The T-72 Main Battle Tank – Legacy Tank

The T-72 Ural main battle tank was developed as a cheaper and more reliable, however less capable alternative to the T-64. It is a product of a traditional Soviet design philosophy. Its designers used proven components whenever possible, improved existing components where required, and, only when necessary designed new components. The T-72 entered service with Soviet army in 1973.

A total of 30 000 tanks of this type were produced in the Soviet Union, China, Czechoslovakia, India, Romania and Yugoslavia. It was exported to about 30 countries. At the end of 1990s Russia operated around 9 000 of these main battle tanks.
The T-72 is protected by composite armor. Some sources claim that front armor of the T-72 is equivalent to 500-600 mm of Rolled Homogenous Armor (RHA). At the time of its introduction from arc of the T-72 could withstand any 105 mm munitions at ranges greater than 500 m. Mind though that contemporary Western tanks were armed with 105 mm guns. The front armor of the T-72 could not be penetrated by contemporary Dragon or TOW anti-tank guided missiles. Side armor provides protection against IFV and helicopter cannons. Later production models were fitted with side skirts. The T-72 is completed with NBC protection system and automatic fire extinguishing equipment.
This main battle tank is completed with a 125 mm smoothbore gun. This gun fired rounds at a much higher muzzle velocity than Western 105 mm rifled guns. The gun is fitted with new carousel-type autoloader. Previous autoloader on the T-64 was unreliable and had a number of other drawbacks. Despite being more reliable, autoloader of the T-72 was slower than that, used on the T-64. Maximum rate of fire is up to 8 rounds per minute. If required, the gun can be loaded manually at a rate of 1-2 rounds per minute. A total of 39 rounds are carried for the main gun. Effective range of fire with APFSDS round is about 2 000 – 3 000 meters day and 850-1 300 meters at night. Armor penetration is around 590-630 mm of rolled homogenous armor equivalency at 2 000 m range. Germans estimated that the Soviet T-72 could penetrate frontal armor of the early Leopard 2 tanks at a range of 1 500 meters and frontal armor of Leopard 1 tank at more than 3 000 meters.
Secondary armament consists of coaxial 7.62 mm machine gun and 12.7 mm machine gun, mounted on top of the roof in the opened mount.
By Western standards this tank had poor night vision capability, which was a serious drawback.
Vehicle has a crew of three, including commander, gunner and driver.
The T-72 is powered by a V-46 diesel engine, developing 780 horsepower. It has improved suspension over its predecessor. It uses six larger roadwheels, similar to those of the T-55 and T-62 series tanks. This main battle tank is completed with a self-entrenching blade and can dig trench during 12-40 minutes, depending on the ground type. When not in use this self-entrenching blade provides additional protection for the front of the hull. Vehicle is fitted with a deep wading kit and can ford water obstacles up to 5 meters deep.

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