T-72 Ural-1 (obr. 1977) - Actually having composite armor for the turret

Would you like to see the T-72 Ural-1 1977 production model added to the game?
  • Yes, I think this version should be added
  • Maybe
  • Unsure
  • Perhaps not
0 voters
Seeing as it could be added with 2 armor variations, which UFP armor scheme should it have?
  • 80–105–20 layout
  • 60–105–50 layout
  • Either works
  • I said no to the first question
0 voters
Since it did use 2 different side skirt types which one should they add?
  • The Fish gill armor skirts (like the T-64A in-game)
  • With steel reinforced rubber side skirts (Like the T-72A in-game)
  • Make the gill armor stock and add the steel reinforced side skirts as a alternative option in a add on armor package modification
  • Unsure
  • I said no to the first question
0 voters

T-72 Ural-1 (obr. 1977) - Actually having composite armor for the turret

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Background & History

The T-72 Ural series of main battle tanks were the first iterations of the T-72 main battle tank built by the Soviet Union in the 1970’s, over the course of time their production run they saw various iterations during their production with each year seeing some change to the design, some greater than others however in the Ural series their were 2 groups, the original T-72 Ural also known as the object 172M which was built between 1973 to 1974 with the only design change being the location of the coaxial IR light, in 1975 however all further versions were known as the Ural-1 or object 172M1, not to be confused with the T-72A which is the object 172M-1. The Ural-1 series can be simply split into 2 groups, the earlier group and later groups which were built between 1975 to 1976 and 1977 to 1979 respectively, the main difference was the turret itself which the earlier vehicles used the same cast turret as the original Ural however with an unspecified increase in armor in the turret, the later vehicles were completed with the Kvartz type of turret which used the older turret type as a base and instead of having it’s armor being apart of the turrets cast instead used proper composite armor while not increasing the size of the turret though the front part of the turret is slightly different though it’s more subtle compared to the previous turret design, the main identifier between the two is the bulge on the gunners side of the turret as shown bellow.

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Between the Ural-1 production between 1977 to 1979 there were 2 iterations of the design as those vehicles from 1977 used the same old optics as the original Ural however from 1978 and onwards they saw the last design change take place when they were no longer produced with the TPD-2-49 optical rangefinder as a new gunner sight was installed which came with the ability of laser range finding so the turrets themselves had the housing of the old rangefinder deleted though this optic was installed on 11 T-72 Ural-1’s built in 1975 likely for testing. The vehicles armor could vary somewhat as in 1976 the Ural-1 series saw vehicles starting to be produced with a improved UFP however the Ural-1 was not standardize in this area as vehicles continued to be produced with with the older plate until the introduction of the T-72A series which all used the improved UFP of the Ural-1 as by 1979 was the production was standardized, the composite armor in the turret would be more or less the same as that as the T-72A in-game. so I won’t go over the details, the vehicle side protection from the side skirts did vary as all Ural and Ural-1 series vehicles retained the ability for the older gill side skirts they could be found to be built with the gill side skirts or steel reinforced rubber side skirts as even images of the Ural-1 from 1977 were still built with the gill armor though even those without the gill side skirts were in theory able to have them installed at the same time, however only Czech T-72M1’s having such a modification.

Sorry for the lack of images, I was not able to find too many images on T-72 Ural-1 tanks from 1977 beyond the ones shown here as I was unable to find any further images which show a T-72 which can be identified as being built in 1977 so I only included which were definative vehicles of the 1977 variation.


Specification

Weight - 41 tons max

Engine - 12 cylinder V-46-4; 780 hp (574 kW)

Max speed - 60 km/h forward and 4 km/h reverse (the same as other T-72 variants)

Gunner optic - TPD-2-49 (TPN-1-49-2 for night vision (Gen 1 NVD))

Commander optic - TKN-3M (Gen 1 NVD)

Armament

Main gun

2A46 cannon (39 rounds total (22 in autoloader))

Coaxial machine gun

1 x 7.62mm PKMT machine gun (2,000 rounds total)

Commander’s machine gun

1 x 12.7mm NSVT machine gun (300 rounds total)

Armor: (this is a basic summary of the armor since it is fairly similar to the T-72A in-game)

Turret - *The same as the T-72A in-game without it’s armor package

Hull - Armor on the hull can vary but it is basically the same as the T-72A without the armor package but the UFP armor can vary from a 80-105-20 layout to 60-105-50 layout, side armor can also vary with the side skirts


Sources:

Spoiler

Tankograd: T-72: Part 1

Tankograd: T-72: Part 2

T-72 Soviet Main Battle Tank (1972)

T-72 - Wikipedia

Image sources:

Spoiler

Tankograd: T-72: Part 2