The fighters of the Southern Group of Forces have developed a unique additional protection for the T-72B3M tank

On December 19, tankers of the 1442nd Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment of the 6th Motorized Rifle Division of the 3rd Army Corps of the Southern Group of Forces told Izvestia correspondent Egor Kildibekov how they equipped the T-72B3M tank with additional protection from FPV drones of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), making their model unique.

"This is the tank. This is the T-72B3M. There are hundreds of them in service in the Russian army, but this particular model is unique: it is equipped with additional protection against FPV drones, and the protection is installed in several layers," Kildibekov said.

The driver with the call sign Sexton, talking about the development, clarified that the combat vehicle is equipped not only with a "brazier" (a mesh metal frame mounted directly on the equipment itself), but also with a so—called porcupine - an aluminum wire fixed on the tank body, which serves as protection from enemy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

"The FPV [drone] works much earlier, <...> plus, if the projectile itself does not work, it can hook [it] with a wing and turn it in the other direction altogether," explained the Sexton.

According to the serviceman, the sky in the area they occupy in the Konstantinovsky direction near Bakhmut is constantly controlled by Russian units.

The platoon commander with the call sign Cartoon, talking about another successful departure, stressed that this car never lets its crew down.

"Withstood (the tank. — Ed.), well, that was the last departure. They have (APU. — Ed.), there were probably about 40 [drones], and there were only four breakthroughs, but they were not critical," he recalls.

The cartoon said that dynamic protection is triggered on the tank, which provides additional safety for both the vehicle itself and the crew there. The Izvestia correspondent noted that after each departure, the tankers gain new experience, which allows them to refine their design over and over again.

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On December 19, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the tankers of the Vostok group of forces had destroyed temporary deployment points and manpower of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Gulyai-Pole. According to the ministry, during aerial reconnaissance, operators of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) of the Vostok group of forces discovered temporary deployment points of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, equipped in the urban area of Gulyai-Pole. It is specified that Ukrainian militants were seen in the buildings. After clarifying the coordinates and assessing the situation, tank crews on T-80BVM tanks moved to the area of the task.

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