"AGAVA" - "AGAVA-2" and its confusing history

When covering Soviet sight technology there are always some interesting designs and approaches to solving an issue. It is a common fact that the Soviet Union in the 1980s-1990s was quite behind in thermal sight technology. Only in the 1990s, but to be specific in 1992, the Soviet Union now Russia started to field small batches of thermal sights on their tanks, those primarily being T-80Us and some of the early T-90 variants, which just recently at that time entered service. Russia's journey through creating its own domestic thermal sight traces back to 1982. 

The 1980s were quite an important time for the 'Krasnogorsk Factory named after S.A Zverev', which is still to date an Optical Engineering and Optoelectronics factory. The factory is primarily known for making domestic Soviet cameras back in the day. However, that's not the only thing that the factory has produced back then. 

Close to the mid-1980s, the facility was contracted to develop new thermal sight technology for the Soviet Ministry of Defence. As previously mentioned, the Soviet Armed Forces never had such equipment and never heard of thermal sight channels and what they could offer. Both gunner and commander had their standard day/night sights with NV (Night Vision) and IR lamps that would increase the range of observation.

At the time, a thermal vision system was an entirely new way of observation for the Soviet Union. So development started and progressed. The first vehicle to have ever fielded the "AGAVA" sight was a   T-80B, which to date still exists and has been seen publicly during tank showcases in Russia. 
Although, the sight and its presence didn't last long. During trials, the sight didn't offer enough range compared to conventional sights at the time and was somewhat problematic.

Old video footage showcasing a T-80B with AGAVA thermal sight housing and a duplication display for the commander. 

"AGAVA" thermal sight displayed at the Krasnogorsk Factory "Zenit" Museum in Moscow 

Naturally, the Soviet Union did not give up on the creation of a thermal sight and in 1986-1987 development started on a new thermal sight named "AGAVA-2" (GRAU Index T01-P02). This sight was substantially better than its predecessor and offered better resolution and range. Development can be traced back as far as 1986 from a diary that belonged to a designer of the "Boxer" program. 

Quote - 20.08.1986 "We have conducted a CCD (Council of Chief Designers) to review the appearance of machines for factory tests with the Customer. Bochkov is categorically against the submission of tanks for testing without guided weapons and a thermal imager. Given that there is no thermal imager, the KMP (Krasnogorsk Mechanical Plant) Central Design Bureau offered to supply the AGAVA-2 night sight developed for serial tanks, for the time being, we rejected this proposal. Shomin suggested that factory tests of tanks be carried out without a thermal imager and put it on the tank in the third quarter of 1987. CCD accepted this, but the Customer is against this option."

Logically, "AGAVA-2" was practically using the basis of the previously designed sight, hence why the development of the sight started so early, the basis was there, but it required time to improve what was lacking and make it more advanced. ("AGAVA-2")
Regarding the appearance of the sight, as mentioned earlier, the first appearance of the "AGAVA-2" sight was on the T-80U series of tanks. Those being T-80U/UK/UM. The sight wasn't delivered in large batches, only a handful of vehicles in the Armed Forces received that upgrade. Of course, Russia wasn't the only country to somewhat experience the newly fielded sight. 

"AGAVA-2" made several appearances in different countries. Sweden and their Swedish trials in 1993-1994. This was the first time that the sight was seen outside of the country and Russia was quite open and friendly when it came to showing a sight, which at the time was already lacking behind. The Greek Trials also saw the use of "AGAVA-2" on the T-80U(UK). Which rivalled the Leclerc, Abrams, Challenger 2E and the Ukrainian T-84.

There has been a large misconception in regard to the "AGAVA-2" thermal sight being used on the T-80B. Some of the information that floats about doesn't seem to match up with what exists. 
Primarily the actual design of the CRT monitors on both "AGAVA" and "AGAVA-2"

On the left, T-80Bs commander position with "AGAVA" duplication CRT. On the right, T-80UKs commander position with "AGAVA-2" duplication CRT. The actual CRT displays simply don't match up. At the time, a larger CRT was simply impossible due to the lack of knowledge on thermal sights and only later was increased with a new sight variant. Additionally, the resolution of "AGAVA-2" compared to its predecessor was almost double, which resulted in a larger display, to make use of the newer matrix plate. 

Overall, both "AGAVA" and "AGAVA-2" thermal imagers have opened up many new possibilities to Russia, although the sights were simply outdated by the time they arrived. One major reason as to why this happened was the lack of funding that was allocated. The production numbers on these sights were minimal and as mentioned previously only small batches were fielded on T-80U tanks. 

Additionally, the T-80B/U tanks were frankly not the only vehicles that had the chance to mount AGAVA series sights. The T-90 and some of its early variants saw the use of the "AGAVA-2" sight but in very small amounts, and that topic deserves a whole new article. 


Taken from: 

• Saint Petersburg Publication "Basis of Thermal Imaging"
• S.A. Belyakov "Night Vision Devices for Armored Vehicles"
• Bugayenko, Adolf Georgievish "Methods and means of performance monitoring thermal imaging devices and systems"
• Apukhtin Yuri "The Final Push of Soviet Tank Builders"