammunition explosion, direct the explosion force outward.

This is very important because even in the event of armor penetration of a Western tank, there is a small risk of the entire crew dying if they are not in the path of the cumulative jet. For example, one of the Ukrainian tankers serving on an M1A1 Abrams mentioned that in the case of one hit, the driver lost a leg, but survived, as did the rest of the crew.