MINSK, 22 November (BelTA) – Ten upgraded combat tanks T-72B3 have been delivered to the 120th Independent Guards Mechanized Brigade of the Belarusian army, BelTA learned from First Deputy Armament Chief of the Armed Forces, Chief of the Armament Staff Major-General Andrei Fedin.
T-72B3 is a heavily upgraded version of the batch-produced tank T-72B, which is the main combat tank of the Belarusian army. Some of the upgrades were mentioned. Instead of the conventional night vision sight combined with the guided missile target finder the new tank has a heat imager. The cannon barrel has been replaced with a more rigid one in order to improve fire precision. A more powerful engine has been installed. The transmission and the traction elements are now more reliable. The tank can travel 35-40kmph across rugged terrain and at least as fast as 65kmph on motorways. The crew's survivability has been drastically improved thanks to a new dynamic protection system, multilayered armor, and antimine defense of the tank's bottom.
The Belarusian Defense Ministry and the Russian company Uralvagonzavod have already signed the contract for upgrading another batch of Belarusian tanks, which have already been delivered to the enterprise in Nizhny Tagil. Another ten upgraded combat tanks T-72B3 will be ready for the Belarusian army in late 2019.
The Belarusian army gets over 100 units of new and modernized weapon systems, military and special hardware every year. This year the Belarusian army has received 32 armored personnel carriers BTR-70MB1 and 40 120-millimeter mortars Nona-M1. By the end of 2019 the Belarusian army is supposed to get nine armored trucks Cayman, which are equipped with 30-millimeter automatic grenade launchers AGS-17. All the defense products have been successfully tested in the field.
