T-72 Tank, GreenPetner Panzer T 72 tank in plastic bag with directions and decal set. T 72 Tank first entered service with the Soviet Union in 1971 during the Cold War. It was a very successful series of tanks and over 20,000 have been produced. T 72 was widely exported and is a veteran of many years of hard combat in the Iran Iraq War, the Georgian Civil War, the Gulf War, the Wars in Chechnya, the war in Ukraine and many others. The T 72 has a smoothbore 125mm gun