Iraqi Republican Guard Were STUNNED When 9 American Tanks Destroyed 28 T-72s in 23 Minutes

Описание: Iraqi Republican Guard Were STUNNED When 9 American Tanks Destroyed 28 of Their T-72s in 23 Minutes—With No US Losses

February 26, 1991: Iraq's elite Tawakalna Division sat entrenched in the desert, confident their T-72 tanks would bleed the Americans in a defensive slaughter. Then a sandstorm arrived—and the massacre began. But the Iraqis weren't the ones doing the killing.
In twenty-three minutes, nine American M1A1 Abrams tanks destroyed twenty-eight Iraqi T-72s without taking a single hit. The Republican Guard crews never saw their attackers. They fired blindly into the storm while American gunners watched them through thermal sights that turned the sandstorm invisible, killing with surgical precision from beyond visual range.
This is the story of the Battle of 73 Easting—the engagement that revealed how second-generation thermal imaging technology shattered forty years of Soviet armored warfare doctrine and changed modern combat forever.

#coldwar #operationdesertstorm #m1a1abrams #abramstank #t72tank #gulfwar #militaryhistory #unitedstates #coldwartech #coldwarhistory

Related Topics: Gulf War, Operation Desert Storm, Battle of 73 Easting, M1A1 Abrams tank, T-72 tank, thermal imaging, FLIR technology, Republican Guard, Tawakalna Division, H.R. McMaster, Eagle Troop, 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Cold War technology, armored warfare, military history

SOURCE DOCUMENTATION
Primary Historical Sources:
1. U.S. Army Official Records - 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment after-action reports from Operation Desert Storm, February 1991, documenting the Battle of 73 Easting engagement sequence, casualty figures, and tactical timeline.
2. H.R. McMaster's Command Reports - Eagle Troop operational records detailing the February 26, 1991 engagement, including tank positioning, thermal sight contact reports, and engagement ranges documented at 1,800-2,600 meters.
3. Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) - Technical specifications for the AN/VSG-2 Tank Thermal Sight manufactured by Texas Instruments, including mercury cadmium telluride detector arrays, operational range capabilities exceeding 4,000 meters, and infrared detection principles.
4. Jane's Armour and Artillery - Comparative technical documentation of M1A1 Abrams and T-72 main battle tanks, including armor penetration values (M829A1 APFSDS rounds defeating 600mm+ equivalent protection), gun specifications (120mm vs 125mm), and fire control system capabilities.
5. U.S. Army Armor School Studies - Gulf War ground campaign analysis documenting overall Iraqi tank losses (approximately 3,000 vehicles) versus American M1 Abrams losses (18 total, most from non-combat causes), establishing the technological disparity in sensor systems.
6. Iraqi Republican Guard Post-War Interviews - Declassified intelligence debriefings with surviving Tawakalna Division personnel describing the engagement from the Iraqi perspective, including reports of "impossible" American firing capabilities through sandstorms and beyond visual range.
7. Soviet/Russian Military Analysis - Post-Gulf War Russian defense ministry assessments acknowledging thermal sight technology gaps in Soviet-era export equipment and the tactical implications for armored warfare doctrine.
8. Technical Specifications - M829A1 APFSDS ammunition data: depleted uranium penetrator, 10-pound projectile weight, muzzle velocity 1,670 m/s, time-to-target calculations at combat ranges of 2,000-2,500 meters (approximately 1.4-1.5 seconds).