> autoloaders aren't adopted due to doctrine. yes, they are. soviet divisions had 5 maintenance companies compared to 1 maintenance company for american tank divisions. there were more mechanics and personnel allocated to the maintenance of the tanks in soviet divisions than in american ones. tank crewmen are not alone in a formation of 10,000 people. both the t-64 and the t-72 autoloaders had a requirement to be able to cycle over 1,000 rounds without failure. the t-72 autoloader was reported by the americans to cycle more than 3,000 rounds without failure. they were built robustly and simply so that even someone with basic mechanical skill could repair them.  this was part of soviet doctrine, to create simple, efficient tanks that are cheap, quick to repair, quick to deploy and aren't bloated. i will admit russia is not on this level any more, but that's more of a result of post-soviet decay and corruption than doctrine.  > loader is also an extra pair of eyes.  perhaps, but that's kind of negligible at this point with modern cameras and sensors.
National Bolshevik