Tank Biathlon 2018 results announced, where is Vietnam?

Russia and China are the favorites to win the championship.

On August 6, at the Alabino training ground in the suburbs of Moscow, the results of Round 1 of the "Individual Race" competition in the "Tank Biathlon" event, held within the framework of the "Army 2018" International Army Games, were announced. The Vietnamese tank team ranked 17th.

Speaking at the morning press conference for the media, the Tank Biathlon competition's chief referee, Major General Roman Binyukov, said that although the Vietnamese team was not among the 12 teams that made it to the semi-finals, they showed excellent performance.

Accordingly, on August 5, the results of the individual races were summarized and the draw determined the group of 12 teams that will participate in the semi-finals, the "Relay" stage; namely: Russia, China, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Serbia, Mongolia, Iran, Armenia, India, Kyrgyzstan and Venezuela.

The first race will take place on August 7 with teams from Iran, China, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan. On August 8, Armenia, Russia, Mongolia and Venezuela will compete. On August 9, Kazakhstan, India, Belarus and Serbia will compete.

The results of the second stage will determine the top four teams to advance to the final, with heavyweights Russia and China being the favorites, while potential candidates include Armenia, India and Belarus.

Answering the question about the main candidates for the championship, Russia and China, Major General Binyukov said that in the individual race, the Russian team had a large gap with China of 6 minutes; but the next stage is completely different, with a completely different shooting task.

Shooting sideways is an extremely dangerous exercise and at this stage both man and equipment are subjected to much more stress and many surprises can arise.

From August 6 onwards, the semi-finalists will prepare for the shooting competition, which will begin on the morning of August 7. Military meteorologists predict that the weather on the training ground will deteriorate, and the tank track may turn into a clay mixture.

Vietnam tank team ranked 17th, see you again in Tank Biathlon 2019

At this year's Tank Biathlon, several teams participated for the first time and it is naturally difficult to expect high results from them. The exception is the Syrian tankers, who arrived in Moscow right after participating in real combat on the country's battlefields.

The presence of Syrian tankers, along with their combat experience and excellent knowledge of T-72 tanks, made the Syrian team quite highly regarded.

But fatigue, coupled with a complete change in climate and natural conditions, also took its toll on the Syrian tankers. The Syrian team did not make it to the semi-finals, although they had quite good results in the individual race, finishing only 13th.

Speaking about other "newcomers" at "Tank Biathlon 2018", Major General Binyukov said that the South African team took 21st place, but this is not bad, taking into account their short training period and the fact that the South African army is equipped with completely different types of tanks.

Although the Vietnamese tank team only ranked 17th, they initially had impressive results in the firepower competition. However, in the race, Vietnam was much slower than the leading teams in terms of speed, because they had only been familiar with the vehicle for a few days and had only tested it once.

The Russian general commented that these weaknesses can be easily overcome if Vietnamese tank crews continue to be exposed to modern tanks like the T-72B3.

The Russian general said that he believes that next year the Vietnamese team will have completely different results in the individual race and will achieve the minimum level to qualify for the semi-finals (ie at least 12th place, improving 5 rankings compared to this year).