Actually, that pic was on Wikipedia page of this tank, look, it's not a matter of Iraqi T-72 performance in GW2, we (Fans of Russian tanks) used to have big arguments with a very respectable and knowledgeable tank specialist in Arab military forums, he proved that Eastern tanks have serious shortcomings in their designation, flaws in storage of fuel and ammunition, short life of their main guns (series of main guns came before 2A46M), weakness of armor protection, light weight, the advantages and disadvantages of the auto loading system, and superiority of of Western sight equipment. So, I believe Western tanks are superior.
But here is where you are wrong. For one, you need to be specific as to which time period you are referring to, judging from what you have stated above you are most likely talking about the Cold War era and the GW1 period. You have to understand that the Eastern Bloc (Warsaw Pact and Soviet Strategy in general) was to overwhelm NATO forces by sheer numbers, that was the overall Soviet strategy with regards to almost everything. To them Tanks were something they didn't want to spend too much $$ on, rather they were meant to be disposed of and easily replaced very cheaply.
Now, coming to the Iraqi T-72's, how can you say that its not just a matter of Iraqi T-72's performance? Are you suggesting that all Eastern Tanks, even of today, continue to share the same flaws as the Iraqi's did in the 1991 Gulf War?
Those Iraqi Tanks were junk to put it bluntly, they had primitive systems, some of them even had to have their turrets manually turned. The armor was cheap quality, the ammo was useless, the Tank could go up in flames just from being hit by a RPG, i'm surprised the Allied Tanks were even using DU round against these T-72's when even a HEAT round would have been more than enough (perhaps they just wanted to test out their new Tank ammo on live targets as is their habit) to send the Iraqi Tanks turrets sky rocketing. Even Soviet Tanks of the Cold War era were far better equipped and armored than the "Lion of Babylon".
All of the flaws mentioned above in your post were found in the Iraqi Tanks and Cold War era Soviet Tanks, now you should have realized a long time ago that that was what, 20, 30, 40 years ago?
You think major Eastern Armies would cling to that same old mentality and not apply drastic changes to improve the quality of the Tanks/Armor within those 40,30,20 years?
So understand that today's Eastern Tanks don't equal to Iraqi Tanks of GW1 or Soviet Era Tanks of the cold war. And secondly, not all Eastern Tanks are Russian, though they might have been influenced by Russian Tank designs in one form or another, but slowly and slowly due to innovation and R&D on the part of many Eastern Military's this is slowly changing as new designs are being incorporated.
Iraqi Tank T-72 Asad Babyl and cold war Era Soviet Tanks:
Today's major Eastern MBT's:
ZTZ-96:
Type-98 Tank:
ZTZ-99:
Al-Khalid:
From one of his topics:
As a result of the Russian Army's mauling at the hands ofthe Chechen rebels-particularly the disastrous assault on Grozny on 31 December 1994, the Kremlin made a shocking admission ofshortcomings at a televised scientific-technical conference at Kubinka on 20 February 1995.
Defense Minister Pavel Grachev admitted that unnecessary casualties were sustained due to the T-80Y's vulnerabilities: short range, flammable fuel and ammunition stowage, thin upper surface armor.
Bitten by their own RPGs, the Russians have developed a defensive countermeasure that solves some of the technological problems addressed at Kubinka.
The Arena Active Protection System, developed at the Kolomna-based Engineering Design Bureau, is designed to provide protection from antitank grenades and ATGMs, including those with top-attack £^ warheads.
Arena is foreseen as useful, both on battlefields where the latest generation of 3-8 km ATGMs
vj prevail and during peacekeeping operations and LICs, where the greatest threats are from light antitank weapons.
Arena includes three major subassemblies. Inside the turret, and taking up about 30m
3 , is the target detection and tracking equipment (computer, TC's control panel, command signals converter unit).
J— The radar itself is fitted to a 'Kladivo'-style folding radar mast, mounted on the centerline at the rear of ~^ the turret roof. The octagonal radar panel assembly is fairly large, approximately 1.5m
3 .
^^ Launchers, which the makers call 'silos,' are mounted around the turret, reminiscent ofthe BDD 'Horse *^ Shoe' armor. They provide a 110-degree arc of protection, centered on the gun tube (Russian reactive ** armor kits weigh the same as an active kit, but only cover a 35-40 degree arc). The system has 22 to 26 rounds, depending upon the type of tank, which are mounted so that they provide overlapping 'fields of fire.' Unlike reactive armor, an expended round will not leave a hole in the defensive curtain. 1- short range, 2- flammable fuel and 3- ammunition stowage, 4- thin upper surface armor. Bitten by their own RPGs The silos are armored against splinters and bullets to prevent accidental detonation ofthe rounds. The whole 27 V system weighs 1,000-1,100 kg and consumes 1 kW of power.
