T-72M1 (Sweden)

Description

The ▄T-72M1 is an export version of the Soviet T-72A, carrying mostly the same characteristics of the original version in terms of armament, mobility, and armour, though the latter has some slight changes with applique armour on the front glacis. Finland bought a total of 162 T-72s from the Soviet Union and Eastern Germany to be used by the Finnish army. They entered service in 1984 and remained as their primary Main Battle Tank until 2004 when they were phased out for the Leopard 2A4.

The ▄T-72M1 was introduced in Update "Fire and Ice" as part of the Finnish line in the Swedish tech tree bolstering the line up. Being an export version of the T-72A, it has a similar playstyle to the T-72s of other nations. Its low profile makes it a smaller target to hit which gives it advantages and disadvantages, due to the small size it's easier to take cover behind objects and terrain, but it will also come at the cost of crew compartment being narrow making it easier for enemy vehicles to take out the crew with a well-placed shot. Like most T-model tanks, the ▄T-72M1 comes with an autoloader making the loss of the loader not as devastating as a normal loaded tank due to the reload process being automated, but it also comes with the cost of all the ammunition being stored beneath the turret in an ammo carousel, making them prone to ammo detonating with ease if the lower part of the hull is hit by an enemy shell. The T-72M-1 has great mobility when moving forward and can navigate across maps with relative ease, but due to its poor performing reverse speed, it can be difficult to reverse its way out from dangerous situations to get behind cover, making it an unforgiving tank if it advances too far out of cover.

General info

Survivability and armour

The T-72M1 is basically a near identical copy of the T-72A found in the Soviet tech tree, therefore the armour layout is also almost identical. Some differences are the additional applique armour placed on the front glacis. While not substantially thick, the sloping effect on top of the composite front glacis might be enough to prevent some shells from fully penetrating.

The hull and turret of the T-72M1 are strong enough to somewhat reliably bounce some shells and eat, although it still possesses the same "weak spots" that most other soviet tanks have (weak lower front plate, drivers optics etc.)

Armour type:

• Cast homogeneous armor (turret)
• Rolled homogeneous armor (hull)

Notes:

Mobility

Modifications and economy

Armaments

Main armament

Ammunition

Ammo racks

Notes:

• The T-72M1 uses two-piece ammunition, composed of propellant bags and projectiles. Both have separate racks.
• Shells are modelled individually and disappear after having been shot or loaded.
• A propellant charge remains in rack 2 after it is emptied and is later fired as part of rack 3. For the purpose of clarity, rack 2 is considered empty even if that charge is still present.
• Rack 4 (autoloader carrousel) is a first stage ammo rack containing 22 projectiles and 22 propellant charges.
  • If you go into battle with only 23 shells loaded all your ammunition is stored in the autoloader carrousel.
  • This rack gets filled first when loading up the tank and is also emptied first.
  • As the T-72M1 is equipped with an autoloader, manual reloading of the gun is not possible.
  • Once the autoloader magazine has been depleted, you can't shoot until the loader has restocked the autoloader with at least one shell. The restocking time is longer than the normal reload time of the gun. Take this into account when playing.
  • Simply not firing when the gun is loaded will move ammo from racks 1 to 3 into rack 4. Firing will interrupt the restocking of the ready rack.

Machine guns

Usage in battles

One of the key strengths of the T-72M1 is its armour. The quartz core composed turret will bounce many shots and can even eat up some ATGMs. In terms of armament, the T-72M1 boasts the very powerful and accurate 125 mm 2A46 gun that Soviet T-72A tankers will already be familiar with. Make sure to research the 3BM15 APFSDS round as soon as you can (after Parts and FPE), as the stock HEATFS round has some shortcomings.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Mounts the same powerful 125 mm 2A46 gun as on the T-64 and T-80 (though an earlier version)
• Low profile, small target compared to other countries' main battle tanks
• Early unlocked laser rangefinder makes sniping long distances easier
• Has both smoke grenade launchers and ESS
• Due to thick frontal armour and correct angling, able to deflect most rounds from counterpart tanks of other countries
• Very accurate gun due to the high muzzle velocity of the APFSDS rounds, very effective long-range sniper
• Autoloader continues working even if fighting a fire or replacing a crew member, ready to use upon the fire being extinguished or the gunner having been replaced

Cons:

• Ammo carousel means your first stage rounds all are centred below the turret, can be easily detonated through a hit to the hull
• Doesn't get access to thermals
• Very slow reverse speed and traverse speed, a problem in situations where you cannot back away from an attacking enemy
• 3-man crew makes tank able to be knocked out easier, once one crew member is knocked out, you have to be very careful not to get hit again
• Gun depression inadequate for most hull-down situations, e.g. sniping from a hill or down a valley
• Driver's port is a easily penetrated
• Poor top speed
• Inferior optics with only one 8x zoom level
• 1st APFSDS modification is inferior to most contemporary rounds and 3BM22 is a Rank IV modification
• Its 2A46 125 mm gun is an early type; the stock ammunition is lacklustre and it cannot fire ATGMs like the T-64B, T-80B, and T-80U
• The tank commander can't fire the main gun if the gunner is knocked out.

History

The T-72 is a Soviet-designed main battle tank which started production in 1971. It quickly became the main workhorse for the Soviet army and was spread around in many former Warsaw pact nations, as well being exported to multiple others. Finland bought 162 T-72 tanks which were first adopted into service in 1984. 63 were bought from the Soviets while the remaining 99 were bought from East-Germany's storage after the German unification. Finland operated the T-72 as their main MBT until they were withdrawn from service in 2006 and replaced by Leopard 2A4 tanks. The Finnish army also looked into creating some domestic upgrade packages for the T-72, only known as "Finmod". Little is known about these planned upgrades since the project files remain classified until the late 2020's.

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the T-72M1 (Sweden) from live.warthunder.com.

See also

Related development

• T-72 (Family)

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.