An unusual road user - a BLT-72 tank bridge-laying machine on the T-72M1 Ajeya chassis - was filmed in India. A heavy engineering vehicle drove along one of the streets of the city of Avadi, where the production of such equipment is carried out. Judging by the fact that its passage did not cause much excitement, the locals have long been accustomed to this.
Your normal day on the streets of AVADI! You might see Bus lanes, Bike lanes works over, but here you get tank-only-lane. pic.twitter.com/ONTWLeB7v7
— Krishnan (@cvkrishnan) January 7, 2022
The BLT-72 was developed by Indian specialists, although, apparently, technical solutions previously used on the previous generation MTU-55 bridge-laying machine, produced in the Soviet Union since the early 60s, were used in the design.
It uses two types of folding bridges of the "scissors" type: 20 and 22 meters long, with a load capacity of up to 50,000 kg. The installation time is no more than five minutes.
Like the base tank, this machine has a powerful armor protection. During the work, you can disguise yourself by installing smoke screens. To do this, there are two six-barrel grenade launchers in the front of the case.
The engine power is 780 hp. The maximum speed on the highway is 60 km/h. Crew - 3 people.
The importance of tank bridge-laying machines was once again demonstrated by the fighting in Syria, when government troops in the Damascus area had to face a significant number of wide canals filled with water.
Russia has currently developed modern MTU-90M on the platform of the main combat T-90 and the promising MTU-2020.
Alexey Brusilov
