Peter Suciu
The T-72 main battle tank (MBT) entered service with the Soviet Army in 1973, with a total of more than 25,000 produced.
Although it was widely exported and adopted by dozens of countries around the world, Russia remains the largest operator of the T-72.
It has continued to serve as the workhorse for the Russian Army in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine; however, the Kremlin has increasingly had to rely on older and less capable models.
According to reports from open-source intelligence (OSINT) researcher Jompy, the Russian military has begun to pull Soviet-era T-72A MBTs from storage to replenish its armored forces,
as losses of more modern MBTs continue. These are not the oldest Cold War tanks that the Kremlin has returned to service, as Moscow has pulled T-62 and even older T-54/55 series tanks from its storage yards.
According to the social media posts from Jompy, many of the T-72A and T-72 Ural models were in “poor” or even “very poor” condition. Russia had primarily stored its out-of-service tanks at military bases,
leaving them exposed to the elements. Beyond the harsh winters and blistering summers, the tanks are not maintained much better than the old,
retired American tanks that sit in front of National Guard armories or VFW halls. It could be argued that the old Patton tanks get more TLC than the T-72s that have languished at Russia’s military bases for decades.
Compared to the T-54/54 and T-62 tanks, the T-72 is a far more capable fighting machine. Even those old tanks that have sat for years unserviced might have “good bones,” meaning that the hull and chassis could be the starting point for a refurbished tank.
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