Roots and Role of the T-72M1 Main Battle Tank with Jim Warford 

The IS-3 would be a great topic for another video...

Yes! another Sofilein video. glad to see you still creating and interviewing

Excellent analysis and excellent presentation a truly outstanding armor and tank expert. But he would mention a few details that may have been missed. The T-72 m and M1 were never produced in Russia/USSR, they are tanks intended for export and were produced exclusively in the former Warsaw Pact countries, Poland and the former Czechoslovakia, later in the Czech Republic. The T-72 M/M1 has nowhere near armor protection, because it does not have a fire control system, and optoelectronics at the level of the T-72A, which is for the USSR army, that is, the first modernization of this tank from 1977. The T-72 "Ural" is the original T-72 from 1972/73. The T-72 tanks that were produced for the USSR army were not exported outside the USSR, at the time they were current, only a few years ago a lot of modernization of the T-72AV from 1979 was sold to Syria... The tanks were exported from Warsaw Pact countries. and Czechoslovakia. And these are the T-72M variant and the slightly improved T-72M1. Even the T-72M1 had worse armor protection than the T-72A, the first modernization of this tank for the Soviet Army, in 1977. Versions produced without permission in Iraq, for example... are even worse than the export version of the T-72M /M1, especially when armor protection and optoelectronics are questionable. So you probably tested the T-72M and T-72M1 which had close armor protection to the Soviet version of the T-72A, so you saw the obvious difference in armor protection between the M and M1 versions. Otherwise, T-72M/M1 tanks were used only for export. and in the countries of the Warsaw Pact ... Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria ... In translation, these are deeply degraded versions of T-72 tanks. Also, to make matters worse, the ammunition that was sold to, say, Iraq for these tanks is old Soviet, from the beginning of the 70s of the last century, with the ability to penetrate about 300 mm of homogeneous steel. So they had degraded tanks and outdated ammunition. As for the disadvantages, you are absolutely right about the T-72 tanks, because the storage of additional ammunition, loading and projectiles inside the turret is unprotected. And that's why the entire turret of the tank was detonated and the crew was lost. But this happens in more than 95% of cases if additional spare ammunition is stored in the tank, so if there is a penetration inside the turret, then there is an explosion and the loss of both the crew and the tank. However, this can be prevented by not carrying unprotected spare ammunition inside the tank, more specifically, rounds and projectiles. Although there is generally a misconception that the explosion occurs because of an automatic loader or a carousel with ammunition, which is not true! Thus, during the conflict, both Ukrainians and Russians generally stopped carrying additional spare ammunition in the tank. We saw that on the Ukrainian battlefield, but we also saw that the turret flew off Leopard 2 tanks in Syria and Ukraine?! modernized variants of T-72 tanks. They are somewhere above the level of the Leopard 2 A4, about the level of the Leopard 2 A5. The same applies to the T-80BVM ... and older versions of the T-90 tanks. While the new version of T-90M / Proriv 2 and 3 ... In the worst case, the level of Leopard 2 A6/A7 ... The Russian/Soviet T-72 tank in its first and basic versions from half a century ago, or the export of deeply degraded versions used in the Middle East... Not a serious threat to any Western 3rd generation tank. But the modernized variants of this tank, which are modernized from the second to the third generation of tanks. Such as the above-mentioned Russian modernizations T-72B1MS /B3/B3M, T-80BVM... But also the Polish versions of the modernization of the T-72 PT-91 tank, as well as the Czech modernization of the T-72M4 CZ and the Ukrainian modernization of the T-64 tanks and The T-80, as well as the Serbian modernization of the M-84AS1/AS2 tanks... In a real war conflict, they represent a serious threat to every third generation of Western tanks. Not to mention the new T-90M tanks. First of all, when taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of Western and Soviet/Russian as well as Chinese tanks on the T-72 tank platform. Which is very well fought in the real big and modern war after WW2, which is the war in Ukraine. Modernized Soviet / Russian tanks have an advantage in most segments. Logistics, mobility, speed, maneuverability, agility, endurance, passability, easy maintenance and cheap and fast, even in outdoor conditions, very easy and cheap and fast training of the crew, significantly greater range of the cannon up to 5 km, the possibility of using the tank as mobile artillery, a range of up to 10 km, usability in real war and on the modern battlefield...

Superb talk Jim, thank you!

