Ukrainian military engineers have mounted a turret from the T-72B tank onto the chassis of Soviet-era 2S19 Msta-S self-propelled artillery system, creating what some observers have dubbed a Frankenstein tank. The unusual hybrid is less the product of design ambition than of resource constraints.
The Msta-S system hull offers limited armour protection, but it is built on the chassis of the T-80 tank and powered by an engine from the T-72 tank, making it mobile and adaptable. While it cannot withstand direct heavy fire like a standard battle tank, its configuration could still serve useful roles under modern combat conditions, especially where tanks are increasingly deployed for indirect fire rather than direct assaults.
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The shift in tank employment stems from the widespread use of drones and the largely positional nature of current fighting. By equipping the hybrid vehicle with a tank gun and anti-drone defenses, Ukrainian forces could deploy it from prepared firing positions. While more vulnerable than a fully armoured tank, such a vehicle could still fulfil contemporary fire support missions effectively.
Technically, the turret comes from the T-72B3 tank, though it has been stripped of its Kontakt-5 reactive armour and targeting systems. This leaves it functionally close to a standard T-72B turret. At present, no main gun is installed on the vehicle, prompting speculation online about possible future armament. Suggestions that it could mount an artillery piece are considered structurally improbable, and the theory of it becoming an armoured personnel carrier is equally doubtful due to space constraints.
A more feasible scenario is the conversion of the chassis into a recovery vehicle, transport platform, or engineering machine. This has precedent – similar conversions have been carried out in the past when damaged hulls and turrets were available but could not be fully restored to combat condition.
One significant technical obstacle to installing a working tank turret on the Msta-S base is the difference in turret ring diameters: 2,444 mm for the Msta-S system versus 2,280 mm for the T-72 tank. Achieving compatibility would require a custom adapter ring, a level of engineering usually found in professional design bureaus, not front-line repair depots.
Given these constraints, it is likely that the turret serves as a placeholder, sealing the hull while the chassis is repurposed for a non-combat support role. The hybrid could thus be the result of combining irreparably damaged Msta-S and T-72B3 vehicles in a pragmatic bid to salvage useful parts amid shortages of spares, particularly for Soviet-designed artillery systems.
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