Get Ready, NATO: The Secret Reason Why Russia's New T-90M Tank Could Be a Total Monster

Dave Majumdar

Security, Europe

And the new Armata tank is to blame. 

Russia is developing a new modernized version of the T-90—the third major iteration of the long-serving main battle tank.

Called the T-90M, the new tank will likely feature many of the technologies developed for Russia’s revolutionary T-14 Armata. However, compared to the T-14, the T-90M—most of which will be remanufactured from Russia’s existing fleet of T-90As—will be far less costly than the fearsome, but expensive, Armata.

“The new vehicle could be twice as effective as compared to its predecessors,” writes Dmitry Yurov, a defense reporter at Russia’s Tvzvezda channel. “This third ‘Breakthrough’ from Uralvagonzavod can test out many of the technological developed developed for the fourth generation of tanks. In the short term, this approach will not only improve the reliability and firepower of the tank, but also significantly increase the demand for such a machine on the world market.”

One of the main features of the T-90M will be a new version of the 125mm cannon—which was developed for the T-14—along with a new autoloader. “T-90M is a deep modernization of the T-90A. 400 T-90As, which are in service with the Russian Federation Armed Forces would fall under such a modernization plan,” Russian defense analyst Alexei Leonkov told Yurov. “The tank will receive an upgraded 125-mm smoothbore gun called the 2A82-1M—the same as that on the Armata—and a new fire control system, which is characterized by high levels of accuracy, rate of fire and has an increased barrel life—about 900 shots.”

The T-90M will also incorporate advanced defensive systems such are slat armor, active protection systems and new reactive armor. The T-90M is likely to directly incorporate a version of the Armata’s Afghanit active protection system as well as the Malachite reactive armor package.

Particularly, the addition of the Afghanit active protection system could be a potential game-changer. The Russians claim that the system is able destroy incoming kinetic energy rounds, something which Western experts are dubious about.

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