Encyclopedia
The
T-72 is a
Soviet-designed
main battle tank that entered production in 1971. It is a parallel design with the
T-64, and has been further developed as the
T-90.
Origin
The
T-64 was one of the world's most advanced battle tanks when introduced, but early problems with its L60-derived engine, the roadwheels and inaccuracy of its main gun prompted Soviet leadership to seek a low-tech alternative with similar performance, especially after the high unit costs and labour intensive manufacture process of T-64 became obvious. The tank was too expensive to equip all Soviet tank armies, let alone
Warsaw Pact allies.
An "economy" tank with the old design V-46 powerplant was developed from 1967 at the Ural Vagonmash Factory located in Nyizniy Tagil. Chief engineer Leonid Karchev created "Object 172", the initial design, but the prototype, marked "Object 172M", was refined and finished by Valeri Venidikov. Field trials lasted from 1971 to 1973 and upon acceptance the Chelyabinsk Tank factory immediately ceased
T-55 and
T-62 production to retool for the new T-72 tank.
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.
Outside the USSR, licenced versions of T-72 were made in Poland and Czechoslovakia, for WARPAC consumers. These tanks had better and more consistent quality of make but with inferior armour, lacking the resin-embedded ceramics layer inside the turret front and glacis armour, replaced with all steel. The Polish-made T-72G tanks also had thinner armour compared to soviet standard . Before 1990, Soviet-made T-72 export versions were similarly downgraded for non-WARPAC customers . Many parts and tools are not interchangeable between the Russian, Polish and Czechoslovakian versions, which causes logistical problems.
The Yugoslavs called their copy the
M-84, and sold hundreds 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. Several countries, including Russia and
Ukraine 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 armour have changed considerably. Original T-72 tanks had homogeneous cast steel armour incorporating spaced armour technology and were moderately well protected by the standards of the early 1970s. In 1979, the Soviets began building T-72 modification with composite armour similar to the
T-64 composite armour, in the front of the turret and the front of the hull. Late in the 1980s, T-72 tanks in Soviet inventory were fitted with
reactive armour tiles and extra layer of synthetic ABV shielding carpet on the outside, which also served as an anti-slipping foot restraint.
Laser rangefinders appear in T-72 tanks since 1978, earlier examples were equipped with parallax optical rangefinders, which could not be used for distances under 1000 meters. Some export versions of T-72 lacked the laser rangefinder until 1985 or only the squadron and platoon commander tanks received them. After 1985, all newly made T-72 came with reactive armour as standard, more powerful 840bhp V-84 engine and an upgraded design main gun, which can fire guided anti-tank missiles from the barrel. With these developments the T-72 eventually became almost as powerful as the more expensive
T-80 tank, but few of these late variants reached the economically ailing WARPAC allies and foreign customers before the Soviet bloc fell apart in 1990.
Since 2000, export vehicles have been offered with thermal imaging
night-vision gear of French manufacture as well .
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 twenty-first century standards. The more advanced
T-64 and
T-80 were always deployed in the forward Soviet divisions in Germany, and the T-72 was intended to be a cheap yet efficient and simple-to-maintain battle tank.
At least some technical documentation on the T-72 is known to have been passed to the
CIA by the
Polish Colonel
Ryszard Kuklinski between 1971 and 1982.
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 ,
Iraq in 1991 , and again
Iraq in 2003— the T-72 did not show its abilities. After clashes in Lebanon in 1982, both the Israelis and the
Syrians claimed their main tank's superiority, but there is no verifiable evidence of a T-72 destroying a
Merkava or vice versa. In the
Persian Gulf War, the Iraqi tank units were heavily defeated, although this might have more to do with the poor training and full air supremacy than with any deficiencies of the T-72 itself. Furthermore, while facing the most modern Western tanks, the versions the Iraqi army fielded were out of date at the time. The Iraqi T-72s were downgraded export versions that had not been significantly upgraded over time and were firing inferior ammunition .
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.
Weight
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 . 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.
Nuclear, biological, and chemical protection
The T-72 has a comprehensive nuclear, biological, and chemical 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 tank guns, so NBC isolation of the fighting compartment can in theory be maintained indefinitely.
Interior
Like all Soviet-legacy tanks, the T-72's design has traded off interior space in return for a very small silhouette and efficient use of armour, to the point of replacing the fourth crewman with a mechanical loader. The smaller complement increases the crew's mental and physical exhaustion . 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 set-up 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.
Armour
Armour protection of the T-72 was strengthened with each succeeding generation. The T-72 original has homogeneous steel armour, but the T-72A and T-72B both incorporate composite armour protection. The T-72's crew survivability is poor, since the ammunition storage compartment is not segregated from the crew compartment, and the majority of the ammunition is stored right in the crew compartment. Russian ammunition in particular is prone to catch on fire due to the design of its casing. The turret of the T-72 has a tendency to fly off when the tank is hit, prompting the American tank crews who faced it during the two Gulf Wars to refer to it as the "Jack in the Box."
