The 1st Cavalry Division’s 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team “Greywolf” Soldiers were afforded the opportunity to test Russian-made T-80 main battle tanks.

Soldiers with 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team “Greywolf”, 1st Cavalry Division, visited South Korean 3rd Armored Brigade – is the only unit in the armed forces of South Korea that has Russian-made armored vehicles.

Nowadays, South Korea operates Russian-builds T-80U main battle tanks and BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles, that were delivered to Seoul in the 1990s towards Russian state debt payments.

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When the Soviet Union was dissolved, Moscow offered South Korea to repay debt with the one thing it had in abundance: state-of-the-art weaponry. Seoul at first resisted but by 1994 it agreed that one half of the debt would be settled by a transfer of Russian arms.

To date, Russian combat vehicles are in service with two battalions of the 3rd Tank Brigade. Deliveries of BMP-3 from Russia began in 1996. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute`s (SIPRI) arms transfers database, Russia delivered to the Republic of Korea 43 T-80U MBTs and 67 BMP-3 IFVs in 1995-2006.

According to checkpointasia.net, T-80U remained South Korea’s hands down most potent tank for nearly 20 years, until 2014 when its domestically-produced K2 which boasts a 120mm gun and is it’s equal begun entering service.