The thermal sight was developed in cooperation with the Israeli company El-Op. The laser warning array for the PT-91 was designed and produced by Radwar and PCO, two Polish electronics firms. There are a number of domestic improvements like reactive armor, a laser warning array, and a thermal sight. The PT-91 (Twardy = hard) tank is a modernized version of the Russian T-72 built in Poland through Russian license. These include 108 on the turret, 118 on the hull and 84 on either hull side, totaling 9 square meters of protected area. On the Twardy, there are 394 tiles (compared with 227 Kontakt bricks on Russian T-72s). This armor can be retrofitted to older T-72s, but its main application appears to be oriented towards an upgraded T-72 called the PT-91 (Polski Tank-91). The ERAWA Armor was also developed to reduce the radar signature of the tank against common battlefield surveillance radars, apparently through the use of a radar-absorbing material (RAM) on the surface. This system is noticeably thinner and lighter weight than earlier first-generation reactive armor packages, and may work in a modified fashion. The difference between the two versions is that the latter type uses a double layer of tiles. ERAWA stands Explosive Reactive Armor- Adam Wisniewski. As a result in 1986, a design team under Adam Wisniewski at the WITU (Wojskowy Institut Technologie Uzbrojeniej = Military Institute of Armament Technology) in Zielonka developed a protective package designated ERAWA-1 and ERAWA-2. Polish T-72s had not been equipped with Soviet-pattern ERA. This never transpired instead Poland continued to develop improved versions of the T-72M1. Poland acquired small numbers of T-80 tanks in the late 1980s and began negotiating license production rights to shift production from the T-72M1 to the T-80. The PT-91 Twardy (Hard) is a Polish attempt to field an equivalent of the T-80 at a lower cost.
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