The description ofthe system in use sounds fairly simple. Prior to entering a hostile area, the TC turns the system on. Arena automatically tracks incoming rounds, ignoring incoming rounds until they're within 50m, then engaging anything approaching at speeds of 70-700 m/s. False targets, such as outgoing rounds, near misses, birds, small projectiles (like bullets or splinters) would be ignored.
When fired, the round detonates the warhead at a stand-off distance of a few meters, so that the
double-charge ATGM warheads designed to defeat reactive armor are rendered impotent. Time to detect and destroy a threat is .07 sec, with .2 to .4 sec for the system to reset. The danger zone for accompanying infantry is 20-3Om.
If necessary, the TC can manually override and fire the system. The number ofremaining rounds are
displayed on the TC's control panel. The rounds are rectangular and reloadable by the crew.
The Arena system, which can be fitted to new production tanks as well as existing ones scheduled for rebuilds, is expected to double the tanks' survivability during assaults and reduce losses from 1.5 to 1.7 Arena-fitted tanks are not supposed to create electromagnetic interference while working with other tanks. The manufacturers also claim that the system is extremely immune to ECM.
Support for the system has also been addressed by the manufacturer. Subsystems are modular and can be pulled for fast replacement. Test and control equipment is mounted on a cross-country capable truck, for forward maintenance.
Like the T-90, this system may not be fielded in substantial numbers with Russian forces for some time, due to budgetary constraints.
* I have put the source itself here since his topic is in Arabic.
Even after collapse of Soviet Union, Russian Army was still using Cold War era Tanks in service since the weak Russian economy and loss of R&D spending left them without much of a choice. Most of their upgraded Tanks were only meant to take on Western Tanks (Tank on Tank warfare) and not for Guerilla Warfare, so obviously there was a weakness there.
Traditionally a Tanks strongest and most heavily armored area is its front area, as we move to the sides and finally the rear the armor thickness gradually decreases, thus the Tank's vulnerable spots. Therefore since the Russian Tanks were built for only Tank on Tank battles which involves Armored Formations facing each other face to face (which is mostly the case in regular warfare) they didn't put much emphasis on this aspect. In irregular warfare the enemy fights in a non-traditional method through carefully planned ambushes and traps.
The Russian army in the first Chechnya War was not prepared at all for irregular warfare/urban Guerilla warfare, but of course that would change during the second Russian-Chechen War since the Russians learned a great deal from their previous experience with irregular warfare/urban Guerilla warfare and were a lot more prepared for such warfare than they previously were.
Now you claimed that all Eastern Tanks are inferior to their Western counterparts from this portion of your post quoted below, well lets see:
Actually, that pic was on Wikipedia page of this tank, look, it's not a matter of Iraqi T-72 performance in GW2, we (Fans of Russian tanks) used to have big arguments with a very respectable and knowledgeable tank specialist in Arab military forums, he proved that Eastern tanks have serious shortcomings in their designation, flaws in storage of fuel and ammunition, short life of their main guns (series of main guns came before 2A46M), weakness of armor protection, light weight, the advantages and disadvantages of the auto loading system, and superiority of of Western sight equipment. So, I believe Western tanks are superior.
Secondly, all of those assumptions you made of all Eastern Tanks, even of the present Eastern MBT's, do back them up with reliable sources rather than just post a assumption.
What makes you so sure that modern day Eastern MBT's, especially 3rd generation tanks like Al-Khalid have a main gun with short life, flaws in fuel storage, weakness of armor protection, and why is a light weight tank a disadvantage?
Coming to auto-loader, the French Leclerc also has a auto-loader yet its is a Western Tank. Al-Khalids auto-loader allows the Tank to fire minimum 6 rounds per minute and maximum 8 rounds per minute.
While M1A2 can only fire 6 rounds per minute through manual load (maximum 8?), therefore this is a clear advantage of a auto-loader which enables the Tank to repeatedly fire at enemy Tank within a minimal amount of time allowing it to deliver a knockout blow against enemy Tank if the first hit wasn't enough. There are other advantages of a auto loader as well that i haven't yet mentioned.
Thirdly, coming to weight and size. A large Tanks makes a large Target that is easily distinguishable from afar while Tanks with a low profile are far more easier to disguise with less effort not to mention smaller targets.
Weight wise, a lighter Tank is more maneuverable and less prone to being bogged down, requires less fuel to power it, add to that the ease of transportability as well as crossing rivers/canals when bridges are knocked out, etc.
So, i'll say it again, defeating junkyard worthy T-72's does not qualify one as "battle proven" and "ultimate weapon".