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The sight of Russian tank turrets blown off and lying in ruins along Ukrainian roads points to a problem in tank design known as “jack-in-the-box” failure.
The bug is related to the way many Russian tanks hold and load ammo. In these tanks, including the T-72, the Soviet-designed vehicle widely used in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, all shells are placed in a ring inside the turret. If an enemy shot hits the right spot, the ammo ring can quickly “cook off,” setting off a chain reaction that blasts the turret off the tank’s hull in one fatal blow.
Sitting on a powder keg:
The fatal flaw of the T-72 tank
Other tanks on the modern battlefield generally store their ammo
by the crew, behind armored walls.
The ammunition of the Russian T-72 main battle tank is located in a carousel-type autoloader just below the main turret and crew members.
If one of these shells explodes with a penetrating hit on the tank’s relatively thin side armor, the explosion can set off a chain reaction, killing the crew and destroying the tank.
M1 Abrams (United States)
Sources: “M1 Abrams vs. T-72 Ural” by
Stephen Zaloga (Osprey Publishing, 2009); Leopard 2 Main Battle Tank 1979-1998 by
Uwe Schnellbacher and Michael Jerchel (Osprey Publishing, 1998); Association of American Scientists
WILLIAM NEFF/THE WASHINGTON POST
Sitting on a powder keg:
The fatal flaw of the T-72 tank
Other tanks on the modern battlefield generally store their ammunition away from the crew behind armored walls. The ammunition of the Russian T-72 main battle tank is located in a carousel-type autoloader just below the main turret and crew members.
If one of these shells explodes with a penetrating hit on the tank’s relatively thin side armor, the explosion can set off a chain reaction, killing the crew and destroying the tank.
M1 Abrams (United States)
Sources: “M1 Abrams vs. T-72 Ural” by Stephen Zaloga (Osprey Publishing, 2009); “Leopard 2 Main Battle Tank 1979-1998” by Uwe Schnellbacher and Michael Jerchel (Osprey Publishing, 1998); Association of American Scientists
WILLIAM NEFF/THE WASHINGTON POST
Sitting on a powder keg: The fatal flaw of the T-72 tank
Other tanks on the modern battlefield generally store their ammunition away from the crew behind armored walls. The ammunition of the Russian T-72 main battle tank is located in a carousel-type autoloader just below the main turret and crew members.
If one of these shells detonates with a penetrating hit on the tank’s relatively thin side armor, the explosion can start
a chain reaction that kills the crew and destroys the tank.
M1 Abrams (United States)
Sources: “M1 Abrams vs. T-72 Ural” by Stephen Zaloga (Osprey Publishing, 2009); “Leopard 2 Main Battle Tank 1979-1998”
by Uwe Schnellbacher and Michael Jerchel (Osprey Publishing, 1998); Association of American Scientists
WILLIAM NEFF/THE WASHINGTON POST
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“For a Russian crew, if the ammo dump is hit, everyone’s dead,” said Robert E. Hamilton, a professor at the US Army War College, adding that the force of the blast can “instantly vaporize” the crew. “All those rounds – about 40, depending on whether or not they’re carrying a full charge – will all boil off, and all will be dead.”
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace this week estimated that Russia has lost at least 530 tanks destroyed or captured since invading Ukraine in February.
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“What we’re seeing now is the Ukrainians exploiting the tank bug,” said Samuel Bendett, a consultant at the Center for Naval Analyzes, a government-funded nonprofit research institute. Ukraine’s western allies have deployed anti-tank weapons on a large scale.
Also, Ukraine uses Russian-made T-72 variants that face the same problem. But Russia’s invasion relied on the large-scale use of tanks, and Ukraine held back better than expected.
The error speaks to a greater difference in approaches between Western militaries and Russia, analysts say.
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“American tanks have long prioritized crew survivability in a way that Russian tanks simply don’t,” Hamilton said. “It’s really just a difference in ammo storage compartment design and a difference in prioritization.”
Ammo in most Western tanks can be stored under the turret floor, protected by the heavy hull — or in the rear of the turret, Hamilton said. While a turret-placed ammo rack is potentially vulnerable to a hit, built-in features can prevent the same level of decapitating devastation seen in the T-72’s case.
Even the early versions of the American M1 Abrams tanks in the 1980s were fitted with sturdy blast doors that separated the crew inside from the stored ammunition. These tanks have a crew of four, including a loader that manually opens the ballistic door. These were designed to be stronger than the top armor so that when ammunition boils off, the blast is channeled up through blowout panels and not into the crew compartment, Hamilton said.
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On the other hand, Russian tanks rely on mechanical loaders, which allows them to be crewed by a team of three.
Russian tank design prioritizes rate of fire, firepower, a low profile, speed and maneuverability over overall survivability, Hamilton said. Russian tanks tend to be lighter and simpler, and have thinner, less advanced armor than Western tanks. The design flaw is likely “just cheaper and lighter,” Hamilton said.
Newer Russian models have come out since the T-72, which was manufactured by the Soviet Union in the 1970s. One of them, the T-14 Armata, has been described as a sophisticated game-changer on the battlefield since its debut at a military parade in 2015. But the armatas haven’t found much use outside of parades yet. Newer variants of the T-72 have better armor protection, Bendett said, but the prevailing principle was the same: a crew of three with a lower profile and shells in a circle inside the turret.
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For the US military, Hamilton said, “If the tank is destroyed and the crew survives, you can build another tank faster than you can train another crew.”
For Russia, “people are as expendable as machines,” he said. “Russians have known about it for 31 years – it has to be said that they simply chose not to deal with it.”
Claire Parker contributed to this report.