The T-72 is one of the most manufactured battle tanks in history: 25,000 units
Its unit cost in 2011 was set at just over $500,000, making it a cheap and effective car.
Central and Eastern Europe still relies heavily on tanks designed in the former Soviet Union. Among those popularly known as ‘tanks’, the T-72 is of vital importance. Countries such as the Baltic republics, Poland, Romania, Russia, Belarus, and the Ukraine still use large stockpiles dating from the Soviet era. The T-72, designed in the 1970s, was once an engineering achievement of the Red Army.
Currently, and according to estimates, 25,000 units of the same have been manufactured.. In the recent Ukrainian conflict, both Russia and Ukraine have used large numbers of this model. It has performed well, just like the previous generation T-62s, however it is vulnerable to modern anti-tank systems. The effectiveness of these can knock out one of these tanks in one hit.
To increase its useful life for a longer time, governments have invested in its modernization. Improvements in defense capacity allow these vehicles to resist more than necessary. The modernizations, cheaper than designing a car from scratch, have been applied to other models already manufactured since that time.