For several months of the civil war in Donbass, the Ukrainian armed forces suffered serious losses. According to various estimates, several thousand people were killed and injured, several dozen aircraft and several hundred armored vehicles were destroyed. In addition, a substantial number of different combat vehicles became a trophy and changed owners. According to the service LostArmour.info, both sides of the conflict have so far lost 91 tanks of several types. Most of these losses were attributed to Ukrainian units, and the militia lost only 13 tanks. At the same time, the published photographs and videos from the battlefield often show characteristic damage to equipment that can raise certain questions.
The destroyed tanks of the army and militia are often a terrible sight. Damaged armored vehicles remain without turrets, and also receive serious damage to the hull. Sometimes the hulls of tanks are literally torn apart at the welded seams, and the resulting "scraps" are bent outward. Such damage indicates a fire and detonation of ammunition. Projectiles and projectiles explode, killing the crew and literally tearing the vehicle apart. With such an explosion, the equipment and its crew have almost no chance of salvation.
It should be noted that Soviet-designed tanks have repeatedly participated in recent armed conflicts. In a number of cases, the detonation of the ammunition load of tanks led to the disruption of the turret from the shoulder strap. However, in Afghanistan or Chechnya, another phenomenon was not observed, which almost became the norm in Ukraine: the hulls of damaged vehicles remained relatively intact. Thus, in the current situation there is a certain additional factor worsening the survivability of tanks and complicating the situation of the Ukrainian and Novorossiysk tankers.
The most obvious version, explaining the typical damage to Ukrainian armored vehicles, concerns the quality of the vehicles. The main losses were suffered by T-64 tanks of various modifications. It is these machines that most often appear in the photo with torn off towers and torn hulls. Thus, it can be assumed that the construction of this technique had some technological features that initially did not affect the quality of the machines, but now lead to the impossibility of their restoration. For example, it was proposed to change the welding technology of the armor plates of the hull, which ultimately led to a weakening of the welded seams.
This version can explain not only the loss of Ukrainian tanks, but also their serious damage. However, there is no direct evidence to support this assumption. Information about any major technological changes in the production of T-64 tanks was not published. In addition, in those days when tanks of this type were serially built, defense production did without problems, like the notorious cracks in the hulls of armored personnel carriers BTR-4. As a result, the version about technological changes and the associated production defects can be considered only an assumption, not supported by any evidence and facts.
There is another version, which has grounds not only in the form of reasoning and assumptions. A well-known Ukrainian specialist in the field of armored vehicles, Andrey Tarasenko, suggested that substandard ammunition could be the cause of the terrible damage to armored vehicles. It is their detonation that kills the crew, and also damages the structure of the armored vehicle and completely excludes its restoration.
It is known that the specified characteristics of ammunition (both propelling charges and the projectiles themselves) are provided only for a certain period. After the expiration of the established storage period, some chemical processes occur in explosives that worsen their properties. In the case of propellants used as charges for throwing ammunition, this leads to noticeable changes in the combustion regime and, as a result, large deviations in the released energy and the amount of gases formed.
As evidence in favor of his assumption, A. Tarasenko cites the article "Experimental study of the barrel survivability of a smooth-bore gun", the authors of which are specialists from the National Technical University "Kharkov Polytechnic Institute" O. B. Anipko, M. D. Borisyuk, Yu. M. Busyak and P. D. Goncharenko. The material was published in 2011 in the institute journal "Integrated Technologies and Energy Saving".
The purpose of the study of Kharkov specialists was to study the wear of the barrel of smooth-bore tank guns when using various ammunition. In cooperation with the Kharkov Mechanical Engineering Design Bureau named after A. A. Morozov, they conducted experimental firing with further study of the state of the guns. The studies used three serial gun barrels with a minimum difference in shot (no more than 5 shots). As ammunition, the research used armor-piercing sub-caliber shells from the same batch, fired 22 years before the experiment. Control data were collected during firing with similar shells that had been stored in the warehouse for only 9 years.
