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T-72
T-72 at the Worthington Tank Museum, Canadian Forces Base Borden.
Specifications
Mass	41
Length	6.9
Width	3.6
Height	2.2
Crew	3 (commander, driver and gunner)

The T-72, a Soviet main battle tank entered production in 1971. It is a parallel design with the T-64. The T-72 design has been further developed as the T-90.

At least some technical documentation on the T-72 is known to have been passed to the CIA by the Polish Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski.

Production history

The T-72 was the most common tank used by the Red Army from the 1970s to the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was also exported to other Warsaw Pact countries and Finland, India, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yugoslavia, as well as being copied elsewhere, both with and without licenses.

The Yugoslavs called their copy the M-84, and sold thousands of them around the world during the 1980s. The Iraqis called theirs the Assad Babyl, which means "Lion of Babylon," though the Iraqis assembled theirs from "spare parts" sold to them by the Russians as a means of evading the UN-imposed weapons embargo). More modern derivatives include the Polish PT-91 Twardy and Russian T-90. Russian and Ukrainian industries also offer modernization packages for older T-72s.

Various versions of the T-72 have been in production for decades, and the specifications for its armor have changed considerably. Early T-72 tanks had homogenous cast steel armor incorporated spaced armor technology and were moderately well protected by the standards of the early 1970s. Around 1980, the Soviets began building the tanks with composite armour similar to the Chobham armour used in modern Western tanks, in the front of the turret and the front of the hull. Late in the 1980s, T-72 tanks in Soviet inventory (and many of those elsewhere in the world as well) were fitted with reactive armour tiles. It is believed that since 1985, T-72 tanks in Russian military service have been fitted with laser range-finders of French design; since 2000, some may have been fitted with thermal imaging night-vision gear of French manufacture as well (though this is less likely than that they might simply use the locally manufactured 'Buran-Catherine' system, which incorporates a locally manufactured version of the French AGAVA-2 thermal sight). Depleted uranium armour-piercing ammunition for the 125 mm gun has been manufactured in Russia in the form of the BM-32 projectile since around 1978, though it has never been deployed, and is less penetrating than the later tungsten BM-42 and the newer BM-42M, which compares in penetrating ability to the German DM-53. The T-72 with these enhancements and a skilled, motivated, proficient crew is a formidable opponent even by 21st Century standards, though it is not in the same class as the most modern Western designs such as the M1 Abrams. Yet one should remember that the T-72 was not designed to challenge the latest Western tanks one-on-one. The T-80 and T-64 were always deployed in the forward Soviet divisions in Germany, and the T-72 was intended to be a cheap (approximately one-third cheaper per unit than the M1 Abrams) yet efficient and simple-to-maintain battle tank, which is exactly what it was.

Therefore the T-72 is common around the world in the armies of many potential enemies of the U.S. and other Western nations. Many Western analysts regard this as worrisome because, at least theoretically, its 125 mm 2A46 main gun is capable of destroying any modern main battle tank in the world today, including the M1 Abrams. On the other hand, on those three occasions when Soviet clients using T-72s have met Western armies that possessed modern main battle tanks—Lebanon in 1982 (against the Israeli Merkava), Kuwait in 1991 (against the M1 Abrams and the British Challenger 1), and Iraq in 2003—the Syrians and Iraqis were heavily defeated, although this might have more to do with the poor training and low morale of their crews than with any deficiencies in the T-72 itself. It might also be mentioned that the versions these armies fielded were already out of date at the time, had not been significantly upgraded,and were firing inferior ammunition (often with steel penetrators and half-charges of propellant).

Design characteristics

The T-72 exhibits many design features shared with other tank designs of Soviet origin. Some of these are viewed as deficiencies in a straight comparison to NATO tanks, but most are a product of the way these tanks were envisioned to be employed, based on the Soviets' practical experiences in World War II.

