Description
The T-90 is a third generation main battle tank emplyed by the Russian army. The first prototypes were made in the late 1980s and entered production in 1993. In the basic version (T-90), the combat weight of the tank reaches 46 tons. The drive is provided by a single diesel engine W-84MS with 840 hp. The primary armament is the 125mm 2A46M smoothbore cannon, and the secondary armament consists of the 7.62mm PKMT machine gun and the 12.7mm Kord machine gun. In 2016, the unit price of the T-90MS was estimated at approximately USD 4.6 million.
The T-90 tank is in fact a very far-reaching modernization of the T-72B, also using many components from the T-80U. Originally, during the USSR, it was assumed that the T-90 (originally designated as T-72BU) would replace the T-64, T-72 and T-80 vehicles, leading to the unification and unification of the armoured weapons of the Soviet Army. Currently, along with the T-14 Armata, it is the most modern tank in the service of the armed forces of the Russian Federation. Undoubtedly, the latest versions of this vehicle (T-90M and T-90MS) are modern combat vehicles, which, however – probably – are inferior to Western designs, especially in the field of electronics or armour. It is worth adding that these types of vehicles were used in combat, inter alia, during the civil war in Syria since 2011 and during the fighting in the Donbas (since 2014), and the full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
