T-72 Design - Survivability
In modern warfare the tank's level of protection is determined by the total construction requirements of fire power and mobility. The smaller the tank's dimensions, the stronger its weapons and the more mobile it is, the better its survival chances are on the battlefield.
The T-72 has better armor protection than the T-62, due to the use of layered armor and other features discussed above under T-64 capabilities. The advanced passive armor package of the T-72M and T-72M1 can sustain direct hits from the 105mm gun equipped M1 Abrams at up to 2,000 meter range.
The turret has conventional cast armor with a maximum thickness of 280-mm, the nose is about 80-mm thick and the glacis is 200-mm thick laminate armor. Besides the PAZ radiation detection system, the T-72 has an antiradiation liner (except on export models) and a collective NBC filtration and overpressure system.
The basis of its ability to survive is its reliable armor protection which protects not only from the increased destructive force of the armor piercing weapons but also from the effects of the mass destruction devices.
The T-72 maximally answers these requirements. The tank's armored body and turret can be hermetically sealed. The penetrating radiation generated by the use of nuclear weapons is decreased not only by the armor but also by the lining material located within the tank's armor. In a given case the tank must also operate over contaminated sections of the terrain. Protection for the operating personnel from the radiological, chemical and bacteriological contamination is providing by the nuclear, biological and chemical protective equipment.
Filtering and ventilation equipment provides clean air, and at the same time it also provides a positive pressure differential which prevents the radiological and other contamination from entering the tank. The protective sheets installed with hinges onto the armor body are also part of the protection. These protect the lower part of the armored body and the track against the cumulative-effect, armor piercing weapons.
By the early 1980s the Israelis devised a method of destroying the T-72 tank, the Soviets' main battle tank, which is the principal weapon on which the Warsaw Pact relies for an offensive in Europe and which was hitherto considered difficult, at best, to penetrate. They did so by the relatively simple means of developing a modified 105mm shell that pierced the tank's composite armor.
In response to the threats provided by shaped charges, reactive armor was developed in order to reduce the penetration power of the penetrator. Reactive armor normally consists of explosive charges placed over the body of an armored vehicle, being metal plates. Upon penetration from a shaped charge, these explosive charges detonate, creating fragments and blast effects that can either disrupt the penetrator or reduce its energy available for penetration.
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