**The Common Misconceptions About Main Battle Tanks**

One common misconception about main battle tanks is that their positions are cramped and uncomfortable, especially for taller individuals. However, this is not entirely true. While it's true that some tank designs may have limited space, many modern tanks are designed to accommodate a wide range of crew heights and sizes. For example, the loader's position in Leopard 2 is 1.78 meters tall from the bottom of the turret basket to the roof, which may seem cramped at first but is actually quite manageable for most people. Similarly, the Abrams tank has a height limit of around 1.65 meters from the bottom of the third basket to the roof, making it relatively comfortable for taller drivers.

However, there are still some limitations and discomforts associated with certain tanks. For instance, the T-72's engine is diesel-powered, which can lead to some issues in modern warfare scenarios where gas turbines are often preferred. Another misconception about diesel engines is that they can only use diesel fuel, but most modern tank engines are multi-fuel, meaning they can run on a variety of fuels including gasoline and even jet fuel. In the case of the T-72, its engine can use diesel, gasoline, or petrol, as well as any mixture of these fuels. However, there are some limitations to using certain types of fuel, such as not being able to use smoke screen with gasoline or operating at high temperatures.

Another misconception about main battle tanks is that they were used by Iraq in the Gulf War, but this is not entirely accurate. While Iraq did try to set up domestic production of T-72 tanks, known as ADAB Babil tanks, they were never successfully produced. The Iraqi military actually relied on imported Soviet and Czechoslovakian tanks, which were upgraded to some extent before being deployed in the war. The 12-year-old T-72M1 tank was not heavily used by Iraq, as it had been largely phased out of service by the time the Gulf War took place.

In fact, many of the T-72 variants that Iraq did have access to during the Gulf War were actually older models, such as the T-72 Euro and D-72M1 tanks. These tanks were not downgraded or modified in any way, but rather were simply upgraded with newer ammunition and equipment. The 12-year-old T-72A tank was still relatively effective, but it was no match for the newer Abrams tanks that Iraq faced on the battlefield.

Despite these limitations, main battle tanks like the T-72 remain an important part of modern warfare. Their ability to carry heavy firepower and withstand prolonged periods of combat make them invaluable assets on the battlefield. As conflicts continue to evolve, it's essential to understand the capabilities and limitations of these iconic vehicles.

**The Reality Behind Main Battle Tank Design**

Main battle tanks are often designed with a specific role in mind, but they can also be subject to various misconceptions and myths. One such myth is that taller individuals will find their positions cramped or uncomfortable in main battle tanks. However, this is not necessarily the case. Modern tank designs often prioritize comfort and ergonomics for the crew, ensuring that all crew members can operate effectively and comfortably.

For example, the loader's position in Leopard 2 is designed to accommodate a wide range of heights and sizes, making it an effective and comfortable place to work. Similarly, the Abrams tank has been designed with a focus on comfort and ergonomics, including features like adjustable seating and plenty of legroom for the driver.

However, there are still some limitations and discomforts associated with certain tanks. The T-72's engine, for instance, is diesel-powered, which can lead to issues in modern warfare scenarios where gas turbines are often preferred. Another misconception about diesel engines is that they can only use diesel fuel, but most modern tank engines are multi-fuel.

In reality, many main battle tanks can run on a variety of fuels including gasoline and even jet fuel. The T-72, for example, can use diesel, gasoline, or petrol, as well as any mixture of these fuels. However, there are some limitations to using certain types of fuel, such as not being able to use smoke screen with gasoline or operating at high temperatures.

**The Truth About Main Battle Tank Ammunition**

Another misconception about main battle tanks is that they can only fire a limited range of ammunition. However, this is not necessarily true. Many modern tank engines are capable of firing a wide range of ammunition types, including different types of kinetic energy penetrators, explosive rounds, and even smoke and illumination rounds.

In the case of the T-72, its engine is capable of firing a variety of ammunition types, including armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS), high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT), and smoke and illumination rounds. However, some ammunition types are not suitable for certain tanks or combat scenarios.

For example, the old export 3BM17 ammunition used by Iraq during the Gulf War was limited in its effectiveness compared to modern tank ammunition. Modern tank guns often fire a wide range of ammunition types, making them highly effective against armored targets and other vehicles on the battlefield.

**The Reality Behind Main Battle Tank Production**

Finally, there is another misconception about main battle tanks that needs to be addressed: that they were widely used by Iraq during the Gulf War. While this may seem like an accurate assessment at first glance, it's actually not entirely true. Iraq did try to set up domestic production of T-72 tanks, known as ADAB Babil tanks, but these efforts were ultimately unsuccessful.

