The T-72 Main Battle Tank - Legacy Tank

[Music] welcome back everyone its Maximus thank you for joining me today I really appreciate you stopping by so today we are talking about main battle tanks again and finally I have got round to the beautiful Russian t-72 main battle tank now in this video you will notice not all t-72 shown in the footage are Russian and that's obviously because this tank is so widespread across the globe in terms of his usage now I have to admit I've been very nervous making this video it's one of those tanks where you really don't want to insult its heritage it's been such a formidable main battle tank around the world you really don't want to piss off the people who have also fallen in love with this tank because I myself love the t-72 now as always I'll go through my video and the three basic concepts that I run with a little bit about its history because if I was to talk about this vehicles history for a very long time I'd be here for about three years it is drenched in history secondly I'll go over its specifications and its features and finally I'll put my own spin and opinion on what I think of the tank so first of all let's just say that the t-72 is pretty much the most widely exported second to third generation main battle tank on this planet fact they are everywhere its origins dates to the Soviet Union's military expansion during the Leonid Brezhnev's Premiership from its object 172 prototype to the present an estimated 30,000 t-72s have been made between Nazis good seal and maahes live plant in Kharkov Ukraine and Poland and the former Yugoslavia India and Iran now according to CERN sources one in a particular forecast International says that the Russian Federation maintains the largest fleet of t-72 is currently with 13,000 of them left over from the 1990s and between four to six thousand mothballed as reserves until Moscow decides to scrap these vehicles the Russian t-72 main battle tank was produced at the Mal's EV hmb plant based in Kharkov Ukraine and at the UKB M NASA Kiel Russian Federation and produced under licence in the number of countries if first enter production in surprisingly 1972 the t-72 originated as a design to counter the expensive nature of the technologically advanced t-64 of 1963 the t-64 was the primary spearhead of the Soviet main battle tank an introduce the D 81 T 125 millimeter smoothbore main gun to this point Western offerings relied on the rifled 105 millimeter system and had since gone to adopt the 120 millimeter smoothbore design themselves the t-64 also coupled the 125 millimeter main gun with an automatic loader which reduced the crew size to three and contained an overall operational weight to manageable levels while promoting a reduced low profile on the horizon the prototype t-72 was born as the object 172 which evolved into the modified object 172 M evaluations of this new vehicle were undertaken in 1971 and concluded the tank to be functional and capable leading it to its adoption as the t-72 for the Red Army the t-72 was first unveiled to the public in 1977 on the May Day Parade and amazingly it would retain its front-line status and to the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1991 externally the t-72 followed a tried-and-true doctrine of decades-long Soviet tank design much attention was always given to the very low profile from any angle and the additional adding of an auto loader mechanism lessened the crew turret to only two personnel and the driver in the front center of the hull western tanks generally utilized the main loading system of a manual loader which required the fourth crew member and the third person in the turret the auto loading feature was extremely technologically advanced for its time it devised a carousel type arrangement containing the charge earning upper rung and projectile in a lower rung brought together at the breech the t-72 represents a combination of efficient design with a powerful main gun as the successor of the t-64 a model that was never exported outside the Soviet Union the t-72 chassis hull layout were quite revolutionary for its time the tank maintained its low profile and domed turret common amongst most Soviet tanks throughout the Cold War how the thing that really did separate this tank apart was that 125 millimeter smoothbore to a four six main gun and it's autoloader with the 22 round magazine the additional rounds were stored in the three-man crew compartment totalling its load to 39 rounds when engaged in combat a well-trained crew can fire roughly around 8 125 millimeter rounds in a minute the T seventies Crampton Theory reinforces the fact that Russian tankers really had to operate their vehicles in relative discomfort that may render them a little less ineffective in prolonged missions however in this day and age it really wasn't cared for they wanted to get as many tanks on the battlefield as possible and crew comfort really wasn't on their top to-do list the t-72s driver sits in the front of the vehicle exiting an enterovirus circular hatch above the distinctive v splash guard which is as I said distinctive the V splash guard is one of the key features prominent to the seeing that it is a t-72 the driver then runs the tank using two levers and a seven speed gear stick with only a detachable T NPO 168 V periscope for visibility which isn't much guys especially with