The T-72B battle tanks (MBTS) of the Royal Armed Forces (FAR) are undergoing a facelift as a modernization by the Czech company “Excalibur Army”. The latter produces defense systems, including those for artillery and combat vehicles.
Excalibur Army is also specialized in the modernization of armored vehicles and Russian tanks. The Czech company has already modernized combat tanks (MBT) T-72B of the Moroccan army. Recently, the main tank maintenance company received an order from the FAR to modernize other “Soviet”-made T-72 main battle tanks (MBT).
The T-72 is a combat tank originally designed as a simplified version of the T-64, less expensive while being more reliable and intended to massively equip the armies of the world and in particular those of the “Warsaw Pact“. More than twenty-five thousand T-72s have come off the various production lines in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) – to which Ukraine is no longer a member having withdrawn in 2018 -, Central Europe, the Middle East and India. Upgrades and upgrades have kept a large number of them still operational. Production of this machine continues to this day.
In the context of modernization, the FAR who have 148: 136 T-72B and 12 T-72BK from Belarus delivered in two shipments, the first in 1999 and the second in 2000 resorted to the Czech company “Excalibur Army” . The Royal Armed Forces, according to the International Institute of Armaments in Stockholm, has a total of 656 MBT diverse tanks, including 222 M1A1SA Abrams, 220 M60A1 Patton, 120 M60A3 Patton, 148T-72B (including 12 T-72K ) and 54 Type-90-II (MBT-2000). The Moroccan military tank fleet also includes 200 M48A5 Pattons.
The T-72B is an upgraded version of the T-72A which entered service with the Russian Army in 1986. The T-72B turret features a new armor package that provides a much higher degree of protection than any previous model. The main armament of the T-72B consists of a single 125 mm 2A46M gun coupled to an automatic loading system with 22 125 mm shells stored in the “automatic ring lord” and 23 stored in the turret and hull. The main gun can fire a wide range of 125mm rounds, in addition to the laser beam 9M119 AT-11 Svir anti-tank missile, with a maximum firing range of 5,000 meters.
According to the Army Reconnaissance website, the Czech company has made several modifications to the Moroccan tanks, as they are equipped with an ERA (Explosive Reaction Armor) set installed in the front and sides of the hull. The T-72B turret, which has also undergone an upgrade, is also equipped with an ERA-type armor package mounted on each side at the front of the turret.
The upgraded T-72B retains the same skeleton or armature as before as a real original Soviet T-72B, which consisted of a 2A46M 125mm smoothbore gun A second piece of equipment installed now includes a coaxial 7.62 machine gun mm mounted on the right side of the main armament and a NSV 12.7 mm heavy machine gun mountable on the commander’s cupola, in addition to several grenade launchers on each side of the tower.