Tuesday 3 April 2018

Manufacturing Limbo

"On the T-80 tank: 8 T-80 tanks were built in March and 9 tanks were started, which already have suspensions, engines, and transmissions. Final assembly is stalled due to a lack of armour, elevation, and turning mechanisms. Out of the 17 started vehicles, only 7 have fully turbocharged engines, the other 10 have half-turbocharged engines: with old compression ratios and a cast iron cylinder head. The first 8 vehicles have been broken in, are fully equipped, and are only conditionally accepted while work on the additional return mechanism for AA firing is performed.

It must be said that the factory is dedicating very little attention to the topic of organizing T-80 production due to a lack of production plans.

Senior Military Representative of the GBTU at the Molotov GAZ factory, Engineer-Lieutenant-Colonel Okunev."

"On the T-80 tank: presently, the factory is doing very little work on the topic, with the excuse that there is no production plan for the T-80. In addition, the NKSM and tank directorate do not pay much attention to this vehicle and make nearly no demands regarding production. The factory still has possession of 7 tanks, albeit some of which have half-turbocharged engines, but they sit around idly, while they could be used for training without issues. Acceptance is being delayed because the factory does not wish to correct their defects yet. Aside from production defects, they have issues with splash entering the turret.

Senior Military Representative of the GBTU at the Molotov GAZ factory, Engineer-Lieutenant-Colonel Okunev."

6 comments:

  1. The T-80 turret would not look out of place today on an AFV.

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    1. A 2-man hand cranked turret with a 45mm gun? Would at best fit on a APC, but not on a modern tank...

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    2. I wrote 'AFV' not 'tank'. I am simply commenting on the looks of the turret.

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  2. Are you talking about the sleek one man T-70 Turret which looks nice but I doubt was much use, or the two man T-80 Turret. Just asking because I can't even find a photo of the T-80 Turret. AS the article explains the few produced sat around unfinished and the Soviet's ceased production of the T-70 light tank line altogether. After this they concentrated on the SU-76 as it's gun had more uses.

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    Replies
    1. the two-man T-80 turret. It has a very modern look that would not be out of place on some of today's IFVs.

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  3. Okunev's palpable frustration at the built vehicles effectively going to waste is certainly understandable enough, but in hindsight it's clear the factory management was drawing entirely correct conclusions from the lack of concrete production plans.

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