such a low profile vehicle a separate night-vision periscope was also provided this is why drivers frequently poke their heads out when on the move it's not common that you would see these vehicles hatch down for the fact that it was very difficult to see when trying to look through the periscopes the gun and commander are within the turret all sights switches and systems are within arm's reach and designed that way so they can be used in both pitch-black and in potentially an embassy environment I don't know if you've ever been aware when inside a vehicle with a gas mask on but it can be very difficult to see where switches are the commander has the best access to either of the machineguns at his disposal a turret mounted 12.7 millimeter an SV and a 7.62 millimeter pkt beside the two a46 smoothbore main gun during the 1970s the t-72 armor was substantial and resistant to most anti-semitic Ollis rifle in keeping with the soviet proach the tank design a cast round steel turret allowed for a very strong frontal armor but very strong frontal armor only the Castillon either saw the t-72s main gun had a thickness between 350 and 380 millimeters the sloped Glacius of the c72 was a welded slab of rolled steel that sandwiched an additional glass reinforced plastic layer set at a 68 degree angle this gave at least 550 millimeters of armor on the upper glacis and 80 millimeters on the lower segment beneath the tanks headlights the flanks of the sides of the t-72 consisted of rolled steel plates that were quite thin just 80 millimeters on the upper half and 20 millimeters behind the road wheels the hulls bottom and the rear of the engine compartment only had 20 millimeters of thickness on paper the t-72 could absorb frontal direct hits from a 105 millimeter tank round but there are sources that believe that this frame is really lopsided considering the battles fought in June 1982 between Israeli tanks and Syrian t-72s in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley the rest of the tank is impervious to most small arms and even 25 millimeter cannon fire should a russian-made RPG 7 V whose warhead could actually burn through 11 inches of Steel score direct hit on the t-72 without a RA or explosive reactive armor it is said that it wouldn't penetrate the armor or the glass yes unless of course a tandem warhead is aimed at the bundle part of the vehicle the larger rpg-29 is fully capable of knocking out t-72 as well as most third-generation main battle tanks besides though no tank really is invincible and in 2013 a Syrian Arab army t-72 was destroyed when a rebel sled Hand Grenade down its barrel later variants like the t-72 B or b3 equipped with the kontakt-5 panels can withstand anti-tank guided missile hits and perhaps a very poorly aimed 120 millimeter heat round the t-72 might have a revolutionary main battle tank once but really the rigors and ravages of the past 40 years have really served his purpose to expose his weaknesses the original shortcomings form the basis for every t-72 upgrade there's an extremely uncomfortable interior smaller diesel power plant compared to most Dinko tanks a low and round turret that prevents the main gun from adequately depressing composite steel armor that performs inadequately really against current anti-tank guided missiles for accuracy in certain environments when thermal gun sights were not available an autoloader whose efficiency at some times was contrasted by the risk of exploding the whole tank when it's magazine is struck by a projectile however what can this tank do and why is it been so prominent and why is it done so well through the history the original t-72 that caused the stir in the West ran on a six more real power configuration by a 780 horsepower v12 diesel engine and could travel at around 60 kilometers an hour on rough terrain guys that is very very fast for a main battle tank of that day and this is one of the key attributes for the t-72 strengths it is bloody fast and it is bloody agile it can go just about anywhere guys its torsion bar suspension made for very clunky movements at top speed but it did emphasize on its ruggedness it could go anywhere take the bumps and keep on going although the engine exhaust was exposed the russians were clever enough to retool it as a smokescreen yes just like most tanks nowadays they can actually produce diesel onto the exhaust to give them an extreme smoke that will actually allow them to retreat and yes the vehicle was protected with a nuclear biological and chemical warfare protection system this allowed the crew to still operate the vehicle if there was potentially some sort of chemical threat and let's be honest here guys this vehicle was pretty much primed for the Cold War and potentially world war 3 and it was no-holds-barred they were gonna go into all-out nuclear slash chemical warfare against other vehicles it was definitely an option and you know they wanted to protect their crews and rightly so one of the key attributes that failed on this system though who was the autoloader it kind of chewed into its capability of being able to protect itself in that environment every time a projectile was fired an empty casing would have to be ejected out the back this actually exposed the vehicle's hull and turret to allow that chemical to get inside only momentarily but enough to cause it some potential damage