Customer Reviews

T-72 Main Battle Tank 1974-93 (New Vanguard)

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Steve Zaloga is one of the leading scholars on Russian and Warsaw Pact armor, and this book was one of the first to take advantage of the new information that became available after the fall of the Soviet Union. It traces the development of the weapon and its deployment by Russia, its allies, and the third world customers who bought the export versions. Zaloga also reveals the Soviet designations for the various subtypes. The Russian obsession with secrecy meant that many spurious designations appeared in NATO manuals on the subject, and the author finally clears up the actual designations of the variant models. The T-72's poor performance in combat is examined and the reasons are discussed, and it is compared to its design rivals, the T-64 and the T-80. There is a nice selection of pictures of all subtypes, and a color center section by artist Peter Sarson shows the markings and camouflage of the vehicle. This title is aimed at model builders, wargamers and those with a casual interest in military technology, but the format is too limited for the dedicated historian or defense analyst.

Positives:Book is strong on details and Gulf War-I experience. Excellent photos and colour plates and a cut out too. Data is reliable, accurate and comprehensive. Easy to read. Wish it had more of...:I wish it had more information on (i) performance in the field,(ii) reliability (iii)experience in the hands of other major armies such as the Indian Army, Russian Army etc instead of being limited to the debacle of the Gulf War where the capabilities of the T-72 were overshadowed by the overwhelming combined arms force of the Allies and the weak training and morale of the Iraqis. Given the paucity of data on Russian equipment this is overall the best book I have read on the T-72