The T-72 is extremely lightweight, at forty-one tonnes, and very small compared to Western main battle tanks. Some of the roads and bridges in former Warsaw Pact countries were designed such that T-72s can travel along in formation, but NATO tanks could not pass at all or just one-by-one, significantly reducing their mobility. The basic T-72 is relatively underpowered, with a 780-hp turbocharged version of the basic 500-hp V-12 diesel engine block originally designed for the WWII T-34. However, it is capable of very high speed due to its light weight; one tank was clocked at 110 km/h on a German Autobahn. The tracks run on large-diameter road wheels, which allows for easy identification of T-72 and descendants (the T-64/80 family has relatively small road wheels). Ride comfort is reported as poor compared to Western tanks equipped with hydrodynamic suspension.

The T-72 is designed to cross rivers submerged using a small diameter snorkel assembled on-site. Because the hull is not water-tight, the crew is individually supplied with a simplistic rebreather chest-pack apparatus for survival. If the engine stops underwater, it must be restarted within six seconds, or the T-72's engine compartment becomes flooded due to pressure loss. The snorkelling procedure is considered dangerous but is important for maintaining operational mobility.

The speciality of the T-72 is the comprehensive WMD protection system. The inside of both hull and turret is lined with a synthetic fabric made of boron compound, meant to reduce the penetrating radiation from neutron bomb explosions. The crew is supplied clean air via a complicated air filter system, which was designed to protect from the effects of nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare. A slight over-pressure prevents entry of contamination via bearings and joints. Use of an autoloader for the main gun allows for more efficient forced smoke removal compared to traditional manually-loaded ("pig-loader") tank guns, so WMD isolation of the fighting compartment can in theory be maintained indefinitely.

The very small interior of the T-72 is a major weakness of the design; the seats are as cramped as in a race car. The lack of a fourth crewman increases rapid mental exhaustion of the crew, as fewer eyes are available to scan the area around the tank for signs of danger and ambush. The basic T-72 design has extremely small periscope viewports, even by the constrained standards of battle tanks; and the driver's field of vision is significantly reduced when his hatch is closed. The steering system is a traditional dual-tiller layout instead of the steering wheel or steering yoke common in modern Western tanks. This setup requires the near-constant use of both hands, which complicates employment of the seven speed manual gearbox. Driving the T-72 is a real challenge.

Even the most recently produced T-72s are not especially well protected against conventional threats (with the notable exception of the T-72BM); NATO standard 120 mm/L60 guns, firing the M829 series depleted uranium APFSDS rounds or German Tungsten DM-53 can kill them on the first shot from any angle out past two kilometers, and even the older NATO standard 105 mm/L68 can kill a T-72 at a kilometer or more—at least with depleted uranium ammunition. (in fact it could kill any modern tank as well because no armour offering effective protection against DU APFSDS exists) First-generation reactive armour bricks improve protection only slightly from APFSDS, but more so against HEAT ammunition. Crew survivability in a T-72 can be improved by fitting better fire control. If targets can be hit with fewer shots, the amount of ammunition stored in a T-72 can be reduced. This allows omitting the spare ammo stored in the turret, which reduces the chance of explosions when hit. By removing any ammo stored upwards of the turret-ring, the T-72 becomes twice as resistant to direct hits. This is a significant result, as some 70% to 75% of all battle tanks destroyed in WWII and since were hit in the turret.

The 125mm 2A46 series main gun is almost as powerful (depending on the ammunition) as the NATO-standard 120mm/L60 found in many modern Western MBTs (which is to say, highly powerful and highly lethal, at least theoretically capable of destroying any tank in the world today at a kilometer or more), but its rate of fire depends very much on the state of repair of the autoloader, which is necessary due to the extremely small and cramped interior space in the turret, which prevents the addition of a fourth crew member as a loader. The autoloader scheme for the T-64 and T-72 was implemented as part of low height design scheme.

