Lion of Babylon
Country of origin
Ba'athist Iraq
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...
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...
