Iraq, Syria, Chechya, Ukraine — Is the Soviet-Era T-72 Really Dangerous Anymore?

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington DC) Iraq, Syria, the Chechen Wars, and now Ukraine are all battlefields where the Soviet-era T-72 tank has fought, yet there have been many upgraded variants throughout the years.

Maintenance and modernization have of course been a challenge for the tank, however, newer variants employ reactive armor, laser rangefinders, and improved thermal sights.

It is well known that Soviet-era Russian tanks such as the T-72 continue to get decimated in Ukraine, in part due to top-down vulnerability and successful Ukrainian employment of anti-armor weapons and tactics.

During the Soviet era, the T-72 was heavily exported throughout the Warsaw Pact, as well as to non-aligned powers including the former Yugoslavia and India, among others. The T-72 remains in Ukraine’s current arsenal.

Old Russian T-72 Tanks Keep Rolling

Overall, more than 5,400 T-72s were built, thousands of which make up the large Russian ground armored force. GlobalFirepower.com’s most recent assessment cites that Russia currently operates as many as 12,000 tanks, a number placing Ukraine’s force at a massive deficit. Despite this, Ukrainian armor and defensive anti-armor tactics continue to prove successful against Russian T-72s and T-90s.

The key question with the T-72 is the unclear extent to which the platforms have been modernized. How many have been sustained and upgraded with new sensors, ammunition, armor configurations, and command and control technology? For instance, during famous Gulf War tank battles in the early 90s, Soviet-built Iraqi T-72s got decimated by U.S. Army Abrams tanks in large measure to the advanced thermal sights on the Abrams allowing tank crews to see and hit Iraqi tanks from distances where they themselves were not seen.