Instead, Iraq relied on imported Soviet and Czechoslovakian tanks, which had been upgraded to some extent before being deployed in the war. The 12-year-old T-72M1 tank was not heavily used by Iraq, as it had been largely phased out of service by the time the Gulf War took place.

In fact, many of the T-72 variants that Iraq did have access to during the Gulf War were actually older models, such as the T-72 Euro and D-72M1 tanks. These tanks were not downgraded or modified in any way, but rather were simply upgraded with newer ammunition and equipment.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: end72 has been in service for almost 50 years and is still in service all around the world so it is not uncommon to find some mids surrounding this vehicle in this video i will try to pass some of the more common myths surrounding this tank you can play as one of many nations operating the d72 tank in conflict of nations conflict of nations is a free online pvp strategy game choose a real country to lead in a modern global warfare and fight up to 128 other players in real time in games that can take weeks to complete use many different units to build your army declare war to your neighbors or forge alliances with other players choose your own strategy engage in epic battles and take over the world one thing i like about the game is that it's a long term real time strategy game one great thing is that you can play with the same account on both pc and mobile click on the link in the description to get an exclusive gift 13 000 gold and one month of premium subscription for free the offer is only available for 30 days almost time myth number one d72 autoloader is famous for chopping off arms of the crew honestly it baffles me people still believe this one today i don't know where and how the myth started but it couldn't be further from the truth first of all the gun bridge has shields on each side which prevent the crew from accidentally moving in between the gun bridge and the outer holders elevator making it completely safe to operate from their positions since they are isolated from the outer loader second reason why it's closely impossible to happen is because the period where you can get your hand or arm chopped off is extremely short you see the only way for that to happen would be to put your arm between the charge or the projectile just before it gets pushed into the breech on top of having really narrow space between the two you would need to do it really fast as you can see in this clip it takes only a fraction of a second for the projectile or the charge to get pushed in from the moment they are brought into the level of the gun bridge third reason is that the entire process takes time while the crew is operating in their own positions once the gun is fired the commander either looks confirmed the kill or searches for the new target while the gunner keeps his eyes on the target or starts looking for the next one too but usually the dust takes longer to settle than it takes to load the gun therefore the gunner at least would still be looking at the target he fired at to confirm if the threat has been neutralized so in conclusion you would have to really reach out of your station in a fraction of a second and put your arm or hand between the charge or the projectile while you're supposed to be doing something completely different now i know some of you might say that something like that can happen while doing maintenance or clearing the malfunction but official regulation calls for the out holder to be shut down and for the brake to be engaged while it is being operated on the only instance it could happen is if during the maintenance the regulation wasn't followed and you somehow i don't know how turn on the rammer of the outloader only which is closely impossible to happen i have tried looking up for some reports on russian english etc but i could find nothing but some people saying how the alt-holders eat arms with no bases whatsoever myth number two you have to be really short to be a t72 tanker well this one may or may not be true to some people in russia at least the required height is not more than 175 centimeters or shorter than 150 centimeters this is the average male height in russia and it is well above average for the entire world although the exceptions can actually be made you see i have spoken to a serbian m84 driver in person on a military exhibition and based on my height he was well above 175 meters tall i would personally say around 180 or even more so i did some digging and it appears that yugoslavia and then its separated states don't really have a proper height regulation people that served on the m84 and t72 tanks say that although uncommon there were tankers in their units that were well over 1.8 meters tall but it is said that the gunners are much preferred to be short because that position is cramped and if you were taller you would be uncomfortable so taller people were often put to be drivers of course to some people these heights are still short but unlike what many think western tanks like clapper 2 and abrams aren't really comfortable for all people the loader's position in leopard 2 is 1.78 meters tall from the bottom of the turret basket to the roof and it's even shorter on abrams where it's around 1.65 meters from the bottom of the third basket to the roof of course you will fit there easily if you are taller but the taller you are the less comfortable it will get there were also complaints in abrams that taller drivers don't get enough legroom and in leopard 2 the height limit for the driver is 1.83 meters which kind of goes along with the uncommon t72 driver heights myth number three big downside of t72's engine is that it is diesel and during war it will not be able to use other fuels like gas turbine of abrams or t80 another very common misconception people hear diesel and immediately assume it is only able to take diesel what they don't realize is that the majority of