Instead of refurbished tanks leaving the facility, analysts increasingly observed support vehicles built using old T-80 hulls, including armored recovery vehicles and heavy weapons platforms. This may indicate that many remaining hulls are too degraded to restore as operational tanks.
The trend, according to the researcher, could signal that Russia’s remaining T-80 reserves are no longer viable for combat
The T-80 is a piece of shit tank. The reverse speed sucks which makes it a deathtrap and also the ammo and propellant is stored close to the crew making it a deathtrap when it cooks off from a hit.
Still, this was one of the better tanks russia had given their bar is so low. It is pretty amazing how terrible russia is at making tanks and how much they refuse to accept their tank design lineage is a dead end.
edit as a reminder -> No tanks are not obsolete because of drones.
Before diving into the analysis of this matter, it is important to note that armoured forces and heavy armoured vehicles have proven indispensable in all recent armed conflicts since 2020, despite the changing and increasingly hostile conditions on the battlefield. Armoured forces continue to play a critical role in modern ground warfare, while many militaries across the globe plan to expand and further develop this branch of service. The tank is not dead, and armoured forces are not going to go extinct in the near future.
Undoubtedly, armoured forces and armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) have to adapt to the new combat environment – technically, tactically, and doctrinally. However, this has been a normal part of their evolution since the beginning of the 20th century.
https://euro-sd.com/2026/01/articles/armed-forces/48794/countering-the-drone-threat-to-heavy-armour/
No, unless by infantry you mean the tank crew, most of the time if you aren’t in armor yourself you don’t want to be ANYWHERE near tanks engaged in direct combat, artillery is the fertilizer to grow successful vigorous armored pushes, tanks grow straight out of rolling artillery barrages you never ever want to experience, but also shit hits the fan hard, heavy and incomprehensibly fast around tanks even when they aren’t amidst/on the edge of artillery strikes friendly or otherwise.
This is before you bring active protection systems like the Trophy system into the conversation too.
The purpose of the tank is to blow up machine gun nests and kick the door down. The infantry are nearby, waiting to rush through the door, but they don’t typically hang out directly behind the massive, loud angry door breacher because it is probably the most dangerous place to be as exposed infantry.