The T-72's autoloader design is not based on the faster, but more complicated autoloader in the USSR's domestic-use-only T-64 tank series (the T-72's is horizontally auto-fed, the T-64's uses vertical actuators). Either way these systems are rather slow and prone to malfunctions if not maintained properly (as any mechanical part of modern weapons). It takes between seven and fifteen seconds to load a new shell into the main gun, during which time the main gun is not aimed at target because the autoloader must crank the gun up three degrees above the horizontal in order to depress the breech end of the gun and line it up with the new shell. With a laser range-finder and a ballistic computer, final aiming takes at least another three to five seconds, but aiming is pipelined into last steps of autoloading so it proceeds simultaneously. Even with a very proficient, well-trained crew, a tank with such an autoloader in a condition of poor maintenance (uncommon in elite or guards tank regiments) can only fire approximately four aimed shots per minute. But the reloading can be done even during movement through rough terrain, which is impossible for human loader. Thus practical rate of fire and crew safety is considered as advantageous. Refilling the autoloader with new shells is a real maintenance burden and requires great attention to maintain the specified sequence. Trained T-72 crews find reloading not much worse than loading any other tank; the separated cartridges are easier to handle.

In Western tanks with a human loader, the loading process is much faster, requiring three to five seconds, and the gunner can aim the gun during this process and fire at the target the instant the loader signals readiness. Human reloading is, however, only possible in slow-moving tanks. Modern Western tanks can theoretically fire twelve to eighteen aimed shots per minute, compared to the four of most Soviet and Russian designs. Of course, the smoke and dust of a typical armored battlefield, combined with the relatively poor field-of-view afforded by even the best modern periscopes or thermal sights, decrease the effective firing rate for all combatants. It is generally regarded as unusual for a tank crew to spot four targets a minute in most tactical situations (though modern sensors such as improved thermal imaging sights are changing this). It is important to note that "pigs" for main guns beyond the 125mm calibre are not suitable for human handling due to their sheer weight and size. Future Western tanks at the 140mm and 152mm calibres (now in design or prototype stage) will thus be forced to adopt some form of autoloader or mechanical loader augmentation.

The main gun of the T-72 has a mean error of one meter at a range of 1,800 meters, which is considered substandard today. The maximum firing distance is 9,100 meters, due to limited positive elevation. The limit of aimed fire is 4,000 meters (with the gun-launched anti-tank guided missile, which is rarely used outside the former USSR). The T-72's main gun is fitted with an integral pressure reserve drum, which assists in rapid smoke evacuation from the bore after firing. The 125 millimeter gun barrel is certified strong enough to ram the tank through forty centimeters of iron-reinforced brick wall, but doing so will badly deteriorate the firing precision afterwards. Rumours in NATO armies of the late Cold War claimed that the tremendous recoil of the huge 125mm gun could damage the fully mechanical transmission of the T-72. The tank commander reputedly had to order firing by repeating his command, when the T-72 is on the move: "Fire! Fire!" The first shout was supposedly allowed the driver to disengage the clutch to prevent wrecking the transmission when the gunner fired the cannon on the second order. In reality, this still-common tactic substantively improves the tank's firing accuracy and has nothing to do with recoil or mechanical damage to anything. It must be noted, however, that a human being in close proximity to the breech block of a 2A46 cannon when it is fired will find the event difficult to ignore or forget.

The vast majority of T-72s do not have FLIR thermal imaging sights, though all T-72s (even those exported to the Third World) possess the characteristic (and inferior) 'Luna' IR illuminator. Thermal imaging sights are extremely expensive, and the new Russian FLIR system, the 'Buran-Catherine Thermal Imaging Suite' was only introduced recently on the T-80UM tank. Most T-72s found outside the former Soviet Union do not have laser range-finders. And only the most modern Russian tanks incorporate the ballistic computers that have equipped Western tanks since the mid 1970s.

A common myth is that all Soviet and Russian tanks since the Second World War are designed with a relatively limited range of elevation for the main gun. The tank's low profile requires a correspondingly low turret roof, which stops the rising gun breech. This inhibits depression of the gun (this was seen as a reasonable trade-off for a low profile). The main gun can be depressed only a few degrees, making it difficult to stop in a well-protected hull-down position (with the tank parked just behind the crest of a ridge and just the muzzle of its gun and part of its turret visible to the anticipated target).

Western tanks have considerably more elevation range and can be parked in a hull-down position with just the gun and a tiny sliver of the turret showing, whereas Soviet designs under many circumstances cannot take up a hull-down position at all because they cannot depress their guns far enough to park behind a ridge and shoot down the hill. In the interest of fairness, the origin and true impact of this shortcoming should be noted. The common Western explanation is that given Soviet doctrine's tactical emphasis on offence over defence, it was not particularly important to the Soviet designers that their tank be able to fight from a defensive position for long periods.

