T-72M2 Moderna
| This page is about the Soviet medium tank T-72M2 Moderna. For other versions, see T-72 (Family). |
Contents
Description
The T-72M2 is a Slovakian upgrade of the Soviet T-72M1 main battle tank, developed in the aftermath of the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992. The Slovakian tank manufacturer ZTS Dubnica, which faced a severe economic crisis and a shrinking domestic market after the split of the former federation, wanted to modernize the existing T-72M1 tanks to meet the demands of potential customers and improve the existing fleet of Slovakian armored vehicles. To achieve this, they joined forces with Belgian SABCA and French SFIM, two leading European companies in the field of systems integration. Together, they embarked on a comprehensive upgrade program, focusing on enhancing the tank’s firepower, protection, and mobility. This partnership resulted in the T-72M2 Moderna, which was equipped with an upgraded 2A46MS 125mm cannon, cutting-edge French electro-optical systems, an improved VEGA Plus fire control system, and a new modular armor package that increased the tank's protection level against kinetic and chemical threats. Other upgrades included a secondary 30mm 2A42 autocannon, a new PZL Wola S12U diesel engine, integration of Slovakian-made TAPNA APFSDS, and a new electronics package from SABCA. The T-72M2 Moderna made its debut at the IDET 1994 exhibition in Brno, Czech Republic, but failed to generate the interest of potential buyers. Later, in 1998, the Slovak Minister of Defense, Ján Sitek, signed a contract for the purchase and delivery of five T-72M2 Moderna tanks. However, only one incomplete prototype was demonstrated two years later, leaving the contract unfulfilled, and eventually the project was abandoned.
The T-72M2 was introduced during Update "Wind of Change" as a reward for the "Battle for Arachis" event. As a modernization of ex-Czechoslovakian license-built T-72M1 tanks with French thermal gun sights, new ERA packages, and new APFSDS, the T-72M2 Moderna introduces Slovakia into the game with respectable firepower and overall higher mobility. It is also equipped with a secondary 30mm autocannon, identical to the cannon found on the BMP-2, which gives it additional firepower and utility compared to its counterparts in the T-72 family.
General info
Survivability and armour
Although it is named the T-72M2 - which may sound more advanced than the contemporary T-72M1s - the base model is still a T-72M, which shares the same chassis as the stock T-72A. However, the M2 modification adds layers of DYNAS ERA blocks on the UFP and turret front, with each block providing additional protection of up to 100 mm of kinetic penetration, which makes the T-72M2 more survivable than the 72A. While it might not be enough to survive higher tier APFSDS that can go straight through the front plate, it is still fairly adequate protectionwise at range and the turret can stop up to 700 mm from kinetic penetrators from the front.
It is still, however, important to remember that as one of the members of the extensive T-72 family, the tank has a compact design (and as a result a compact interior as well) and shares the same AZ-172 autoloader - any penetrating hit has a high chance of setting off either the fuel tanks or ammunition, and even if you were lucky in that regard losing just two crew is an automatic vehicle loss. As such, it is best to exercise a level of caution when playing the vehicle, similar to its other cousins.
Armour type:
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | ___ mm | ___ mm Top ___ mm Bottom |
___ mm | ___ - ___ mm |
| Turret | ___ - ___ mm Turret front ___ mm Gun mantlet |
___ - ___ mm | ___ - ___ mm | ___ - ___ mm |
| Cupola | ___ mm | ___ mm | ___ mm | ___ mm |
Notes:
Mobility
| Game Mode | Max Speed (km/h) | Weight (tons) | Engine power (horsepower) | Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forward | Reverse | Stock | Upgraded | Stock | Upgraded | ||
| Arcade | 67 | 5 | 44.5 | 1317 | 1,622 | 29.6 | 36.45 |
| Realistic | 60 | 5 | 752 | 850 | 16.9 | 19.1 | |
Like later T-72s, the T-72M2 has its engine upgraded to a Polish PZL Wola S12U diesel engine with an engine output of 850 HP, which is slightly higher than the T-72B's V-84S with 840 hp, and is the strongest engine in any A and M series T-72. The T-72M2 shares the same top speed of 60 km/h and infamous -4.2 km/h reverse speed, as well as the 44.5 ton weight, of the later T-72Bs. Although a 10 hp difference is not much, the overall mobility of the T-72M2 is still worse than its NATO counterparts.
