Three Tajik top tank crews are participating in the Tank Biathlon World Championship 2022 that is taking place at the Alyabino Firing Range in Moscow oblast from August 13 to August 27, according to the Ministry of Defense of Tajikistan (MoD).
An official source at a MoD says Tajik tankers held their first victory on August 15, running the individual race in 34:32 minutes. They were reportedly ahead of teams of Abkhazia and Sudan.
The Tajik team is competing in the second division. In the team standings, Tajikistan is still in fifth place in Division 2.
It is to be noted that the Tank Biathlon competition has a slight change of rules, with two divisions (Division 1 and Division 2). This year, Division 1 consists of the 10 strongest participants (Azerbaijan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Mongolia, Russia and Uzbekistan) , while Division 2 consists of the remaining eleven participants (Abkhazia, Armenia, Zimbabwe, Iran, Laos, Mali, Myanmar, Syria, Sudan, Tajikistan and South Ossetia).
Tank biathlon is part of the Army International Games (Armi-2020). The tank biathlon is a mechanized military sport event promoted by the Russian military with some similarities to the winter sport of biathlon. It utilizes the complex training of tank crews including their rough terrain passing skills combined with the ability to provide accurate and rapid fire while performing maneuvers.
Participating tanks drive a three-lap route of 6–10 kilometers. During the first lap, crews fire at targets positioned at distances of 1,800, 1,700 and 1,500 m. In the second lap, different targets imitating an anti-tank mortar (RPG) squad and an infantry unit are fired upon. These targets are at a distance of 600–700 m, and must be engaged with a 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun. In the third lap the tank crews fire at targets shaped like an anti-tank gun and ATGM unit using the turret-mounted heavy machine gun at a distance of 1,200 m. One or more misses leads to an extra penalty lap 500 m long. On the final lap tanks have to go through various terrain obstacles; an obstacle missed or improperly traversed adds 10 seconds to the crew's final timing.
The international tank biathlon competition has been held since 2014.
