Kazakhstani team completed Tank Biathlon

According to the results of the semi-finals that ended in Alabino near Moscow, Kazakhstani tankers in the second race showed the second time after the hosts of the competition, with a great advantage overtaking rivals from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

In the semifinals, the participants competed in the form of a relay race, during which three crews from each country took turns covering a distance of more than 16 km with three firing lines and 10 obstacles. Kazakh soldiers confidently passed the route, and some inaccuracies in the firing lines were compensated for by the skill of the servicemen when passing the distance.

According to the rules of the competition, the criterion for selecting the finalists is not the place taken in the race, but the time shown for completing the distance.

A possible reason for such a result in the semifinals was that our tankers performed on a basic model of a tank with an 840 horsepower engine, and participants from Russia, Belarus and China - on improved tanks. For example, Russians and Belarusians use modernized T-72B3-M combat vehicles with an 1130 horsepower engine and a commander's panoramic thermal imaging device. The Chinese team participates in the competition in its Type-96B tank, which, according to open sources, has a 1200 horsepower power plant, as well as improved visualization, control and loading mechanisms.

In addition, difficult weather conditions with a strong gusty wind on the day of arrival of the Kazakh team were very different from the favorable for the competition the previous day, when the first semifinal race of our main competitors was held.

These factors, despite the high professionalism and skill of Kazakhstani tankers, largely predetermined the outcome of the semi-final and did not allow our team to show the time needed to reach the final.

In accordance with the results of the semi-final races, the 4 best time teams - Azerbaijan, Belarus, China and Russia - reached the final of the tank biathlon, which will be held on the final day of the International Army Games on September 5, 2020.

It should be noted that the level of training of tank biathlon participants, and hence the competition, is growing from year to year. Our tankers in a stubborn struggle took fifth place among the 16 participating countries, having managed to show their best qualities in extreme conditions: strong character, persistence in achieving goals, will to win.