T-72S main battle tank of the Myanmar Army. T-72 CI-Ajeya tank of Indian Army during an army parade. Operators T-72 operators in blue with former operators in red. The T-72 has been exported and produced in many countries. In front-line Russian service, T-72s are being upgraded or augmented by the T-90, itself a modernized version of the T-72B. It replaced the T-54/55 series as the workhorse of Soviet tank forces (while the T-64 and T-80 served as the Soviet high-technology tanks). The T-72 is a Soviet-designed main battle tank that entered production in 1971.