tank diesel engines are multi-fuel i think the biggest culprit for this myth getting popularized are the documentaries which claim how the gas turbines are great for their ability to use different types of fuel like diesel gasoline and even jet fuel well t72's engine can use those types of fuel too in a t72 manual it is stated that the engine can use diesel gasoline or petrol and even jet fuel as well as any mixture of those fuels now there are some limitations when using some of those fuels like not being allowed to use the smokescreen when using gasoline and that the gasoline shouldn't be used if the outside temperature is hotter than 25 degrees celsius which can be a problem for the countries operating the tanks in hot environments but overall the engine does support the use of different types of fuel myth number four the tanks used by iraq in gulf war were domestically produced assad babil tanks or the tanks for heavily downgraded variants of soviet tanks well this one is not true either while there were indeed attempts made by iraq to set up domestic production of t72 tanks which should have been called as adba bill they never achieved to do that only on the military exhibition did they claim that one tank was made domestically but there is no evidence to back any of this up now were they heavily downgraded export tanks well not really rack had the 72 ural t72m and d72m1 tanks which were procured from ussr czechoslovakia and poland all tanks were made up to standards and were not downgraded in any way now the thing is the 72 euro was already very obsolete by that time it originally entered service in 1973 and was largely phased out of service in ussr the 72m tank was a mix between the t72 euro and d72 m1 largely based on t72 euro 1 which was also obsolete the 72m1 was pretty much one to one copy of the soviet t72a tank from 1979 while 12 years old at the time and mostly replaced by much better 3072 b tanks in ussr it was still very well in active service in soviet union and t72 m1 as m1 was in active service with the warsaw back countries and would have been heavily used by warsaw act against nato if the cold war broke out at the time the only difference is that the best armor-piercing ammunition the iraqis had was the old export 3bm17 ammunition with a steel penetrator which was absolutely horrible and could barely do anything to any tank at the time these 72 tanks couldn't even penetrate each other with such projectile and we all know what the silver bullet did to t72s the soviets and the warsaw pact would have been better prepared when it comes to ammunition of course one should not disregard that the t72a or t72 m1 was not even close to being the best ussr could offer tanks like d72b and tatu could quite reliably go toe to toe with the m1a1 tanks but just like us still operated m60 tanks at the time ussr still operated the older t72 variants but still not in that small numbers and t72 d72m1 was to the very end the best main battle tank of the warsaw pac countries outside of ussr conflict of nations is a free online pvp structured game happening in a modern global warfare click on the link in the description to get an exclusive gift 13 000 gold and 1 month of premium subscription for free the offer is only available for 30 days so don't lose time youd72 has been in service for almost 50 years and is still in service all around the world so it is not uncommon to find some mids surrounding this vehicle in this video i will try to pass some of the more common myths surrounding this tank you can play as one of many nations operating the d72 tank in conflict of nations conflict of nations is a free online pvp strategy game choose a real country to lead in a modern global warfare and fight up to 128 other players in real time in games that can take weeks to complete use many different units to build your army declare war to your neighbors or forge alliances with other players choose your own strategy engage in epic battles and take over the world one thing i like about the game is that it's a long term real time strategy game one great thing is that you can play with the same account on both pc and mobile click on the link in the description to get an exclusive gift 13 000 gold and one month of premium subscription for free the offer is only available for 30 days almost time myth number one d72 autoloader is famous for chopping off arms of the crew honestly it baffles me people still believe this one today i don't know where and how the myth started but it couldn't be further from the truth first of all the gun bridge has shields on each side which prevent the crew from accidentally moving in between the gun bridge and the outer holders elevator making it completely safe to operate from their positions since they are isolated from the outer loader second reason why it's closely impossible to happen is because the period where you can get your hand or arm chopped off is extremely short you see the only way for that to happen would be to put your arm between the charge or the projectile just before it gets pushed into the breech on top of having really narrow space between the two you would need to do it really fast as you can see in this clip it takes only a fraction of a second for the projectile or the charge to get pushed in from the moment they are brought into the level of the gun bridge third reason is that the entire process takes time while the crew is operating in their own positions once the gun is fired the commander either looks confirmed the kill or searches for the new target while the gunner keeps his eyes on the target or starts looking for the next one too but usually the dust takes longer to settle than it takes to load the gun therefore the gunner at least would still be looking at the target he fired at to confirm if the threat has been neutralized so in conclusion you would have to really reach out of your station in a fraction of a second and put your arm or hand between the charge or the