Ukrainian troops turn captured Russian tanks against their makers

Russian T-72B3 tanks are the most numerous models equipped with the modern Sosna-U fire control system and the French Catherine-FC thermal imaging camera. This makes them much better machines than older versions or non-modernized T-64 tanks that do not have thermal imaging at all. However, the quality of their manufacture or servicing in Russia leaves much to be desired, as some components do not work correctly.

For example, a captured model used by the Ukrainian 54th Mechanized Brigade has a faulty gun fume extractor, which causes the crew to be gassed with toxic gunpowder gases. For this reason, Ukrainians fire at Russians with open hatches on the turret, which is not a safe option. In such cases, a single bomblet from cluster ammunition or grenade dropped from a drone is enough to destroy the tank, which has happened more than once.

Gun fume extractors are advanced gas-dynamic devices that are vital to tank equipment. Their main task is to remove smoke and gunpowder gases from the barrel so that they do not enter the turret when the gun breech is opened during shell extraction (in modern tanks, the shell casings are self-combustible, leaving only the brass base) and loading the next round/shell and gunpowder charge.

During World War II, firing shots caused the tank turret to fill with smoke, significantly reducing crew comfort, as gunpowder gases are toxic and smoke limits visibility. There was also the risk that unburned gunpowder residue, along with the smoke, could be sucked into the turret, leading to a dangerous fire.

Initial solutions to this problem included fans that extracted smoke from the turret or compressed air to clear the barrel, as in Panthers. These were not ideal solutions, so other methods were sought. The breakthrough came in the 1950s when a gun fume extractor was designed to use gunpowder gases to clear the barrel.

This device features a bulge typically located in the middle of the barrel that functions as a reservoir filled with gunpowder gases at the moment of firing, thanks to holes in the barrel. This creates a vacuum that sucks smoke and unburned gunpowder residue from the rear of the barrel, preventing them from entering the crew compartment after the breech is opened.

In the case of the T-72B3 model discussed, the fume extractor may have been damaged, but no holes are visible in the recording. It appears it may simply be defective, which isn’t a big issue for the Russians, as the safety and comfort of soldiers were never particularly prioritized in the USSR or later in Russia.