I saw that tank at Knox in 2004. My reenacting unit was invited to Fort Knox for a scripted Memorial Day weekend event. Being an East Coast-based organization, only three or so of us made it. I had recently returned to Fort Campbell from Iraq, so it was a relatively short drive. We did the event, and Patton Museum staff let us go on a behind-the-ropes tour for us volunteering our time. Only two pieces of equipment were off-limits--the T-72 and a recently recovered StuG III. I have pictures on the 88mm, Kettenkrad, Panther, and other pieces. Perhaps best of all was the tour of the motor pools that some of the staff took a handful of us on the following morning!

Nato members were moving away from the 105mm tank rounds at that time and switching to the 120mm projectile. the UK had the 120mm rounds with it's chieftain tank, the Germans(leopard 2) and the french( amx 32/40 design series of export tanks)had it in hand to switch calibres from the late 70s early 80s too, the US was slow in making the move to 120mm. the counter to these t72 tanks were in the pipline and in some cases on the battlefield in the 80s already. good post sofi very informative on the state of manufacture of these tanks, thank you.

Ништяк)) That's always a pleasure to listen to the professional! Hope for more times this mate appear!

"Hey tank dorks" That sounds so lovingly personal

Excellent! I did learn a few things. What a nice way to spend some time on a Sunday afternoon; a tour of a tank we don't see all the time. Loved the backstory! For me, it's a reminder that young men served in these vehicles and in a lot of cases, gave their lives. It's not just dry statistics. I'll be honest Sofi; I enjoy your content so much that as soon as I see a new video, I give it a like and a save before I even start it. I do appreciate all you do.

This has to be the most informative video I watched on Soviet armor characteristics, especially on combination-K. A good update on those old Combat & Survival magazine articles (made into an encyclopedia) i read as a kid.

Thanks Sofilein as well for making this video. It was really well done and brought back many nice memories from my childhood :)

That tank helmet melts my heart 💓

Excellent piece, Sofilein and Jim! This was so educational and insightful. Thank you!

The armor cross-sectional photos were extremely interesting.

Oh man, this video went bye fast! Very interesting and loved hearing him talk. You can do a part 2 on this. Glad to see you doing this again. I've missed seeing your content.

와우~~ 썸네일 보고 달려왔습니다 ㅎㅎ 기대가 많이 됩니다~ 늘 좋은 영상 올려 주셔서 감사 드립니다😊😊😊

That guy is awesome. Knowledgeable and just spits those facts out rapid fire. Love it!

Outstanding video! Very informative. Thank you, Sofi!

Awesome video!!! PLEASE! More videos like this! Thank you!!!!

New video

Excellent Vedic Sofi!!! I learned a lot from it. Thank you.

Great stuff Sofi...I'd love to see something like this on the M60A2. I love hearing all the details on the care and feeding of the big beasties...even the shortfalls and SNAFU's of each...of which the 'A2 had several.

great video. Loved it! Thanks.

Good to see another video. Well done and informative.

This video was excellent. He speaks clearly, concisely, and authoritatively. I really enjoyed an benefited from the information he packed into his discussion. PLEASE work more with him in the future!

Your videos are always such a pleasure to watch.

Thanks Sofilein enjoyed this one, very informative 👍

Great video again, tanks Sofilein.

Fascinating. Thanks to you all.

Excellent presentation! Very clear. Very informative! Thanks for posting.

Thanks Sofilein for a great video

As a fellow Army Armor member from the late 1980's This is good content.

A very interesting video. Thank you for your work and the guest from the museum.

Great video Sofi ! Well done.

wow what an awesome video keep it up sofilein 👍

Boom. Excellent presentation.

Always and outstanding video

great video as always! :)

Very interesting. Thank you

Wow, what a fantastic video. More please.

Excellent video

Tanks a lot. Sof this was very informative video about somethings I was never aware of.

Good work, thank you 👌

Very interesting. Thanks.

Thank you Sofi and Jim!

Very informative, excellent video.

Thanks mr. Warford, great info. Thanks Sofilein for another gread vid.

TY Sofi 🙏

Interesting video, thank you!

Very interesting video. Thanks

Thanks!

Awesome video keep them coming 👍 👌

Good video, very informative!

Very instructive content.

Absolutely fascinating insight into the Cold War development and counter development . So we had T72Ms before the fall of the Berlin Wall .....outstanding .

Thank you! I'm happy that Ya'll present a far better viewpoint on the EVOLVING nature of Tanks and that the first variation is rarely the only one. I am also interested in the non-export versions. But it is rare and valuable to me to look at export versions of weapon systems. Too often this is an ignored area as the logistics of finding that data lacks the ease of just focusing on a single non-export version. Bravo, Thank you Sir, and Thank you Sofilein!

