In the book "T-72/T-90: Опыт создания отечественных основных боевых танков" published by the Uralvagonzavod corporation in 2013, it is stated that immediately after finalizing the improved 60-105-50 armour design and a new turret with a "Kvartz" ceramic filler, the UKBTM design bureau began the development of new armour solutions, catalyzed by the emergence of APFSDS ammunition among NATO member countries in the second half of the 1970's. The main impetus was new information about the 105mm M735 round and the 120mm Rheinmetall smoothbore gun which was reaching maturity at the time. In fact, detailed drawings of the M735 round were available in the article "A Bigger Foot Print" published in the September-October 1978 issue of the "Armor" magazine, and it was assumed that the German DM23 round was M735 produced under licence. The threat was overestimated, as the advertised capabilities of M735 were only true under the assumption that the upper glacis armour of the T-72 was a 100mm RHA plate sloped at 70 degrees - it was not known in the U.S that the T-72 already had composite armour.
However, these claims were evidently taken at face value and M735 was assumed to have been specially designed to defeat the first generation of composite armour used in Soviet MBTs, while the APFSDS ammunition of the new 120mm smoothbore gun was perceived to represent the future reference threat.
In April 1980, preparations for the production of 172.10.077SB turrets with new composite armour began, and in September 1982, it entered low rate production. Mass production began in 1983. The new hull armour entered mass production in early 1983. According to the book "T-72/T-90: Опыт создания отечественных основных боевых танков", all tanks produced at Uralvagonzavod for delivery to the Soviet Army had new turret and hull armour since January 1, 1984. There appears to be no way of distinguishing between "Improved T-72A" tanks built in 1983 and those built in 1984.
The research and design work on the further improvement of T-72A tanks was done under the research topic of "Совершенствование Т-72А" ("Improved T-72A"). The tanks created in 1983 and 1984 are therefore most accurately referred to as "Improved T-72A" tanks. This term is used in several Russian articles, and the tanks are referred to as such by N.A. Molodnyakov in the collection of memoirs "Life Given to Tanks" dedicated to the UKBTM chief designer V.N Venediktov, published in 2010.
These tanks received the product code "Object 184". While it is certainly quite confusing for one model of tank to have two product codes, this was not unprecedented. The T-72A was accepted into service in 1979 under the product code of Object 172M-1, but the code Object 176 was also used despite the fact that the actual Object 176 was merely an experimental tank used as a testbed for various technologies that were eventually implemented in the T-72 series. In particular, the T-72AV was given the code Object 176V; there is no Object 172M-1V.
"Improved T-72A" tanks appeared in the 1986 parade in honour of the 69th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution and the turret was given the nickname "Super Dolly Parton" by CIA observers. The new upper glacis armour was visually imperceptible from the exterior of the tank.
