On October 21, 2022, the Ministry of Defense of Belarus showed the new T-72BM2 tank with a "barbecue cage" welded to the turret, which is already at the disposal of its military. The self-porclaimed president of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko attended the presentation.
This machine got the designation T-72BM2, its modernization was carried out by the Belarusian 140th repair plant in the city of Borisov, Minsk Oblast. The first presentation of this tank took place in July 2022. According to open sources, specifications of the Belarusian T-72BM2 tank are the following:
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The tank has a Sosna-U thermal sighting system and a wind sensor, the same ones are on the russian T-72B3. Instead of the Kontakt-5 complex, the tank received the Relikt dynamic protection complex.
It also got a rubber skirt to protect the sides and anti-cumulative screens from the T-80BVM. Instead of the V-46 engine with 760hp, the V-84M (MS) diesel engine with 840hp was installed along with auxiliary power plant.
From the outside, such a machine is very similar to something in between the russian T-72B3 and T-80BVM. And the additional "barbecue cage" on the turrett hints that the main customer of such a combat vehicle may be the russian army.
Moreover, considering the the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine summary as of October 12, 2022, noting in particular that the Belarusian defense industry is already involved in the repair of equipment of the russian army damaged during battles against Ukraine’s defenders.
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