T-72 operators and variants

By the late 1970s, Indian Army HQ had decided to acquire new-generation replacements for its UK-origin fleet of Centurion and Vijayanta MBTs (based on the Vickers MBT), and consequently, paper evaluations concerning the firepower and mobility characteristics of the two principal contenders being offered for full in-country production— French-origin AMX-40 and the British-origin Chieftain 800 — were conducted by the Indian Army.

After the General elections in 1980, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi requested additional evaluation, including MBTs from the USSR, following which the Soviet Union's Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations (which after 1991 morphed into Oboronexport, then Rosoboronservice and ultimately Rosoboronexport State Corp) made a formal offer to India's Ministry of Defence (MoD) for supplying the 37-tonne T-72M Ob'yekt 172M-E4 MBT off-the-shelf, and according an approval for licensed-production of the 41.5-tonne T-72M-1982 Ob'yekt 172M-E6 to the MoD-owned Heavy Vehicles Factory (HVF) in Avadi.

By early 1981, two T-72Ms—powered by a 780 hp diesel engine, armed with 125 mm 2A46M smoothbore gun and offering a power-to-weight ratio of 20 hp/tonne, were subjected to an exhaustive series of in-country firepower and mobility trials by the Army.

After review of trial results, T-72M and T-72-1982 (powered by a Model V-84MS four-stroke 12-cylinder multi-fuel engine developing 840 hp and offering a power-to-weight ratio of 18.8 hp/tone) were selected as Army's future MBTs.

[145] During the Russo-Ukrainian War's invasion by Russia phase from 2022 onward Ukrainian forces have used captured Russian tanks, including T-72s.

Operators
Current
Former
T-72 CI-Ajeya tank of Indian Army during an army parade.
Armenian Army T-72B during a military parade in Yerevan
T-72M1 used by the 3rd Amphibious Assault Battalion, 1st Marine Division of US Marines at Camp Pendleton during Kernel Blitz 1997 exercise
Ex-Romanian T-72M.
Early T-72 in profile.
Early upgrade of T-72 Ural
T-72A
T-72AV
T-72M1
T-72B
T-72AV with 2 T-72B and a T-72B3 in the background
T-72B obr.1989 with Kontakt-5 ERA.
Serbian T-72B1MS "White Eagle"
T-72B1MS "White Eagle" technology demonstrator; clearly visible are "Eagle's Eye" panoramic sight and Sosna-U gunner sight.
The recent T-72B3 in Russian service. Most obvious is the new Sosna-U multi-spectral panoramic sight.
T-72B3M obr.2016
BMO-T
BREM-1
MTU-72
BMR-3M
A Croatian Army M-95 Degman
VT-72B in firefighting services
T-72M4 CZ
The Czech upgrade features the TURMS-T fire-control system which provides full "hunter-killer" capability.
T-72M s on parade in East Berlin, 1988
FAB 172M driver training vehicle
A Georgian T-72 SIM-1
Ajeya MK2
T-72 Asad Babil abandoned near Baghdad, April 2003
PT-91 Twardy in Polish service.
Malaysian PT-91M Pendekar
Serbian modernized tank M-84AS
Serbian upgraded T-72 featuring reactive armour
Slovak T-72M2