Your son was in error. The T-72 is demonstrably not aluminum and never was. Go look at the one at the Patton Tank Museum or Fort Benning. The Soviets weren’t dumb enough to make a tank out of aluminum. On the other hand, the US was. M
Also, keep in mind that some of the actual T-72s your son saw were the deliberately gimped export models, and they weren’t even the best of those at the time. The remainder were locally produced (bad) copies called the Lion of Babylon - it is debated whether these were all local production or merely local rebuilds. Again, go look at the ones here in the US to see the differences if you doubt it. There’s actual Russian ones at Fort Benning in the museum there; there’s an Iraqi one on display at Fort Hood. I’ve seen a Russian built one and an Iraqi ‘built’ one up close in person in museums and shows. They’re worlds apart in quality.
Your assumption that that’s a shot trap between the turret and hull is also in error. What you’re seeing is explosive-reactive armor blocks on top of a classic Soviet/Russian ‘inverted frying pan’ turret. Also, modern ATGMs don’t ricochet like that - neither do modern antitank rounds. Otherwise, the gap between the turret and hull of the M1 Abrama would be a problem (and it does look like a shot trap) but it isn’t.
This is what a T-90 turret looks like with some of the ERA removed: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/T-90_snorkel.jpg
There isn’t one at Knox. They hauled off almost all the historic armor from the Patton Museum to Benning several years ago, with the idea that a new museum would be built there for it there. Hasn’t happened yet. It’s all sitting in warehouses (best case) or outside (hope not).
Spktyr and others. I think you are right about the Iraqi tanks my son examined may have been a lighter, domestic version of the Soviet one, but why would the Soviets sell Hussein inferior quality tanks for the Republic Guard?
You would think that they would want the RG to have the best models to fend off the Iranians and the US if push came to shove.
Since he was not a “tanker”, I don’t think he had any knowledge of the variations of the M72 that all of your have mentioned.
At least 3 - 5 RG tank divisions were destroyed by our planes (F-16s that my son saw as well as the Palladin rocket artillery), and the Abrams M-1’s.
The whole issue of the quality of Communist/Russian/Red China arms being sold to Pakistan, India, possibly Egypt, etc. raises some alarming questions that I hope you knowledgeable Freepers will address as new articles come out on the worldwide Communist/Russian arms sales programs expand to Africa, the Middle East and perhaps Latin America.