Gun
The 125 mm 2A46 series main gun is about as powerful as the NATO-standard 120 mm/L44 found in many modern Western
MBTs , 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 main gun of the T-72 has a mean error of one metre at a range of 1,800 m, which is considered substandard today. Its maximum firing distance is 9,100 m, due to limited positive elevation. The limit of aimed fire is 4,000 m . 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 millimetre gun barrel is certified strong enough to ram the tank through forty centimetres 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 125 mm 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 possess the characteristic '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.
Autoloader
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 . These systems are fast but prone to malfunctions if not maintained properly. Even if properly maintained they can be relatively unreliable. It takes between 6.5 and 15 seconds to load a new shell into the main gun, depending on the current position of the autoloader carousel. 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. While autoloading, the gunner can still aim because he has a vertically independent sight. With a
laser range-finder and a ballistic computer, final aiming takes at least another three to five seconds, but aiming is pipelined into the last steps of auto-loading so it proceeds simultaneously. The T-90 autoloader has a 'sequence' mode. When it is enabled, the loading mechanism continuously loads the rounds of the same type without any gunner's intervention. This allows the loading operations to be performed in under 5 seconds. There are videos showing T-90 firing 3 shots in 13 seconds while moving. This rate of fire is practically impossible for a human loader. 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 other tank types; the separated cartridges are easier to handle.
Employment
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 . The main gun can be depressed only a few degrees, making it difficult to stop in a well-protected
hull-down position .
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 bulldozer 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 armour, 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 cheap weapon, fielded in quantity, could wear down the better-armoured 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 under-provisioned 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 defence 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 .
Armoured 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 and Herzegovina,
Bulgaria,
Croatia,
Czech Republic, the former
East Germany,
Finland,
Georgia,
Hungary,
India,
Iran,
Iraq,
Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan,
Libya,
Macedonia,
Malaysia,
Poland,
Romania,
Russia,
Serbia,
Slovakia,
Sri Lanka,
Syria,
Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan,
Ukraine, the
United States , and
UzbekistanVariants
...
reactive armour.
- T-72B - Thicker armour, composite armour in front of turret and front of hull. Early Kontakt explosive
...
reactive armour added. AT-11 "Svir" laser-guided antitank missile capability.
- T-72B1 - T-72B without ATGM capability.
- T-72BK - Command version of T-72B, recognizable by having multiple radio antennas.
- T-72B - T-72B equipped with Kontakt-5 explosive
...
reactive armour, composite armour in sides of turret as well.
- T-72M - Soviet export version, similar to T-72A .
- T-72M1 - Soviet export version, with thicker armour .
- M-84 - improved version produced in Yugoslavia
- M-95 Degman - more modern prototype based on the M-84
- Lion of Babylon tank - Iraqi-made version.
- PT-91 Twardy - a Polish tank based on T-72M1.
- TR-125 - Romanian tank based on T-72 with extra armour modiffied suspension and more powerful diesel engine.
- T-72MP - modernization package for the T-72 by Ukrainian company KMDB, including improved engine, armour, and fire control. The upgrade is built in co-operation 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.
- Ajeya MK1 - Indian version of the T-72M, in 1993 they were improved to T-72M1 versions.
- Ajeya MK2 - Indian version of the T-72M1, upgraded with Kontakt-1 explosive
...
reactive armour, new fire detection and suppression systems, installation of of laser warning systems on either side of the turret, new SKO-1T DRAWA-T fire control systems/thermal imagers supplied by
Poland, upgraded the 780hp engine to the new 1000hp V46-6 diesel engine and improved navigation GPS.
- Tank EX - Indian integration of the Arjun turret onto the T-72 hull, Prototype only.
- BMP-T - Heavy Convoy, and Close Tank support vehicle. All new turret armed with 2 30mm 2A42 Autocannons, 4 9M133 Kornet ATGMs, AGS-17/30 30mm Grenade Launchers and a 7.62mm PKT MG. Features new fire control system with thermal sights and 3rd generation Relikt explosive
...
reactive armour.
- T-72BM - First shown at the 2006 Russian Arms Expo, it is an upgraded T-72B fitted with new fire control system including a gunner's thermal sight, "Nakidka" camouflage kit, new 125mm 2A46M-5 main gun with muzzle reference system, V-92S2 1,000hp diesel engine and new Relikt 3rd generation explosive
...
reactive armour which is claimed to be twice as effective as Kontakt-5.
- T-72Z Safir-74 – Iranian Upgrade
- Zulfiqar MBT – Indigenous Iranian design borrowing elements from the T-72
Combat history
References
- Sewell, Stephen ‘Cookie’ . in Armor vol. 108, no. 4, p. 21. Fort Knox, KY: US Army Armor Center. ISSN 0004-2420.
See also
External links
- , manufacturer's English-language home page
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