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16 October 2019

Syrian TV showed images of the transport of tanks, belonging to the Syrian army, near Raqqa. The images were shot on the Ithriyah-Khanaser-Raqqa international highway. These are Soviet-made tanks that were previously used in the battle at Idlib. However, there are some special innovations.

They are T-62M tanks that previously did not have the camouflage color of sand. Then, the tanks shown have an additional protection called "Brezhnev's eyebrows". These are special containers mounted on turrets with multilayer protection - the 5 mm steel plates are inserted in a range of 30 millimeters and the space between them is filled with foamed polyurethane.

The "Brezhnev Eyebrows" serve to ensure the dispersion of the cumulative flow of anti-tank missiles. In particular, they resist the impact of US infrared-guided anti-tank missiles TOW The aforementioned anti-tank weapon system is supplied to the Turkish army and, according to some international agencies, was provided by the Ankara army to anti-Assad rebels supported by the Turks.

According to some military experts, the sending of the T-62Ms to the strategic point near Raqqa suggests the preparation of Syrian government forces for the head-on clash, if not directly with the Turkish army, at least with the opposition militias in Assad.

The name "Brezhnev's eyebrows" was put into circulation in 1983, when the Soviet T-62M tank was modernized and equipped with passive defense modules built with steel plates and foamed polyurethane. The Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, with his famous bushy eyebrows, had died a few months earlier. The passive defense modules looked just like his eyebrows.