Having collected and analyzed the data, Kharkiv experts came to interesting conclusions. It turned out that during the burning of propellant charges that had been in the warehouse for 22 years (12 years longer than the established shelf life), the maximum pressure in the barrel bore increased by 1.03-1.2 times. In addition, calculations have shown that the use of such substandard ammunition leads to an increase in barrel wear by 50-60%. The nature of the bore wear has also changed markedly.
The authors of the article noted the possibility of conducting such an experiment, in which shells with a shelf life of 30 years or more would be used. However, it was noted that in this case, a preliminary study of propelling charges is necessary in order to avoid possible unpleasant consequences. With such an "age" of gunpowders, both the manifestation of a blasting action with damage to the structure of the gun and the release of energy, which is insufficient to push the projectile out of the barrel, are possible.
According to a number of sources, the Ukrainian army still uses tank ammunition produced before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Thus, the shelf life of the newest shells is approaching 25 years. As a consequence, such ammunition can and should have the features described in the article "Experimental study of the barrel survivability of a smoothbore gun." Their propelling charges no longer fully meet the requirements, in particular, they form a noticeably higher pressure in the bore of the gun barrel.
The available information about the survivability of the barrels of tank guns, as well as the study of Kharkov scientists, can lead to sad conclusions for the Ukrainian army. "Expired" ammunition is a tangible danger to both equipment and people. Due to the change in the nature of the combustion of propellants, they affect the state of equipment and its combat capabilities, and also pose a great danger in extreme situations.
Due to some design features, Soviet / Russian armor-piercing sub-caliber projectiles cause more damage to the cannon bore in comparison with other types of ammunition. For this reason, the resource of the barrel when using only sub-caliber ones usually does not exceed several hundred shots. Nevertheless, with a reasonable combination of types of ammunition, the resource can be increased several times. For example, the declared resource of chrome-plated guns of the 2A46M family exceeds 1000 rounds.
The overwhelming majority of Ukrainian tanks have been in operation for more than a dozen years, and during this time they were only repaired without serious modernization. Thus, due to the use of substandard shells, the already considerable wear of the guns increases, which entails a deterioration in their characteristics. Using a worn-out cannon, tankers lose the ability to accurately fire at targets and quickly hit them. In the conditions of modern warfare, the ability to quickly detect a target and destroy it with one shot is a guarantee not only of completing a combat mission, but also of the survival of an armored vehicle and its crew. Old shells seriously impair the tankers' chances.
When a tank is hit by anti-tank weapons, ammunition detonation often occurs. In the overwhelming majority of such cases, the crew does not have time to leave the vehicle and is killed, and the tank is fatally damaged and cannot be restored. In the light of the research of Kharkiv specialists, such situations look even more severe. Substandard gunpowder in propelling charges can turn into the so-called. detonation combustion, the consequences of which are similar to an explosion. Naturally, the combustion of the charge in the stowage differs from the combustion in the barrel chamber, however, in the fighting compartment, in addition to the cartridges with gunpowder, there are high-explosive fragmentation and cumulative projectiles with an explosive charge.
As a result of detonation combustion of "expired" propellant charges and detonation of ammunition, a stronger explosion can be obtained than in the case of shells whose shelf life has not yet expired. As a result, tankers die, and the tank not only loses its turret, but literally falls apart.
The version about the "fault" of substandard ammunition looks interesting and convincing. In her favor is the study of scientists who recorded some features of the use of old shells, namely a different course of combustion with the release of more energy. Further research will need to be done to gather information on the causes and consequences of the destruction of tanks to finally confirm the assumption about the problems associated with ammunition, however, it seems that so far no one is going to deal with this problem.
The assumption regarding substandard shells is further confirmation that you should not save on your army and defense industry. During all the years of independence, Ukraine did not pay due attention to its armed forces and defense enterprises, as a result of which, for example, only old shells remained in the warehouses of tank units. The use of these ammunition entails both tactical and technical risks. However, there is no alternative, and negative chemical processes in the charges will continue to influence the fate of armored vehicles.
