Lion of Babylon (tank) - Armor

Armor

The Lion's primary armor was the same as the basic Soviet T-72 for export (T-72M), without any composite armor improvement, which made this tank an easy target for any modern main battle tank. The Lion's side armor had just 60 mm protection, the turret side armor standard is 300 mm, and the flat rear is 45 mm thick. (This was later reinforced by the Iraqis).

Despite the relative thinness, the reinforced armor plate present both at the turret and the front upper hull seems to have been relatively effective against some shaped-charge ordnance, like the TOWs and Hellfire missiles. There are reports of Iraqi T-72s surviving near-misses from these weapons, although the reinforced armor generally did not prevent a mobility kill. However, it is also possible that the unexpected survival rate was due to the electro-optical countermeasures mounted on most of the tanks rather than the added armor.

There is evidence of at least one Asad Babil surviving a direct hit from an Abrams main gun in the encounter at Mahmoudiyah in 2003. A 120 mm HEAT round from an Abrams impacted on the front of an Asad Babil turret at point blank range without producing a catastrophic kill. The tank was eventually destroyed by an armor-piercing round fired later.

It may be that some of these tanks featured explosive reactive armor (ERA), obtained from spare parts of Polish T-72M1s. A US Commander in the field suggested that during their last stand for Baghdad, five Iraqi T-72s seemed to be equipped with ERA.

An improvised armor upgrade that may have also work in these circumstances was introduced at the Taji complex, according to a Russian web site.

This source reports that an additional armor plate with a thickness of 30 mm was welded on the front areas of the hull and turret, leaving an air gap matching the size of the armor, so that the power of a HEAT jet could be dissipated in the hollow space. This technique follows the principle of spaced armor. The Iraqi engineers tested this reinforcement against 120 mm Chieftain tank rifled guns in 1989, apparently with some success. A FAS document claims that Russian designers took note of this Iraqi employment of layer armor for their T-90 MBT.

There are also at least two examples of 25 mm armor-piercing cannon fire from Bradleys IFVs ricocheting harmlessly when fired at the Iraqi tank in Desert Storm, but 25 mm rounds can not penetrate the front or flanks of a T-72/Asad Babil from most ranges. But in the end it was no match for western 120 mm depleted uranium APFSDS ammunition.