The Azerbaijani defense industry has presented a new modernization of T-72 tanks, which considers the experience of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Ilgar Ismayilov published the photos of the combat vehicles.

At the international defense exhibition ADEX 2024 in Baku, T-72A tanks were presented with a modernization package that increased the firepower and protection of combat vehicles.

It is stated that the vehicles received modern sighting systems and an Israeli-made fire control system. Presumably, this refers to Elbit systems, which specializes in such solutions and has previously cooperated with the country in this area.

In addition to the already standard Kontakt-1 reactive armor, the tanks now have modules with elements of the more modern Kontakt-5, which cover the turret and sides of the vehicle.

Despite their similarity to Russian counterparts, the turret modules have a different shape that covers a larger area and has no blind spots in the under-turret space.

The Kontakt-5 has greater potential for protection against cluster munitions and is even capable of countering kinetic projectiles to some extent. It is unknown why the designers decided not to switch to these elements entirely.

It can be assumed that the choice of older dynamic protection was made due to its modularity and ease of replacing damaged elements in the field.

More information about this can be found in the article “Reactive armor of armored vehicles: experience in use in the Russian-Ukrainian war”

Azerbaijan has not been spared the trend of “grilling” vehicles. The vehicles were equipped with anti-cumulative screens and a massive lattice structure that protects the upper hemisphere from dumping and drone strikes. The latter’s roof has hatches for crew access.

Today, the Azerbaijani army has a large fleet of tanks of this family: both the original Soviet T-72A and T-72B and low-cost modernizations such as the T-72 Aslan.

Given this, despite localized updates, the presented modernization of the vehicles makes sense and is likely to be implemented in the future.

Militarnyi previously reported that India, in cooperation with the Russian defense industry, plans to modernize its T-72 tanks and then put them up for sale. The country has a fleet of 2,500 tanks of this type.