"Soviet Tank Cemetery ... " Topic

I came across some pics of a Soviet tank graveyard…
link
That has to be a BIG crane to get those tanks on top of each other…

Actually that was just a small fender bender involving some new recruits on the first day of "Reverse Gear" training.

Looks like the microarmor box of a few guys I've seen at conventions.

Reminds me of the last 40K game I watched. Those IG tank armies don't fit in their setup zones very well. :)

I would hope that's not a lot of ERA adorning some of those tanks, just left out in the open, in what looks like a very poorly secured environment.

Duck

Unsafe practices and Russia? Never – those people are hot on safety – remember the excellent protective gear at Chernobyl and the old nuclear subs rusting in the sea?

picture

picture

Interesting the ERA, perhaps it was just empty metal cases after all!!!

Tally Ho!

The ERA may have had the explosive taken out!

Wow…. surprised they didn't try to sell all these…but some of them are T80s… may still have classified armor…

Joe Collins

Actually they did invade the west. It just ended up in a steamroller fenderbender of godlike proportions.

What a lovely study in Soviet Armor Green.

Some nice rust effects too. :)

"Wow…. surprised they didn't try to sell all these…but some of them are T80s… may still have classified armor…"

Prohibitions from the conventional forces reduction treaties, probably. NATO countries did some hand-me downs to other members and scrapped a lot of vehicles.

If you liked those, check this out – a russian "recycling" facility.
link

Oh those wacky Russians. I'm particularly fond of the 'let the subs rot at the pier, reactors and all" school of naval retirement.

This is just the result of a bridging exercise. If it had been the real thing, the tanks would be in the water;-)
I really think this is just an example of what you do when you have a lot of tanks and no spare parts. Many become hanger queens to keep the rest running.

Cool link. Thanks. Now i have to figure out how to convince the wife to visit there on vacation.

Yet beautiful!

I've been at this plant in Kiev during my army service. At that time it was repairing and refurbushing tanks, BTR/BMP and self-propelled artillery.
As Kiev is the capital of self-independent Ukraine they could have sold these tanks to whoever they like (Georgia, Pakistan etc) Ukrainian army has more problems than Russian with maintaining of their equipment, so I guess they've decided to get rid of inventory.

Russia is destroying/plan to destroy most of our tank park, and beef some numbers with new machines later on.
I guess in the end there was a decision that we don't need that much armor…to save from stupid decisions like sending them to die in rebelled cities or shooting the parliament.

we have plenty of T-55/72/80, so it is not that sad. What I really regret is scraping of ships and strategic bombers…some of these were really beautiful and you don't have lots of them…

but some of them are T80s… may still have classified armor…

Judging by the T-80's performance in Chechnya, they can just stop worrying about keeping the armor classified. Nobody wants it.
-Kle.

Some good links at the bottom of the linked pages-
WW1/RCW tanks being restored,BT-5's salvaged from the lakes near former Leningrad etc.

Sad. I'd have bought one. Would have made a great tractor.

Doug

Ever been to Davis-Monthan? Not all that different if you think about it.

Like elsyrsyn wrote, can I have one? Except on the Military Channel the show that guys refurbish tanks on it looks like a mother of a job to fix one up

Surprised no movie companies want these. Looks like they could get them cheap.

I noted that they are all modern tanks. No BMPs or BTRs. I do like the weathering.
Weaselhoffen.

I teared up a bit…

You softy…

Klebert

I thought the T80 was not used in Chechneya [only T55 and T72]

Any refs or pics

Any refs or pics

Mostly my memory of watching the war on TV, and seeing them go off like firecrackers in Grozny.

However, if you do a websearch for "T-80 Chechnya", you'll get a lot of hits. Even the Wikipedia article on the T-80, which is heavily apologist describes their extremely poor performance in that rebellion.
-Kle.

"Klebert

"I thought the T80 was not used in Chechnya [only T55 and T72]

Any refs or pics"

Klebert is correct. T-80 was used and suffered catastrophic kills from multiple RPG shots which penetrated reactive armor caused the internal ammo carriage to detonate usually resulting in a total loss of life for the crew. Rear and side of turrets were supposed to be particularly vulnerable to RPG's. Chechens leaned to fire them in salvos to knock off reactive armor.

In fact 1 T-90 was used in second war in Dagestan and survived a direct hit from an RPG. I believe you can find the account online somewhere. I posted it here or on another site in a Chechen related thread several years back.

Stop with the pictures, you are making me hot under the collar.

Would love to own one of those.

Lets at least make a artificial barrier reef out of them somewhere just to really with undersea explores in the far future!

Yeah it is kind'a sad … regardless … But better than them driving up PA Ave … well maybe … On the other hand, maybe they are going to melt'm down and make washers, dryer, cars, etc., etc. …