>>16753719>>16753721It's a different design philosophy. Russian and Chinese tanks use an autoloader that requires the ammo be adjacent to the gun. Western tanks don't.
The ammo stowage itself is not any more dangerous. Western tanks store it behind the cabin, which is much more easily hit. Hitting the ammo of a Russian tank is only possible with a mine. Western tanks have blowout panels that can deflect the pressure of ammo cooking off, but they are also armor weaknesses.
It also depends on which tank. The Chinese light tanks like the VT 5 don't have autoloader, they use rear blowout panels instead.