to the crew and if they were not correctly and BC DUP the t-72 utilized the 125 millimeter smoothbore gun and could fire a healthy dose of projectile around 39 maximum this included the heat FS or high-explosive anti-tank fin-stabilized the hey chief rag or high-explosive fragmentation and the apfsds or armored facing fin-stabilised discarding Sabre common to other soviet tanks the t-72 mingi could also fire a guided anti-tank missile from the barrel to account to any potential armored or unarmored backfill threat using a mix of ejecta as was carried by all t-72 tanks to allow them to pretty much engage just about anything now in terms of variants that c72 obviously had a lot of different models the initial production model of 1973 were pretty much known as just t-72 the RAL name sometimes is also associated these vehicles and they were filled it with an optical coincidental rangefinder this mark was then followed by the improved t-72 a of 1979 which featured a laser rangefinder and an electronic fire control system for improved accuracy on the move additionally frontal protection was improved through the use of composites the t-72 a was designated the t-72 M or modernized to Warsaw Pact inventories and the export version became the t-72 G the t-72 m1 was the t-72 M with increased armor and the t-72 av was given the explosive reactive armour blocks to further more produce best protection the t-72 a.k proved a command tank with increased communication equipment so I won't go too much in the different designations and models but you're probably wondering Matz was why is this thing lasted so long well owing to its popularity in modern conflicts the t-72s combat record is a matter of interpretation on one hand so many have been destroyed in combat it doesn't help the armor protection only its rear and flanks was pretty much inadequate on the other hand developing countries prefer the t-72 and like the Russians of finding ways to currently improve it here's the thing one of the greatest things that the t-72 has on its side is it's affordable a t-72 could be delivered to a client for as little as five hundred thousand dollars per tank new versions cost nearly two million dollars each perhaps more or potentially perhaps less the t-72 remains a fearsome adverse fear as well as its recent played significant role in Ukraine's war with Russia simply it doesn't need all this high-tech technology if it has 125 millimeter gun can move quickly and engage targets and shoot and schoo it's still a formidable main battle tank I mean let's put it this way the US for example is still helping such improve the fire control systems for the Iraq new t-72s even Israeli firm such as IMI whose expertise with armoured vehicles is pretty much unrivaled can be contracted to modernize the Soviet era t-72s Ethiopia Angola Sudan South Sudan and Venezuela have paid for hundreds of t-72s to bolster their own ground forces the continuous adoption and improvement of the t-72 is incomparable with any other main modern tank Iran is recognized as the last manufacturer of the t-72 with his own licensed production ending in 2012 even developing countries that we can really barely afford to feed their own people are still buying these things it isn't a stretch to see the t-72 continuing in future battlefields somewhere else so really guys overall the t-72 is one of those tanks that is dis lasted through the ages and it will for a lot longer I can almost guarantee it and it is because of that main reason it just costs a lot less than some of the more highly modernized highly effective main battle tanks out there countries don't need these high-tech weapon systems to engage what they need them to engage and this is similar to the conversation I had previously about the close air support role there's no point spending billions and billions of dollars on these high-tech pieces of equipment if they're not going against other high-tech pieces of equipment the tanks that most of these countries are buying as a t-72 are being utilized to engage other t-72s and yes you'd think well why would they not buy better well because they can't they can't afford it and the t-72 is one of those legacy vehicles because there are so many made that they can buy off-the-shelf ready to go everything set and ready to go and there are many distributors and companies out there willing to upgrade these tanks to allow them to better themselves to allow them engaging targets better etc etc the fact that this tank continues to roll to this day is incredible to me I've got at me its mobility and speed is one of the key things I love about the t-72 just the speed of these things and how well they cross terrain I've seen them in Poland used by other countries and how well they Traverse cross terrain compared to a challenger to the challenge to is this big dopey fat thing which I love to death but be honest from a mechanical standpoint and you know an engineering standpoint it is slow it is fat and it does not like going through the thick mud anything more than about 2 or 3 feet it's gonna get stuck t-72 will pretty much chew through most stuff and it because of its low profile you can just go just about anywhere unfortunately because of its low profile it does have a little bit less gun depression but I don't think it's a huge downfall for this tank the huge downfall for this tank is