Tank origin

To counter the increasing threat from armor piercing fin stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) kinetic energy rounds in use by NATO countries, the Soviet Army worked to improve explosive reactive armor (ERA). The result was Kontakt-5, a second generation of ERA. First used on the T-80, this ERA uses lateral motion perpendicular to the penetrating round, disrupting long penetrating rounds while still defeating shaped charge plasma jets. The T-72BM, introduced in 1989, updated the T-72B with Kontakt-5 ERA.