Russia to Debut T-72 Tank Modernized for Urban Combat

The T-72 is the most popular tank currently in service. With over 22,000 produced, the T-72 is involved in almost every theater of war, and, with the transformation of warfare from symmetric to asymmetric combat, waged in urban areas, the T-72 must also adapt, to maintain its effectiveness in complex terrain.

Part of this modernization is to equip the T-72 to be more effective and less vulnerable to close-in threats, such as obstacles, mines, IEDs and RPGs, all characteristic of urban warfare, The Russian company has designed this urban warfare kit based on the experience of the war in Syria.

The tank displayed at KADEX 2016 shows additional reactive armor tiles expanding the protected areas on the turret and hull sides, and rear areas protected by slat armor. The tank also carries Counter-IED jammer to defeat radio-controlled threats. A distinctive feature is the protected shield built around the commander’s hatch, that enables the tank commander to observe to all sides and upwards, through the transparent shield and operate the heavy machine gun. For optronics and fire control the modernized tank employs the Sosna-U, multi-channel TV/thermal sight and missile guidance system. The gun is replaced with the improved 2A46M cannon and an auto loader modified to fire missiles. A dozen blade adds to the tank’s potential in obstacle clearing or counter-mobility operations.

Considering large-scale modernization of its fleet of T-72 tanks, Kazakhstan has approached several providers from Russia, Turkey, and Israel. All are providing systems and components for the upgrading program to be done in the country. Among the systems displayed at KADEX was a T-72A fitted with a modern Optronics, thermal imaging and fire control provided by Elbit Systems. Another variant was the T-72B3 configured with a new urban warfare kit developed by the original manufacturer Uralvagonzavod.

A Russian-Kazakh JV established by Uralvagonzavod and Kazakhstan Engineering in 2013 aims to modernize T-72 tanks and other variants based on this chassis. The JV is also set to convert decommissioned T-72 tanks into evacuation, obstacle-removing vehicles, and other heavy, special purpose machines. The Kazakh company has established another JV with the Turkish defense conglomerate Aselsan; this JV is also eying the T-72 upgrade as a major business opportunity.

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Link

Quoted:
Not trying to hate, but many here on this forum, and a few friends my age faced off in more recent years against the T-72, and the T-72 crews were up shit creek.. Is this a legit upgrade, or just Russia trying to polish a turd for export?

Quoted:
They built a trash can with windows around the commander.

Quoted:
They built a trash can with windows around the commander.

Quoted:



Are they still storing their ammo around the turret ring?

Quoted:


CROWSKI must've been too many rubles for the comrades. Or they probably couldn't get it to work. Because they fucking suck at building anything.

Quoted:
Not trying to hate, but many here on this forum, and a few friends my age faced off in more recent years against the T-72, and the T-72 crews were up shit creek.. Is this a legit upgrade, or just Russia trying to polish a turd for export?

Quoted:
Hilarious.

Can't wait to see footage of the new and improved "fucking turret goes flying through the air" system.

Quoted:



Are they still storing their ammo around the turret ring?

Quoted:
Hilarious.

Can't wait to see footage of the new and improved "fucking turret goes flying through the air" system.

Quoted:
2. IT STILL HAS THE CAROUSEL OF DEATH

Quoted:
Not trying to hate, but many here on this forum, and a few friends my age faced off in more recent years against the T-72, and the T-72 crews were up shit creek.. Is this a legit upgrade, or just Russia trying to polish a turd for export?

Quoted:
Ammo is in a carousel right under the turret. Hence the top popping off.

Quoted:



Are they still storing their ammo around the turret ring?

Quoted:
it's not only the Russians that have exposed ammo in the turret


British Challenger 2
https://s17-us2.ixquick.com/cgi-bin/serveimage?url=http:%2F%2Fi1131.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fm550%2FJimWarford5%2FChallenger2_AmmoReplenishment_TurretStorage_1.jpg&sp=40c5ed927becc51331ea1eed05ab1d28

https://s17-us2.ixquick.com/cgi-bin/serveimage?url=http:%2F%2Fimage.noelshack.com%2Ffichiers%2F2013%2F47%2F1385291646-challenger2turretstowage.jpg&sp=23f2dda8614c426405dfcef672e6c0fa


Israeli Merkava 4 (iirc, the individual sleeves are armored)
https://s15-us2.ixquick.com/cgi-bin/serveimage?url=http:%2F%2Fs009.radikal.ru%2Fi310%2F1010%2F48%2F85c71224791d.jpg&sp=b732cfcddbacc5a918b1f0768cc948b1

Quoted:
A look inside a T-72B3.  If I'm not mistaken, this was ordered instead of the T-90 since the T-90 was just too damn expensive, and upgrades of T-72s to this standard are ongoing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7ljz_Bm9Rk

Notice the following:
1. It's loud as shit.
2. Crew communication consists primarily of yelling at each other.  "Agoyn!  Agoyn! Agoyn!" is the TC telling his gunner to "Fire!".
3. The autoloader is just waiting to load one of the crew into the gun along with the ammunition.
4. Bore evacuator system doesn't seem to work for shit, even with the hatches open.
5. TC appears to be firing the PKT 7.62 Coax by pressing the manual trigger, possibly because they can't even keep the normal firing system working
6. Near the end of the video, we can see that the thermal system is OK, but gets disrupted so bad by firing the main gun that it's not possible to use it for observing fall of shot.

Compare this to a Soviet era T-64, and it doesn't look like much changed in their tanks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4B4Yd6q-zg
Notice here the "Korzina" ("Basket") style autoloader functions a bit differently, but still does an excellent job of blowing the fucking turret off your own tank if you get hit.
Notice that they're still using the same communications system of just yelling at each other in this tank as well.  TC yelling "Strelyat!" at the gunner is the "Fire!" command.

I understand that in the west they have this thing called a "CVC Helmet" with some kind of intercom thing so you don't need to scream and yell past your main gun to give orders.

Just for giggles, inside a T-80 here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSzh2Ot2niY
Pretty much just a T-64 with a turbine engine.


Compare that to these:
USMC M1A1's on the range:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TLhih8gijQ

Inside a Leopard 2, firing on the move:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwXwrx_lkSg

Quoted:
You know I would suspect they wouldn't have to up armor the tanks so much, if they would inform their customers that driving a group of tanks and APCs into a town square surrounded by high roof tops - then just idling them there, with no infantry support whatsoever - may not be a winning strategy.