Great info / on tanks thank you Sofi

This is why I like Sofis content her videos are both fun and educational plus I also get to see some tonks

Very interesting to listen to! Thank you for this expertly presented piece(es) of information!

What a gem! I love the fact he still refers to future Russian tank programs as future Soviet tanks :D A great listen to non the less and extremely informative with things I didn't even know

Solid information transfer in a couple of minutes.

Dang customers making me miss Sofi premiers. :-)

Brillant exposé!!!

nice interview :)

great vid

I love your channel

First :great job on this MBT, second :did you call me a tank DORK!(LOL)

your hair looks amazing!

Great video….

Superb machines...

1st CAV has one at the 1st CAV museum at Ft Cavazos ( formerly Ft Hood ) miss u making videos Solifien !

Very interesting history that is new to me

This was actually a pretty interesting video, though I like them more when you’re physically in them. ❤🙂

Very intersting talk. i didnt know the situation was that dire for a while regarding the AT rounds. Also the Amour and Cavalry Collection hall seems to be a challenging audio enviroment to film in :)

More of him! He was great

There were no two but 3 tiers of T-72. - Soviet Union - Warsaw Pact - other export customers Roughly the same time, the Soviet Union got the first T-72BW with Koniktakt-1 and T-80U with Kontakt-5. The Warsaw Pact countries got T-72M1 that was equivalent to earlier Soviet T-72A. The export "monkey variant" was the inferior export variant (T-72M). Poland and Czechoslovakia produced both proper and monkey T-72M1s.

Excellent information. How about the early T34's pre T34/85's. These were knocked out in Barbarossa/1941 however they must have given the Germans some concern because of their speed, wide tracks, and in general awesome mobility anywhere regardless of mud, snow, etc.

A lot of very interesting background (at the time hidden) information that various agencies and militaries engage in to keep their tanks relevant.

Sorry I saw only now your excellent very informative video on the T-72M1 because I didn't know how tough was this tank against the 105 mm L/52 rifled design by the Royal Ordnance Factories as it was almost immune to the 105 mm. Again you did an awesome job 👏 👍👍

Nice to see you!😅

Awsome vid well done thnx Sofilein.

теперь у нас в музее и Абрамс появился)

Good background. As an M60A1 tanker of that time period, we did receive classified briefings about the capabilities of our M68 main guns against T-72 armor. I have to disagree with his assessment of the “design flaw” of Russian tanks. Before the Abrams, there were NO tanks of any nation that separated the crew from the ammo. Russian tanks at least placed the ammo low in the hull. In the M60 series the ammo was right next to us in the turret bustle. There are many reports from Desert Storm of T-72s struck by 120mm rounds that blew the engine out the back but did not ignite the ammo.

Probably about 10 or 12 years ago give or take, I was at a truck stop in baton rouge Louisiana, I saw a pristine t-72 Olive colored being hauled by an 18-wheeler. I often wondered where it was going, being as its condition I figured it was probably going to a museum or something somewhere.

Intresting

Great clip well done u2

this guy can sure nerd out on tanks

My unit (3/37 AR, 2d BDE 1st ID) fought with straight M1s, our Sabot round was the 883

It was common russian pratice to equip their allies and export costumers with "downgraded" variants.

See if you can find info on the object 477 xm2 cause i cant find any it was ment to replace the t72 would love a video on it building a model of it right now

Mmm, tank 👌

Very good, I like this type of video. I may have been one of the ones contributing to the background noise... sorry. See you soon!

Is this the one that was in the Patton Museum, that had the funky exhaust cooler on top of the hull?

T90 and it's variants next please.

One day they will name a tank after Sofilein ... "The Sofilein M90 (or something) :P

Good and informative video and you look great in the tanker helmet but now I really want to know what happened to the Israeli tank crews...

please cover upgraded T55 variants (AM 1/AM 2/AMD1/BV)

Hi Sofi! A suggestion for a reaction video regarding history. Have you ever watched *The Fallen of WWII* ? Award winning video and a very somber review of that war.

If that T 72 M1 is formerly the one that was once at the collection at Ft Stewart, then my 5 year old self may or may not have slipped under the guest barrier and clambered all over it back in the super early 2000s. Talk about a small world, If it is Sofie, go give the old girl some turret scratches and googly eyes for me!

Things that make you go boom