Photos from the main russian tank-building enterprise "Uralvagonzavod", which have appeared on the Internet, indicate that the russian federation has carried out work on strengthening the armor protection of its T-72B3 main battle tank. Quite likely, that similar solutions may appear on other russian tanks, such as the T-90 and T-80, which will undergo restorative repairs.
In particular, the new version of the T-72B3 tank received an additional protection in the area of the gun mask, which was not previously covered enough. The available photo clearly shows the location of some elements around the gun barrel.
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Note that before this, russians already covered a rather large "empty" area to the left of the gun with an additional element of reactive armour. And now they additionally protected the "mask" itself. At the same time, it is unknown to what type the novelty belongs.
At first glance, the additional armor elements installed on the tank look like containers for "Kontakt-1" reactive armor, but their orientation parallel to the barrel of the gun would then not give them the opportunity to counteract the cumulative jet. Moreover, their detonation can then lead to deformation of the gun itself. Therefore, it is possible to make a cautious assumption that these containers contain elements of non-explosive reactive armor.
For reference: Non-explosive reactive armor (NxRA), also known as non-energetic reactive armor (NERA), is a type of vehicle armor used by modern main battle tanks and heavy infantry fighting vehicles. NERA advantages over the explosive reactive armor (ERA) are that they are inexpensive, completely passive and thus easy to integrate on armored vehicles
Most likely, NERA is located in another new element of protection - the front guard of the track. The photo clearly shows the new, modified shield, which should cover the track and part of the suspension in the frontal and partly lateral projections.
Given the size of the new element, it is possible to assume that it is designed to counter automatic guns and grenade launchers.
In this situation, it is important that the renewal of armor protection is directly related to practical combat experience. The appearance of similar homemade solutions, made in the field, has been noticed on some T-72B3s of the Russian army since the beginning of spring this year. In particular, photos of the T-72B3 tank that is having a "Borzya" nikname are known.
"Tuning" was carried out on the tank by active use of elements of "Kontakt-1" explosive reactive armour, which they tried to use to cover the mask of the gun and the front shields of the track.
Defense Express reported, that russian military began sell equipment to the Armed Forces of Ukraine: $5,000 for Tiger Armored Vehicle, $50,000 for tank.
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