With these developments, the T-72 eventually became almost as powerful as the more expensive T-80 tank, but few of these late variants reached the economically ailing Warsaw Pact allies and foreign customers before the Soviet bloc fell apart in 1990.
I och med denna utveckling kom T-72:an att bli nästan lika potent som den dyrare stridsvagnen T-80, men ytterst få av dessa nådde Warszawapaktsländerna och utländska kunder innan sovjetblocket föll sönder 1990.