Vympel wrote:
All Russian tanks since the T-54/55 have had 'night vision' capability- up until late build T-80Us and T-90s they were IR searchlights. Now they're thermal imagers. Did you mean thermal imagers? If the Iraqis have updated their T-72s with such- I'd be interested to know where they got them.
I think he's just confused. I've never heard of any Iraqi tanks being upgraded with Thermal sights.
An exaggeration of M1 superiority- Iraqi tanks were using crap indigenous manufactured ammo, had worse fire control systems (including no thermal imagers which basically made them useless at night against the thermal imaging equipped Abrams), thinner armor etc. We're talking export models of the very first T-72s here. Hardly a good match up.
Still, even real T-72's could only cope with the M1A1 inside of around 500 meters, the basic M1 at a much greater range though.
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956
