T-72 tanks in Iraqi service
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The Lion of Babylon tank (Asad Babil) is an Iraqi-built version of the Soviet T-72 tank main battle tank, built in a factory established in the 1980s. The tank is equipped with additional armour at the front and rear as protection against missile attacks.
In most respects, the Lion of Babylon is (at least physically) identical to the first model T-72. Nevertheless, the two differ considerably, both in the quality of construction and durability of materials used. A few examples feature a laser range-finder for its 125 mm main gun.
Combat Performance
The Asad Babil was generally credited as being the most common tank in Iraqi service during the first Persian Gulf War (1990-91), but that honor goes, in fact, to the Type 69, produced in China. Only Republican Guard divisions were equipped with iraqi-built T-72s. Much to the distress of Russian armaments designers, many of the failings of the Iraqi armies were blamed upon the T-72, with little note that the vehicle itself was an Iraqi copy of an older export model, and nowhere near its up-to-date Soviet counterpart in capability. Even in the hands of competent crewmen, the Lion of Babylon is utterly outclassed by the M1 Abrams, as was demonstrated in both Gulf Wars, and almost certainly by every other contemporary Western main battle tank as well. For example, a 120 mm depleted uranium (DU) APDFS round from an M1 could kill an Asad Babil tank well beyond 3,000 m, while the effective range of a tungsten-core 125-mm shell is scarcely 800 m.
At first, combat assessment researchers think about a dozen of M1a were hit an damaged in some degree in the course of tank battles with Iraqi T-72s, but further ballistic information and radiological readings showed that 7 Abrams were beyond any doubt hit by friendly fire. Helicopter-launched missiles are suspected of inflicting friendly damaged in another 3 cases.
However, some sources dispute the claim that no M1a Abrams took damaged from this Iraqi tank. Brig. Gen. Robert Scales, in Certain Victory (1994) describes an engagement at close range between advancing M1s and dug-in Lions where at least two American tanks were put out of action, apparently by 125-mm sabot rounds. The battle took place before midnight, February 26, 1991. The Abrams tanks belonged to TF 1-37th Armour, 1st Armoured Division, both being hit from behind. Another two become anti-tank missile targets. There was speculation about incoming friendly-fire from Apache helicopters of the 3rd Armoured Division deployed to the south, but one of the four M1s (B-23) was definitely hit by a non-depleted uranium discarding sabot shell (the hellfire missile fired from the Apaches has a high explosive anti-tank warhead). An official document (scan), shows a sketch describing the projectile path through the tank hull.
Another US Army official damaged assessment (scan), asserts that an unidentified Abrams suffered three non-DU impacts, the witnesses in the field claiming a T-72 was to blame.
The damage was probably sustained during the last engagement of the Gulf war, March 2 1991, near the Rumeilah oil fields, when the 1st Brigade of the 24th Infantry Division attacked by surprise a large retreating column of the Hammurabi elite Division, comprising some Asad Babil and APCs. Most of the Brigade-size formation was destroyed by the combined force of helicopters, A-10 attack aircraft and armoured vehicle weapons, but Rick Atkinson's book Crusade, cites one M1 destroyed and another out of action by "exploding T-72s".
There are two photos, found on the Internet, showing a damaged M1, with what appear to be two large darts embedded in the rear-right side of its turret, somewhat matching the description of the US Army assessment. The tank's markings also match those identifying the 24th Infantry Division. As you can see, the impacts seem to be well aimed shots rather than random falling shells or splinters from the explosion of an enemy vehicle. The storage area around the turret seems devastated by a subsequent fire.
The Lions also accounted for at least three M2 Bradley IFVs during Desert Storm, according to Atkinson and Scales. This is the link to the damaged assessment of one of them (K12), belonging to 3rd squadron, 2nd ACR, Feb 26 1991[1]. Another one was struck by a 125-mm shell near Baghdad Airport in April 2003, caught in the open while on a reconnaissance mission[2]. Other sources claim it was destroyed by an iraqi modified Type 69 fitted with a 57-mm gun[3] . This action took place during a counter-attack led by Republican Guard armored forces against the Task Force 2-7 Infantry (Mechanized) Tactical Operation Center (TOC). There is also a reference in the two last links to a M1a2 Bumper#24 (B-24), part of TF-1-64 AR, hit in its EAPU (external auxiliary power unit) by what the analists believed was 12.7 mm fire, the same caliber of the Type NSV machinegun mounted on the Asad Babil turret. This Abrams was damaged in the battle for the Baghdad Airport, just an hour before the Bradley incident, leading to speculation about whether a Lion fired at B-24.
However, an older version of this soviet-built machinegun is also mounted on light infantry vehicles, such as the BRDM wheeled APC family. The BRDM-2 is fitted with an even higher caliber weapon (14.5 mm), with the same armour-piercing capabilities of the NSV. The M1 caught fire in the main engine, and was later stripped of parts in a maintenance area.
This kind of mishaps proved that the external storage of the Abrams are highly vulnerable to small arms fire, capable of igniting packaged items dripping down to the engine compartment.
