T-72 tanks in Iraqi service
| Lion of Babylon | |
|---|---|
 A captured T-72 on display at the 1st Cavalry Division Museum, 2018 | |
| Type | Main battle tank |
| Place of origin | Iraq |
| Service history | |
| Wars | |
| Production history | |
| Designer | Kartsev–Venediktov |
| Produced | 1989–1990? |
| No. built | 500 |
| Specifications | |
| Mass | 41.5 tonnes (45.7 short tons) |
| Length | 9.53 m (31 ft 3 in) gun forward 6.95 m (22 ft 10 in) hull |
| Width | 3.59 m (11 ft 9 in) |
| Height | 2.23 m (7 ft 4 in) |
| Crew | 3 |
| Armor | Composite |
Main armament | 125 mm 2A46M |
Secondary armament | |
| Engine | V-12 diesel 780 hp (582 kw) |
| Power/weight | 18.8 hp/t |
| Suspension | Torsion bar Some dampers removed to suit desert conditions |
Operational range | 425 km 600 km with fuel barrels |
| Maximum speed | 60 km/h (road) 45 km/h (off-road) |
During the early stages of the Iran-Iraq War, Iraq under the rule of Saddam Hussein imported a number of T-72 tanks from the Soviet Union and Poland. The tanks saw service in both the Gulf War and the Iraq War. In the late 1970s, Iraq also established a factory to retrofit and repair T-72s, and started the Lion of Babylon project (named after the Babylonian historical symbol of the same name) with the intent to assemble T-72s locally.
Weapons exported by the Soviet Union, including some T-72s, are known to have been significantly inferior to full-specification models in Soviet use like the Object 172M-E1 (E for "Eksportniy", i.e. export), the first export variant of the original T-72 model from 1973. While the basic Object 172M-E was sold to Warsaw Pact countries like Poland, the ČSSR and East-Germany, the E1 variant was fitted with a different NBC protection system and exported to countries like India and Iraq. In terms of performance, this tank should be equal to the T-72 tanks used by the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact unless there is some sort of NBC hazard contamination. The very first 100 T-72 main battle tanks purchased by Iraq from the Soviet Union were Object 172M-E1s.
The second model of the T-72 operated by Iraq was the Object 172M-E4, the main difference is the usage of a different NBC protection system. The first 250 T-72M tanks received by Iraq from Polish sources were delivered in this configuration. Performance-wise, this model should be better than the Object 172M-E, -E1, -E2 and be comparable to the Object 172M-E3 and less inferior.
Last but not least Iraq operated the Object 172M-E6, i.e. the variant of the T-72M1 meant for export outside of Warsaw Pact. It was identical to the version made for the latter group of countries aside of the different NBC protection system. How many of these tanks were delivered to Iraq is not known.