Tank Gun Autoloaders & Ready Rounds

[Pfor]

To return to my original observation:

Within the context of an MBT battle, IF a 3-man crew cannot easily access their extra ammo (which seems likely unless laid up in a quiet location) BUT a 4-man crew can access theirs under such conditions (which I suspect they can), THEN I could only conclude that there would be a huge disparity in ammo load-outs between auto and manual loading tanks, which there isn't .

[Marcello]

It depends on what you mean by "easily". AFAIK the russian do contemplate loading directly from the racks, because...well if anything else the autoloader can fail and then it would be bad to have the tank unable to shoot. As far as getting to the ammunition, it is somewhat awkaward on a T-72 but still within reach. I would not recommend it in an high intensity battle, but I would tend to suspect that a T-72 would have either been destroyed or managed to overrun enemy tanks before expending all the autoloader ammunition in such situation. If you are just pounding a position at long range or others circumstances where reaction times aren't so critical it is doable.