T-72M1/T-72A main battle tank
Model info:
4033 polygons.
1 512x512 texture
1 128x128 texture
Date of creation: 2003
Probably my 5th tank model, and the second for SB.
it's gone through numerous accuracy updates.
General info:
| designer: | Uralwagonzavod, Siberia. |
| introduction date: | 1978 |
| proliferation: | 28 countries |
|
SPECIFICATIONS:
DESCRIPTION:
the T-72A was originally intended as a cheaper variant of the T-64 MBT,
to fill up the frontlines if the cold war had ever gone hot.
It was also a popular export tank, with exports to 28 countries.
the export variant was called T-72M1, and was licence built in
chechoslovakia, and poland.
Although the export variant looks almost exactly like the
russian original, it suffered from poor armour quality, and ammunition.
In it's days, the T-72A was the fear of the west, nicknamed dolly parton after its "bustier" frontal turret armour,
compared to the base model T-72.
there was no equivalent in the west at the time, that could match up to its armour protection.
DESIGN:
| weight: | 41.500kg combat |
| crew: | 3 (TC, gunner, driver) |
| weapons: | 125mm 2A46 smoothbore gun, 12.7mm NSVT, 7.62mm PKT |
| engine: | V-46-6 V12 engine coupled to a 7fwd 1 reverse gearbox |
|
| Top speed fwd/reverse (Offroad): | 60kph/5kph (45kph) |
| ammunition load (ready/stored): | 22/22 main gun rounds, 250/1750 coax-rounds, 100/200HMG rounds |
| obstacle crossing: | 0.85m vertical, 2.9m trench |
The T-72's biggest advantage is it's small profile, and compact design,
although it seriously limits the gun depression/elevation.
The elevation range of the main gun is -6,13 to +16,47.
getting into any of the crew compartments is a tight fit,
but it's enough for people to do what they're supposed to do in there.
one of the bigger disadvantages of the tank is it's primitive
ammunition layout. basically, the tank interior is crammed to the brim with
fuel and explosives. while originally the tank was designed not to be
penetrated from the front, any hits to the side hull would
make the turret touch the outer atmoshphere.
the T-72 has a 2-axis stabilized turret,
but the vertical stabilization is inadequate when driving in rough terrain over
speeds of around 25-30kph.
Crew positions:
TC:
the TC has a primitive hunter-killer function on his cupola.
he can turn the turret left and right by pressing
2 buttons on his cupola grips,
and lock the turret onto his view by pressing both buttons at the same time.
however, the cupola is turned by hand, which is, to say the least, a bit challenging.
he also has access to a 12.7mm NSVT heavy machine gun, which is supposed to be used
for anti-aircraft purposes, although it would only have use against low and slow-flying helicopters.
it is aimed by pulling and pushing to traverse, and a handcrank to elevate.
visibilty when buttoned up is poor.
the TC has 4 periscopes, 2 facing forward at a slight angle, and 2 are embedded in the hatch.
the TC's primary sight is an unstabilized TKN-3 day/night sight, with 5x magnification.
the TC also handles all radio duties, and reloads the coax when it's empty of ammunition,
as well as plotting into the computer which main gun round are located where, when reloading the autoloader.
it's also possible for the TC to fire the coax, but this is hardly of any use, since the TC is not able to actually aim it.
GUNNER:
The gunner has a TPD-K1 primary sight with an 8X fixed magnification,
a 1x periscope above the main sight functions as an emergency aiming device.
A separate TPN-1-49-23 active IR night sight is located to the left of the main sight.
the night sight is very sensitive to light, and is bolted up during daytime usage,
as well as night time. the resolution is simply horrendous, and actually trying to identify anything
beyond 500m is impossible, so you could be shooting either friend or foe without knowing.
on top of that, the night sight only works during starlight conditions, so during overcast nights,
you wouldn't be able to see anything without the IR searchlights on,
which would leave large beams shooting out of the tanks in the IR spectrum,
making it easy prey for any tank with passive IR equipment.
the main sight is a combination of stadiametric lines and
a laser range finder.
there seems to have been a common problem with the LRF not being aligned to the
main reticle properly.
-the standard firing procedure is as follows:
1. choose a round to be loaded, and press the load button
2. in the main sight, a red light will illuminate at the top when the round is loaded.
3. the gunner aligns the target to the red laser hotspot in the sight, and lases the target.
4. the sight jumps, and the gunner realigns sight to the aiming reticle, and pulls the trigger.
all this happends in the space of around 3-4 seconds.
for moving targets, the gunner aligns the sight to a series of lines, to the left and right of the aimin reticle.
the emergency fire periscope is just simply a periscope facing forward, so actually hitting anything is extremely difficult.
an additional feature in the T-72, is an automatic range reduction system called Delta-D.
in theory, the gunner would lase a target, and switch on Delta-D. When the tank moved, the system would increase, or decrease the LRF range to the target,
depending on how and where the tank drove.
in practive however, it proved unreliable, both because of cheap design, and oversights with the system
on most export vehicles, the system either adjusted the range too much, or too little.
Additionally, on slippery ground and hilly terrain, the range would adjust erraneously as well.
the T-72 sight also has a range exclusion device, which will exclude ranges returned by the LRF shorter than a set distance,
which gives a more accurate average, and allows the T-72 to lase through trees that would otherwise mess up the final range.
in case of hydraulics or LRF failure, the T-72 has manual hand-cranks, and a manual range-wheel.
DRIVER:
the driver sits in the front middle of the hull, with 2 fuel tanks on each side.
he's got 1 periscope to the front to look out of, and 2 levers to steer the vehicle.
the tank is brake-steered, so when the driver pulls either of the levers,
the turning track is put in a lower gear. in the first gear, the turning track is braked.
the T-72 is not capable of turning in place.
Autoloader:
the autoloader differs from the T-64 and T-80 basket autoloader,
in that it has both propellant and projectile stored horizontally.
and the carousel rotation is limited to 1 direction only.
in normal operation, the casette loader takes 6 seconds to load a round.
however, it can take up to 15 seconds to load a round if the round desired is
a 355 degree turn of the carousel away.
there has been rumours that the autoloader has eaten the hands of gunners,
and fed them into the main gun breech.
but this is impossible.
the gunner would have to put his hand into the breech, after pushing the gun load button.
in the case of an autoloader failure, the TC has 2 manual cranks, one of which is attached to a bicycle chain,
to rotate the carousel, and hoist the ammunition elevator.
however, this is painstakingly slow, taking over 1 minute to complete the loading of a single round.
fortunately the autoloader is very simple, and extremely reliable.
in the finnish army, there's usually less than 1 autoloader failure a year.
and thats for around 10 tanks.
shows the main gun being fired, and ejecting a used stub case.
the autoloader hoists up a new round, and rams it into the breech
as well as ejecting the stub of the spent propellant case.
shows the carousel spinning 360 degrees at max speed, which is 40 degrees/s
BACK TO GALLERY