“Blown to pieces”: Russian T-90M tank suffers heavy losses in Ukraine

What you need to know: Russia’s T-90M Proryv-3 tank, once widely touted as a battlefield breakthrough, has encountered difficulties in Ukraine, highlighting broader problems in the Russian military-industrial complex. Originally designed to replace the T-72 after its poor performance during the 1991 Gulf War, the T-90M boasted advanced countermeasures but was not up to the task in combat.

-Ukrainian forces effectively attacked Russian T-90 tanks, capturing or destroying several units, further exposing the tank’s limitations.

– With the costly T-14 Armata sidelined, Russia is left relying on the T-90 and T-72 despite significant losses as the war drags on with no clear solution in sight.

The Russian T-90M tank stumbled in Ukraine: why it fails on the battlefield=

Russia’s authoritarian President Vladimir Putin has a seemingly endless life.”special military operation“in Ukraine has become a huge embarrassment for the Russian military-industrial complex. Throughout the war, the Russian army demonstrated unsatisfactory results on the battlefield. suffered huge losses in equipment and manpowerhas spent untold billions and faced production problems that have prevented its oft-lauded weapons systems from even being deployed in combat at all.

This is especially true of Russia’s previously highly touted and feared main battle tanks (MBTs) left over from the Cold War, such as T-72 to newer tanks such as T-14 Armata and the current item, T-90M (nicknamed “Breakthrough-3or “Proryv-3”).

T-90M Background history and technical characteristics

Initially launched into production UralVagonZavod in 1992 (a year after collapse of the Soviet Union), the original third generation version of the T-90 was developed and indeed intended to replace T-72. (Consequently, the year 1992 began production is largely coincidental; it is not only the year after the collapse of the USSR, but also the year after the T-72 was completely knocked out in battle by American tanks. M1 Abrams MBT during the 1991 Gulf War, also known as Operation Desert Storm.)

Meanwhile, the current version of the T-90M debuted in 2019. It has the following characteristics and main characteristics:

Crew size: three people (commander, driver, gunner,

Weight: 51 tons

Length: 9.63 m (31 ft 7 in)

Width: 3.78 m (12 ft 5 in)

Height: 2.22 m (7 ft 3 in)

Top speed: 60 km/h (37 mph)

Operating range: 550 km (340 miles)

Weapons:

1x 2A46M-5 (AKA D-81TM) 125 mm smoothbore gun

1x 12.7 mm (.50 caliber) Kord machine gun

1x 7.62mm PKTM machine gun

Additionally, according to my colleague Maya Carlin in a July 21, 2024 The National Interest article entitled “Russian T-90 tank continues to “fall to pieces” in the war in Ukraine“:

“From a countermeasures point of view, the T-90M is equipped Curtain-1 kit including a laser warning system, automatic smoke dispensers and infrared blinding devices.”

In total, about 4,000 copies were built, as well as 1,400 T-90S/SM units. built in India under license. In addition to the Russian Ground Forces, the T-90 has also been adopted by nine other countries, although Russia is still the only country officially using the T-90M variant… not counting the M models captured by the Ukrainians (see next segment for more on this) . Other users besides the aforementioned India are Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Syria, Ugandaand Vietnam.

Operating history—or lack thereof?

Well, ladies and gentlemen, if we curse this tank with faint praise, the T-90 at least was “bloody” in real combat, which cannot be said about the tank. overrated Armata; if the performance characteristics can be expressed in the title of one of William Shakespeare’s plays: “Much ado about nothing“, then, in turn, the operational characteristics of the T-90 can be compared with “A lot of noise from very little.”

To give our readers an opportunity to appreciate just how unsatisfactory the actual combat performance of the T-90M was, let’s turn to Karlin again:

“Ukrainian forces are targeting every series of Russian tanks on the battlefield, and the ranks of Russian T-90 were destroyed. Oryx estimates that Moscow has lost at least 145 T-90s, which are considered Russia’s most capable MBT. … Last week, Ukrainian soldiers from the 68th Jaeger Brigade reportedly captured a T-90 left by Russian troops on the battlefield. According to Defense blogKyiv captured the T-90 tank and BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle. … This happened a month after a video of the destruction of another T-90 spread on social networks. Obviously, the deterioration of the performance of Russia’s most advanced tank does not bode well for the Kremlin’s offensive efforts.”

The way forward

No matter how poorly the T-90M performs on the battlefield, given Russia’s reluctance to use the newest T-14 Armata due to the exorbitant costs of the latter and production shortages, the Russian army will essentially have no choice but to continue to be content with and one and the other. T-90 and its predecessor T-72 until this crazy Russian-Ukrainian war finally ends.

Time will show.

About the Author: Christian D. Orr, Defense Expert

Christian D. Orr is the magazine’s senior defense editor. National Security Journal (NSJ). He is a former Air Force security officer, federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a BA in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and a MA in Intelligence Studies (specializing in Terrorism Studies) from the American Military University (AMU). It was also published in Daily torch , Journal of Intelligence and Cyber ​​SecurityAnd Simple flight. Last but not least, he is a Knight Commander of the Order Naval Order of the United States (NUS).

Image credit: Creative Commons.