Commanders!
We haven’t had one of these for a while so let us take a look together at a historical skin we are preparing for the celebrations of the 2026 Defender Day, which is called T-72B3 Mod.2011 with Anti-Drone Protection.
It’s been nearly a decade since the introduction of the T-72B3 Tier 8 Premium Main Battle Tank in Armored Warfare and even longer since its appearance. Ours is one of the earliest versions of the tank that doesn’t feature the bulky ERA kit we are so used to today. Indeed, the Kontakt-5 ERA has been around since the 1990s and the early T-72B3s in this regard were hardly any better than the late T-72Bs.
The rise of drones has since proven to be the primary challenge these tanks would face on modern battlefield. Not only were their vulnerable areas not protected from FPV drones, but these tanks were very vulnerable even to simple drones dropping improvised bombs (often made from mortar shells) into open hatches from far above. Another major thread early on turned out to be top-attack Javelin missiles.
To counter these threats, a number of methods were devised – some effective, some not so much, with them eventually involving into the current post-apocalyptic appearance of armored vehicles we see today.
The skin represents a middle-of-the-road upgrade with a large grille welded to the top of the turret. The grille (or cage armor, if you will) is also covered by an animated camouflaged tarp to further hide the tank silhouette from above. Additional cage armor was added to the back of the vehicle to protect its engine. It won’t save the tank from advanced drones or top-attack missiles, but such approach is reasonably effective against simple bomb-dropping drones.
The skin doesn’t represent any specific vehicle and is an amalgamation of the typical Russian three-tone camouflage, green base paint and other visual elements such as the tricolor painted on the gun.
What makes the skin different from other skins is the functionality because the grille and the cage armor do work as armor zones and therefore provide some additional protection for the vehicle. In this regard, we are testing a functional skin concept that may appear in future events.
But the skin isn’t the only thing we have prepared for you for the Defender Day celebrations. We will have the Russian (Improvised Stripes) camouflage for you.
This camouflage was seen on a Russian T-72B3 during winter exercises in 2020 and can change its appearance based on your selected base paint.
Next we have the Russian (Autumn) camouflage, which was seen on a Russian BRM-1 (vehicle number 442) in western Russia in October 2023. This non-standard camouflage features spray-painted lines of typical autumn colors.
And, last but not least, we’ll have several decals for you, inspired by real-life designs. You can see them in the gallery below.
And that’s it, commanders. We hope that you will enjoy these new additions to Armored Warfare. Stay tuned for more upcoming content because we are already working on a number of things we are sure you will like.
See you on the battlefield!