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Armaments
Main armament
| 125 mm 2A46MS | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Autoloader |
| Arcade | 44 | -6°/+13° | ±180° | Two-plane | 19.0 | 26.4 | 32.0 | 35.4 | 37.6 | 7.10 |
| Realistic | 11.9 | 14.0 | 17.0 | 18.8 | 20.0 | |||||
Ammunition
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| 3BK12M | HEATFS | 440 | 440 | 440 | 440 | 440 | 440 |
| 3OF26 | HE | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 |
| 3BM22 | APFSDS | 425 | 420 | 415 | 405 | 393 | 380 |
| TAPNA | APFSDS | 509 | 507 | 500 | 490 | 481 | 472 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (kg) |
Ricochet | |||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| 3BK12M | HEATFS | 905 | 19 | 0.05 | 0.1 | 2.06 | 65° | 72° | 77° | |||
| 3OF26 | HE | 850 | 23 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 5.24 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| 3BM22 | APFSDS | 1,760 | 4.83 | - | - | - | 76° | 77° | 80° | |||
| TAPNA | APFSDS | 1,690 | 3.7 | - | - | - | 78° | 80° | 81° | |||
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
Ammo part |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
4th rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 44 | Projectiles Propellants |
40 (+4) 40 (+4) |
29 (+15) 29 (+15) |
23 (+21) 23 (+21) |
1 (+43) 1 (+43) |
No |
Notes:
- The T-72M2 Moderna uses two-piece ammunition, composed of propellant bags (orange) and projectiles (yellow). 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.
- This rack gets filled first when loading up the tank and is also emptied first.
- As the T-72M2 Moderna 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.
Additional armament
A very distinctive feature of the T-72M2 is the 2A42 30 mm autocannon mounted on the right side of the turret. The gun is highly destructive against light vehicles, low-flying aircraft, and vehicles showing their sides; alternatively, it can also be used to knock out enemies' barrels. It is considered as a "machine gun" and is operated by the vehicle gunner, sharing the same optics and thermals as the main gun. The gun uses the stock belt of the 2A42, and changing the belt to any other unlockable belt found on other vehicles (such as the BMP-2M) like the APDS and APDS-FS belts are unavailable.
| 30 mm 2A42 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer |
| 250 (250) | 550 | -4°/+35° | N/A | N/A |
Ammunition
- Default: AP-T · HEF-I*
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | ||||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| HEF-I* | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | |
| AP-T | 65 | 63 | 53 | 44 | 36 | 29 | |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | ||||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| HEF-I* | 960 | 0.39 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 75.46 | 79° | 80° | 81° | ||||
| AP-T | 970 | 0.4 | - | - | - | 47° | 60° | 65° | ||||
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
4th rack empty |
5th rack empty |
6th rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ |
Machine guns
| 7.62 mm PKT | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Coaxial | 2,000 (250) | 700 | N/A | N/A |
Usage in battles
The T-72M2 Moderna excels in mid- to long-range engagements with its powerful and accurate 125mm cannon. The recommended tactic is similar to most other Russian MBTs at this BR: find targets at range using the thermal sights, then use the laser rangefinder and highly capable APFSDS shells to knock out the target from as far away from your vehicle as possible. This is due to some inherent vehicle weaknesses, some of which will appear below, such as the slow turret traverse and poor reverse gear. At range, the T-72M2 suffers far less from these design drawbacks and with its 2nd generation thermal sights for both the gunner and commander, you can scour the battlefield quickly for enemy vehicles. NATO MBTs such as the Leopard 2A4 and M1 Abrams this tier only have a 1st generation thermal sight for the gunner and lack thermals on the commander sight (or lack a commander sight entirely!), and as such have to rely on a much narrower FOV than your commander sight and with a lower resolution. However, do keep in mind that if your commander is knocked out, you will be unable to exploit this advantage.
When forced into close-range combat, this vehicle is very mediocre compared to NATO vehicles with its painful reverse speed, lack of neutral steering, and subpar turret traverse. However, the liberal application of ERA, slat armour, and the underlying composite armour can sometimes save you from smaller-calibre or poorly-aimed shells. IFVs in particular, even ones with high-penetrating APFSDS like the M3A3 Bradley and Strf 9040C, will be almost helpless against the frontal protection of a Moderna, while your 30mm autocannon can shred through them with little worry.
Against enemy air units, your survivability is for the most part decent. You have a Laser Warning System (LWS), and this alerts you of both enemy tanks using their laser rangefinders near you as well as enemy laser guided munitions. Considering the fact that a sizable portion of enemy guided air to ground ordnance such as the AGM-114B Hellfire and AGM-114K Hellfire II are laser guided, you can use your LWS as an early warning for inbound ordnance, allowing you to deploy a smokescreen, turn around (as this is faster than reversing), and reposition to a safer spot. You can differentiate an airborne lock from a ground lock by the length of the warning - ground vehicles only need to rangefind once or twice, while air launched ATGMs from strike drones, helicopter and the odd aircraft continuously trigger the LWS.
