The first attempt of the Ethiopian army to use the T-72UA1 tank modernized in Ukraine in battles ended in failure. One of these combat vehicles in good condition was captured recently by the militants of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray.
Tigray seperatist forces just captured their first T-72UA1 MBT from the Ethiopian Army. Although often portrayed as an infantry force, the Tigray Defence Forces have operated ballistic missiles, guided rockets, large-calibre MRLs and some fifty tanks. pic.twitter.com/PBwXpBNmxB
— Oryx (@oryxspioenkop) August 28, 2021
It is known that Addis Ababa ten years ago signed an agreement for the supply of three and a half dozen of these "seventy-second". They differ from the basic versions by installing 1050-horsepower 5TDFMA-1 two-stroke diesel engines manufactured in Kharkiv. As a result, the exhaust pipes are now located not on the left, as before, but on the right side of the housing. There are air conditioners and auxiliary power units on board.
The chassis uses tracked belts used on the T-80 and 2S7 "Peony" self-propelled artillery installations.
The Soviet dynamic protection "Contact" was replaced by the Ukrainian "Knife", mounted both in mounted and built-in versions.
The 125-mm guns can fire laser-guided Kombat missiles with a firing range of 5,000 meters and penetrating 750 mm of armor. At the request of the customer, instead of 12.7-mm machine guns of the NSVT "Utes", older DShKM were installed.
The lack of night thermal imaging sights in the fire control system is noted as a disadvantage.
The tanks were modernized at the "Kiev Mechanical Repair Plant". Also, 180 T-72B1S restored at this enterprise were sent to Ethiopia, some of them were also captured in the last battles.
Alexey Brusilov
