“The crews of T-72B3 tanks operating as part of armored units of the Southern Military District’s army corps have kicked off a firing exercise at the Angarsky training ground in the Republic of Crimea. The firing exercise is being held under a combat training plan of armored units of a coastal defense formation. The tank crews are live-firing guns both from the halt by direct fire and on the move across rough terrain in a mock encounter battle.”-Russian Black Sea Fleet press release, 25JAN2022
Russian units began getting upgraded T-72B3s in 2017. They have more powerful motors, new targeting systems, rear facing camera, and ‘Relikt’ reactive armor. Russian Western Military District photo, September 2017.
TASS Russian News Agency reported that the current wargame in Crimea involves the “upgraded” T-72B3, but did not specifically say it was the robotized/autonomous upgrade. Currently Russia is using the T-72B3-2016 version, aka T-72B3M, identified by its Relikt reactive armor.
Russian Western Military District photo, June 2017.
Crimea is a peninsula jutting into the Black Sea, and for several hundred years has been a disputed territory. Russia took control from the Ottoman Empire in the 1780s, following the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-74. In 1954, during the time of the Soviet Union, it was decided to allow Ukraine to have control. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine leased Crimea’s ports to the Russian Military Maritime Fleet (navy). During the 2013-14 Western backed (openly, by U.S. politicians who actually went to Ukraine to call for revolution, like John McCain in December 2013) Ukrainian insurgency, Russia decided to invade Crimea to protect what it believes are its naval ports. Crimea is now part of the Russian Southern Military District.
Southern Military District T-72B3M, September 2020. You can see what I assume are the upgraded gunner’s sights.
In September 2020, the Southern Military District held a wargame called Kavkaz 2020. It involved not only Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, Caspian Flotilla, the naval forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, but also army units from Armenia, Belarus, China, Myanmar, and Pakistan. As many as 80-thousand personnel participated. One of the goals of Kavkaz-2020 was to apply lessons learned fighting insurgents in Syria.
Southern Military District video of T-72B3M kicking up a lot of dust during Kavkaz-2020:
Southern Military District video of T-72B3 live fire during Kavkaz-2020:
From a wargame in the Western Military District, April 2021. Notice one of the Relikt panels are missing.
Vehicle I-D: RUSSIA’S ‘NEW’ AUTOMATED T-72B3, “HELLO, ANYBODY IN THERE?”
Vehicle I-D: IRAQI T-72, LIVE FIRE BESMAYA GUNNERY RANGE
New Cold War 2022: RUSSIA DEPLOYS TO BELARUS, PREPS FOR INVASION BY NATO! “So will there be a war or not? Yes, there will be, but only in two cases: if Belarus suffers a direct aggression, if a hot war is unleashed against our Belarus. We will stand united as one – even those who don’t want to – to defend our land and our homeland. And the second possibility, when a war may happen and Belarus will take part in it: if our ally Russia suffers a direct attack, if such aggression is committed against the Russian Federation. The grounds for that are our allied agreements.”-Alexander Lukashenko, President of Belarus
New Cold War 2017: CALIFORNIA CELEBRATES 20 YEARS OF NATIONAL GUARD OPS IN UKRAINE!