its armor protection it really does have its ass handed to it when it comes to protecting itself some of those millimeter thicknesses of armor thickness on this tank was just shocking to even say let alone oh it's just very very worrying that you know most modern-day countries are even starting to look at you know continuing to upgrade these vehicles really in my own opinion as much as I love the t-72 it is a tank that should be really trying to get upgraded out of the picture ie replaced but it's definitely doing what it needs to do it's being able to engage targets with that beautiful 125 millimeter smoothbore cannon everybody used to say Matt's mister you hate Auto loaders and I got honestly say no I don't and especially for a vehicle like this if you can't afford to train for crew members of course you're going to pick a vehicle that can mechanically load that round into the breech so it's a big Pro for this tank having that or a loader system and to be honest I found it quite interesting back in those days in an engineering standpoint that they've gone down that route you know they said you know what let's go to the drawing board design something that gets rid of an entire crew member we can literally increase our firepower on the battlefield by them producing more tanks and less crew members you've pretty much reduced the need 25% of needing to put another crew member in there that's impressive and also kind of scary because if it ever did hit the fan back in the Cold War we would have been up against thousands of these things thousands of them and it doesn't matter how technically advanced your tank is or how much army you have you get a hundred of those 125 millimeter main gun rounds going into your tank you're going to lose and that was the scary thing back in the Cold War there were so many of these things preparing to cross the border and cross the lines that we kind of knew that we would be overrun we would have to do a retreat back as we go and try our best to utilize our technology as we retreat to stop enough of these things and scarily enough I don't think we would have been able to do it so the t-72 for me always has that kind of background fear-mongering - you know it's it's one of those tanks that if we ever did have to go against it at some point in combat full-scale it would have done a very good job but I still think to this day if it even came to us it potentially could - and that's pretty standing for the fact that most countries still use it and this is a lot greedy at braiding it you know they're still putting money into it that's that's pretty impressive anyway guys I hope you enjoyed today's video I did not go too deep with its history of specifications and different variants because I would be here forever but basically you've got a good overview of the vehicle you've got a little bit of its specifications and some of the history - what it was to come to be and my opinion on it and overall guys I love the t-72 I really do and I apologize if anything in this video is wrong where you wish I'd added more but honestly I could just spout on about this tank all day because I really do have a very strong passion for it you know liking this tank because it's just a very very good tank and a lot of people hate on it and I can't quite understand why I think it's purely down to you know a couple of reports they see here and there and you know there watch the t's TV and see t-72s getting taken out all the time of course they are I mean these are some of the most under armored vehicles going up against you know high tech anti-tank guided weapon systems or even RPGs that are you know within 20-30 feet that's not what they were designed to take on they were designed to take on tanks from distance and back in those days it was 105 millimeter gun there go up against you know when the Leopards and challenger tuesday min and all those you know Abrams main battle tanks and all that sort of stuff when that smooth ball 120-millimeter came in we pretty much knew straightaway the t-72 was kind of doomed even though they're upgrading it today back then it was kind of time to upgrade and that's why the t 8090 started coming out was started to try and improve as best they could anyway let me know what you think about today's video I'd love to hear your comment in your opinion on it leave me a like if you did enjoy honestly guys I'll be quite straight with you YouTube hates all of my military videos I've got my you know not deemed friendly for advertisement buttons all over the bloody place and it's just kind of frustrating and I do spend a lot of time and effort into these videos and I would really appreciate if you do want to support my channel to go check out my patreon page that the link is in the description box below thank you so much for joining me today guys I hope you have a good one and bye-bye [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Matsimus

Views: 535,198

Rating: 4.9015841 out of 5

Keywords: T-72, t72, T-72 tank, T-72 Ural, T-72 MBT, main battle tank, russian tank, Russian T-72, T-72 Ural-1, T-72M, T-72B, tanks, Soviet Union, T-64 tank, Uralvagonzavod, T-72 Object 172M, Т-72Б3, танки Т-72Б3, autoloader, tank autoloader, tank gun, 125mm main gun, smoothbore gun, T-14 armata

Id: hN7CcfTlZ-s

Length: 21min 36sec (1296 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 18 2017