#20 — T-72: The Most Battled Tank on the Planet
Over 25,000 T-72s have been built since 1971 — more than every Western main battle tank combined during the same period. The T-72 has seen combat in more conflicts than any other Cold War tank: Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Chechnya, Georgia, Libya, Ukraine, and at least a dozen more.
The T-72's 125mm 2A46 smoothbore gun fires a 7.1 kg APFSDS penetrator at 1,700 m/s, and its carousel autoloader maintains a rate of fire of 6-8 rounds per minute regardless of crew fatigue. The original design was intentionally simplified compared to the T-64 — cheaper to build, easier to maintain, and operable by conscript crews with minimal military training. This made it the Soviet Union's export king. The T-72's reputation took a devastating hit in the 1991 Gulf War, where Iraqi monkey-model T-72Ms were annihilated by M1A1 Abrams — but these were massively downgraded export versions without composite armor or modern ammunition. Upgraded T-72B3 variants fighting today are a fundamentally different beast. Love it or hate it, the T-72 has shaped more real-world armored warfare than any tank since the Sherman.
