Osprey New Vanguard 6 : T-72 Main Battle Tank 1974-1993

The Russian T-72 Ural tank is the most widely-deployed main battle tank of the current generation. Used by the armies of the former Warsaw pact and Soviet Union, it has also been exported in large numbers to many of the states in the Middle East including Syria, Libya, Iraq and Iran, and has been seen in combat in the Lebanon, the Iran-Iraq war, the Gulf War and the Yugoslav civil war. Curiously the T-72 was produced parallel with the T-64A tank, and later the T-80, a subject of considerable debate and mystery till now. This book reveals the previously secret history behind the T-72 Ural tank. Steven Zaloga examines the conditions under which the T-72 was designed and produced and explains how it was envisaged as a cheaper, though less effective, partial-alternative to other main battle tanks in the Soviet armoury. Its vulnerability is demonstrated later in the book by an analysis of its performance in both the 1982 Syrian-Israeli War and the 1991 Gulf War, the latter in particular showing that the T-72 is no match for the latest Western main battle tanks. Technical aspects of the weapon are discussed including its EDZ reactive armour which, when it first appeared in December 1984, gave NATO a nasty shock. Illustrations by Peter Sarson.

Contents

• Design and Development
• Foreign T-72 Development
• Inside the T-72M1
• Operational Use
• T-72 Variants