When the Soviet T-72 tank was first deployed, Richard Nixon was President, the F-4 Phantom was Americas primary fighter, and the worlds steel beasts had yet to discover a nemesis called the wire-guided anti-tank missile.\r
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At least 25,000 T-72s have been built, making it the second-most prolific post-World War II tank, coming in behind only the ubiquitous T-54/T-55. That the T-72 is still in service today -- and still being used by about 45 countries, including Russia -- speaks to the longevity of this vehicle.\r
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The T-72 began life as a cheaper alternative to the disastrous T-64, a sophisticated mid-1960s tank that proved to be over-complicated and unreliable. First deployed with the Soviet Army in 1973, the 41-ton T-72 featured a 125-millimeter smoothbore cannon. The cannon was fed by an autoloader instead of a human loader, just like the T-64, enabling the vehicles crew to be reduced to three instead of the usual four in modern tanks. However, unlike the T-64, the T-72 didnt try to feed the crews limbs into the gun.\r
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