T - 72 operators and variants The T - 72 is a Soviet - designed main battle tank that entered production in 1971 . It replaced the T - 54 / 55 series as the workhorse of Soviet tank forces ( while the T - 64 and T - 80 served as the Soviet high - technology tanks ) . In front - line Russian service T - 72 are being replaced by T - 90 , a modernized version of the T - 72 . In Ukraine , T - 72s are being replaced by the T - 80 and T - 84 MBTs . The T - 72 has been exported and produced in many countries . 48 PT - 91M and 15 support vehicles ( 6 WZT - 4 { WZT - 91M } armoured recovery vehicle , 3 MID - M { MID - 91M } engineering tank , 5 PMC Leguan { PMC - 91M } - armoured vehicle - launched bridge and one SJ - 09 driver training tank ) , ammo , spares and support for $ 370 million USD . < ref name = " NTW 10 / 05 " > Nowa Technika Wojskowa - October 2005 page 9 - Pierwsza prezentacja " Malaja " - by Andrzej Kliński < / ref > Operating capability since 1 . 9 . 2010 . = 72 Variants . Soviet Union and Russian Federation . The T - 72 was designed and first built in the Soviet Union . India . By the late 1970s , Indian Army HQ had decided to acquire new - generation replacements for its UK - origin fleet of Royal Ordnance Factories - built Centurion and Vickers - built Vijayanta Mk1 MBTs and consequently , paper evaluations concerning the firepower and mobility characteristics of the two principal contenders being offered for full in - country production — AMX - 40 developed by GIAT Industries of France , and the Chieftain 800 ( which later evolved into the Challenger 1 from Royal Ordnance Factories ( then owned by British Aerospace PLC ) — were conducted by the Indian Army . Between these two contenders , the Army had by early 1980 zeroed in on the 43 - tonne AMX - 40 MBT , which was still on the drawing boards and was meant to be powered by a 1 , 100 hp Poyaud V12X 12 - cylinder diesel engine coupled with a LSG - 3000 automatic power shift transmission built by RENK Aktiengesellschaft of Germany ( offering a power - to - weight ratio of 25 . 6 hp / tonne , and armed with a 120mm smoothbore cannon . However , AMX - 40 has only marginal protection by the standards of 1980 ' x . After coming back to power , the Indian Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi requested additional evaluation , including MBTs from the USSR , following which the Soviet Union ’ s Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations ( which after 1991 morphed into Oboronexport , then Rosoboronservice and ultimately Rosoboronexport State Corp ) made a formal offer to India ’ s Ministry of Defence ( MoD ) for supplying the 37 - tonne T - 72M Ob ' yekt 172M - E4 MBT off - the - shelf , and according an approval for licenced - production of the 41 . 5 - tonne T - 72M - 1982 Ob ' yekt 172M - E6 to the MoD - owned Heavy Vehicles Factory ( HVF ) in Avadi . By early 1981 , two T - 72 Ms — powered by a 780 hp diesel engine , armed with 125mm 2A46M smoothbore gun and offering a power - to - weight ratio of 20 hp / tonne , were subjected to an exhaustive series of in - country firepower and mobility trials by the Army . After review of trial results , T - 72M and T - 72 - 1982 ( powered by a Model V - 84MS four - stroke 12 - cylinder multi - fuel engine developing 840 hp and offering a power - to - weight ratio of 18 . 8 hp / tone ) were selected as Army ’ s future MBTs , and a procurement contract for 2 , 418 T - 72s was subsequently inked .