According to the Belarusian military television and radio company VoenTV, the mechanized units of the Belarusian army has received 10 T-72B3 tanks. The solemn ceremony took place on November 22, 2018 on the territory of the 120th Mechanized Brigade in Minsk.
On 22 November, 2018, ten addtional T-72B3 have been delivered to the 120th Mechanized Brigade of Belarus (Picture source: Live Journal)
Within the framework of military-technical cooperation, the tanks underwent a deep modernization at the Russian enterprise Uralvagonzavod. The sample received an updated engine, an improved armament, as well as a modern sighting system. In addition, the T-72B3 is equipped with a active protection system which doubled the stability of the hull against cumulative projectiles.
In another report, “VoenTV” on this occasion states that, at the end of 2019, it is expected to deliver another batch of tanks having undergone a deep modernization by the Uralvagonzavod research and production corporation in Russia. This was stated by the First Deputy Chief of Armament of the Armed Forces [of Belarus] - Chief of the Armament Headquarters Major General Andrei Fedin. “As part of the next contract concluded between the Ministry of Defense of Belarus and the Uralvagonzavod research and production corporation, the next ten tanks (T-72B) are already at the plant in Nizhny Tagil,” said Andrei Fedin. At the factory, the tanks will be upgraded to the level of T-72B3. The first batch of T-72B3 tanks with additional protection was transferred to the armed forces of Belarus on June 2, 2017.
The T-72B3 is a development of the standard Russian-made T-72B series currently in service in the Russian army. The T-72B3 version was introduced in 2010 and considered as a third-generation of Russian main battle tank. The T-72B3 has significantly improved its combat characteristics with more firepower, protection, mobility and command controllability. Besides the improved armor and targeting systems, it kept all the good features of the previous versions of the T-72. The modernized version of the T-72, which was a second-generation main battle tank produced in the Soviet Union since the 1970s, is equipped with new-generation communications and firing systems and a ballistic data computer.
The T-72B3 contract was implemented by the Russian Defense Company "Uralvagonzavod". A contract was signed in 2012 to launch the modernization program for a total amount of six billion rubles ($150 million). Currently, the Russian army has some 8.000 T-72s on various variants in its arsenal (most of them in reserve). Russian Ministry of Defense decided that all of them would be converted to a T-72B3 standard. By the end of 2013, some 270 units were delivered to the Western Military District. The T-72B3 is the backbone of the Russian armor regiments until the new T-14 Armata MBT enters service. President Vladimir Putin allocated 23 trillion rubles ($703 billion) to reequip the Russian army with modernized weapons over the next decade.