It is more likely that the T-72's designers were acutely conscious of the tank's limited main gun depression. A close look at the T-72 reveals an integral hydraulic dozer blade on the underside of the frontal glacis, which enables the T-72 to excavate and construct a defensive position that minimizes the need for gun depression. The T-72's lighter armor, lower ammo count, and lesser gun range when compared to its Western counterparts all indicate that its design prioritised mass production over comparative invincibility. A (relatively) cheap weapon, fielded in quantity, could wear down the better-armored spearheads of a Western preemptive conventional strike even in head-to-head battle. The T-72 is better characterised as a low-cost design balanced for phased offensive and defensive employment than as a tank designed solely for the attack. Indeed, by comparison with its NATO contemporaries the T-72 seems somewhat underprovisioned for protracted offensive operations.

Western tanks such as the Leopard 2, the LeClerc, and the M1 Abrams, publicly specified for the capability to defend against a feared Soviet/Warsaw Pact invasion of NATO, exhibit significant offensive capabilities that could serve a preemptive strike as well as a defense including local counterattack. These Western tanks' higher on-board ammunition capacity and greater armour protection may well have convinced habitually frugal Warsaw Pact strategists that they were not designed exclusively to fight from well-prepared positions in which additional ammunition could be stowed outside the tank turret (and from which a cheaper antitank solution might have nearly as much effect).

Armored warfare is of course neither simple nor static, historically involving rapid alteration between modes of attack and defence. Engineers on the two sides of the Iron Curtain certainly received contrasting constraints and objectives. Whether evaluated for cost, mobility, armament, or protection, the T-72 is a classic representative of the Soviet school of tank construction.

Recent CIS export designs, intended to compete with Western tanks on the open market, have placed more emphasis on defence and crew survivability. The Ukrainian T-84-120 Oplot and Russian Black Eagle appear to have superior gun depression, as well as armoured blow-out ammunition compartments.

T-72 models have been employed by Algeria, Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, the former East Germany, Finland, Georgia, Hungary, India, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Malaysia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, the United States (display, tests), Uzbekistan, and the former Yugoslavia.

Variants

• T-72 - Original version, optical range-finder.
• T-72A - Added side skirts, additional armour, laser range-finder, electronic fire control system, smoke grenade launchers.
• T-72B - Thicker armour, composite armour in front of turret and front of hull.
• T-72BK - Command version of T-72B, recognizable by having multiple radio antennas.
• T-72BV - Early explosive reactive armour added
• T-72BM - Kontakt-5 explosive reactive armour, composite armour in sides of turret as well, AT-11 "Svir" laser-guided antitank missile
• T-72M - Soviet export version, similar to T-72A (built also in Poland and ex-Czechoslovakia)
• T-72M1 - Soviet export version, with thicker armour (built also in Poland and ex-Czechoslovakia)

• M-84 - improved version produced in Yugoslavia, very widely exported
• Lion of Babylon tank - Iraqi-made version
• PT-91 Twardy - a Polish tank based on T-72M1

• T-72MP - modernization package for the T-72 by Ukrainian company KMDB, including improved engine, armour, and fire control. The upgrade is built in cooperation with Sagem of France, and the PSP Bohemia of the Czech Republic.
• T-72AG - KMDB modernization package, including improved engine, armour, fire control, and main armament
• T-72-120 - KMDB modernization package, including an auto-loaded main gun capable of firing NATO 120 mm ammunition or ATGM
• T-90 - is a further development of the T-72, incorporating many features of the heavier, more complex T-80.

Combat history

• Iran, Iraq: Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988)
• Syria: 1982 Lebanon War
• Russia: Chechnya (1994-1996, 1999-2002)
• Gulf Wars (1991, 2003)

See also

• List of tanks
• List of Soviet tanks
• T-54/55
• T-80, T-84
• T-90, T-95
• PT-91
• 125mm Smoothbore Rounds

External links

• Uralvagonzavod, manufacturer's English-language home page (Russian)
• T-72 at JED directory

• Main battle tanks
• Cold War Soviet tanks