This vehicle will feel very reminiscent of the T-72AV (TURMS-T) with almost identical gun and armour performance. The Moderna has around 1 more HP/t, but overall both vehicles traverse the map similarly and can go through similar spots.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- DYNAS ERA provides up to 100 mm of additional kinetic protection
- Has access 2nd generation thermals for both the gunner and commander, which are also only a Tier II modification
- Powerful 30 mm autocannon tears through light vehicles and aircraft, and will operate even on 2 crew as the gunner controls it
- Has commander fire control
- Good situational awareness thanks to LWS, especially against airborne guided munitions
- TAPNA APFSDS provides greater penetrative capabilities against enemies, even better than the common 3BM42 round used by its Russian contemporaries
- Launches 11 smoke grenades per charge (11/22)
Cons:
- Poor turret traverse and gun handling
- Somewhat sluggish compared to its NATO counterparts with a horrible reverse speed
- Fixed 8x gunsight decreases vehicle versatility
- Hull and turret armour can easily be penetrated by most contemporary rounds
- 30 mm autocannon has no traverse of its own, can only move vertically
- Does not have access to ATGMs
History
The T-72M2 Moderna is a licensed-produced Slovakian upgrade of the Soviet T-72 MBT. Among the various upgrades, the tank is fitted with DYNAS explosive reactive armour, a modernized 24A5MS 125 mm smoothbore gun, a single 30 mm 2A42 autocannon, a laser warning system, and an automated modern VEGA fire control system, originating from SFIM, a French development partner, and SABCA, a Belgian development partner.[1]
The first prototype of the T-72M2 Moderna, an improvement on the T-72M1 prototype, was introduced in 1993. Although attempts were made to put the T-72M2 Moderna into production domestically and for export buyers, no production orders were ever placed, therefore, few functioning examples were produced.[1]
Devblog
After the division of Czechoslovakia followed by an economic crisis, Slovak tank builders found themselves on the brink of bankruptcy. Tank plant ZTS Dubnica initiated an upgrade project for the Soviet T-72 series MBT in order to make the tank interesting for both domestic and foreign operators. By 1993, together with the French company SFIM and the Belgian SABCA, a project was developed to modernize the T-72M1 tanks with a new VEGA fire control system, a new panoramic sight, an improved engine, domestic ERA protection and two gunpods with 20 mm KAA-200 guns on the turret's sides.
The built prototypes of the new main battle tank were designated T-72M2 Moderna. Later, the tank was equipped by a new DYNAS explosive reactive armour, and two 20 mm guns were replaced with one 30 mm 2A42 cannon. Only a few prototypes of the T-72M2 Moderna were built.
Media
- Skins
- Images
See also
- Related development
External links
References
| Dubnica nad Váhom Heavy Engineering Plant | |
|---|---|
| MBTs | |
| T-72 | T-72M2 Moderna |
| See Also | Uralvagonzavod |
| USSR medium tanks | |
|---|---|
| T-28 | T-28 (1938) · T-28 · T-28E |
| T-34-76 | T-34 (Prototype) · T-34 (1940) · T-34 (1941) · T-34 (1st Gv.T.Br.) · T-34 (1942) · T-34E STZ · T-34E |
| T-34-57 | T-34-57 · T-34-57 (1943) |
| T-34-85 | T-34-85 (D-5T) · T-34-85 · T-34-85E |
| T-34-100 | T-34-100 |
| T-44 | T-44 · T-44-100 · T-44-122 |
| T-54 | T-54 (1947) · T-54 (1949) · T-54 (1951) |
| T-55 | TO-55 · T-55A · T-55AM-1 · T-55AMD-1 |
| T-62 | T-62 · T-62M-1 |
| T-64 | Object 435 · T-64A (1971) · T-64B |
| T-72 | T-72A · T-72AV (TURMS-T) · T-72B · T-72B (1989) · T-72B3 · T-72M2 Moderna |
| T-80 | T-80B · T-80U · T-80UD · T-80UK · T-80UM2 · Т-80U-Е1 · T-80BVM · Object 292 |
| T-90 | Т-90А · T-90M |
| Trophies/Lend-Lease | |
| Germany | ▂T-III · ▂T-V |
| Great Britain | ▂МК-IX "Valentine" |
| USA | ▂M3 Medium · ▂M4A2 |
- Ground vehicles
- USSR ground vehicles
- Seventh rank ground vehicles
- Medium tanks
- Gift ground vehicles
- Ground vehicles with explosive reactive armour
- Ground vehicles with composite armour
- Ground vehicles with smoke grenades
- Ground vehicles with engine smoke generating system
- Ground vehicles with dozer blade
- Ground vehicles with night vision device
- Ground vehicles with thermal sight
- Multi-weapon ground vehicles
- Ground vehicles with autoloader
- Ground vehicles with gun stabilizer