projectile while you're supposed to be doing something completely different now i know some of you might say that something like that can happen while doing maintenance or clearing the malfunction but official regulation calls for the out holder to be shut down and for the brake to be engaged while it is being operated on the only instance it could happen is if during the maintenance the regulation wasn't followed and you somehow i don't know how turn on the rammer of the outloader only which is closely impossible to happen i have tried looking up for some reports on russian english etc but i could find nothing but some people saying how the alt-holders eat arms with no bases whatsoever myth number two you have to be really short to be a t72 tanker well this one may or may not be true to some people in russia at least the required height is not more than 175 centimeters or shorter than 150 centimeters this is the average male height in russia and it is well above average for the entire world although the exceptions can actually be made you see i have spoken to a serbian m84 driver in person on a military exhibition and based on my height he was well above 175 meters tall i would personally say around 180 or even more so i did some digging and it appears that yugoslavia and then its separated states don't really have a proper height regulation people that served on the m84 and t72 tanks say that although uncommon there were tankers in their units that were well over 1.8 meters tall but it is said that the gunners are much preferred to be short because that position is cramped and if you were taller you would be uncomfortable so taller people were often put to be drivers of course to some people these heights are still short but unlike what many think western tanks like clapper 2 and abrams aren't really comfortable for all people the loader's position in leopard 2 is 1.78 meters tall from the bottom of the turret basket to the roof and it's even shorter on abrams where it's around 1.65 meters from the bottom of the third basket to the roof of course you will fit there easily if you are taller but the taller you are the less comfortable it will get there were also complaints in abrams that taller drivers don't get enough legroom and in leopard 2 the height limit for the driver is 1.83 meters which kind of goes along with the uncommon t72 driver heights myth number three big downside of t72's engine is that it is diesel and during war it will not be able to use other fuels like gas turbine of abrams or t80 another very common misconception people hear diesel and immediately assume it is only able to take diesel what they don't realize is that the majority of tank diesel engines are multi-fuel i think the biggest culprit for this myth getting popularized are the documentaries which claim how the gas turbines are great for their ability to use different types of fuel like diesel gasoline and even jet fuel well t72's engine can use those types of fuel too in a t72 manual it is stated that the engine can use diesel gasoline or petrol and even jet fuel as well as any mixture of those fuels now there are some limitations when using some of those fuels like not being allowed to use the smokescreen when using gasoline and that the gasoline shouldn't be used if the outside temperature is hotter than 25 degrees celsius which can be a problem for the countries operating the tanks in hot environments but overall the engine does support the use of different types of fuel myth number four the tanks used by iraq in gulf war were domestically produced assad babil tanks or the tanks for heavily downgraded variants of soviet tanks well this one is not true either while there were indeed attempts made by iraq to set up domestic production of t72 tanks which should have been called as adba bill they never achieved to do that only on the military exhibition did they claim that one tank was made domestically but there is no evidence to back any of this up now were they heavily downgraded export tanks well not really rack had the 72 ural t72m and d72m1 tanks which were procured from ussr czechoslovakia and poland all tanks were made up to standards and were not downgraded in any way now the thing is the 72 euro was already very obsolete by that time it originally entered service in 1973 and was largely phased out of service in ussr the 72m tank was a mix between the t72 euro and d72 m1 largely based on t72 euro 1 which was also obsolete the 72m1 was pretty much one to one copy of the soviet t72a tank from 1979 while 12 years old at the time and mostly replaced by much better 3072 b tanks in ussr it was still very well in active service in soviet union and t72 m1 as m1 was in active service with the warsaw back countries and would have been heavily used by warsaw act against nato if the cold war broke out at the time the only difference is that the best armor-piercing ammunition the iraqis had was the old export 3bm17 ammunition with a steel penetrator which was absolutely horrible and could barely do anything to any tank at the time these 72 tanks couldn't even penetrate each other with such projectile and we all know what the silver bullet did to t72s the soviets and the warsaw pact would have been better prepared when it comes to ammunition of course one should not disregard that the t72a or t72 m1 was not even close to being the best ussr could offer tanks like d72b and tatu could quite reliably go toe to toe with the m1a1 tanks but just like us still operated m60 tanks at the time ussr still operated the older t72 variants but still not in that small numbers and t72 d72m1 was to the very end the best main battle tank of the warsaw pac countries outside of ussr conflict of nations is a free online pvp structured game happening in a modern global warfare click on the link in the description to get an exclusive gift 13 000 gold and 1 month of premium subscription for free the offer is only available for 30 days so don't lose time you\n"