Nathan Stueve
Although it had been in use for over a decade, the T-90 main battle tank (MBT) had not seen major combat until the recent conflicts in Syria in Ukraine. Initially praised as the most advanced tank in Russian frontline service, the T-90 saw some success in Syria, being able to withstand the older anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) employed in that warzone. However, upon encountering a variety of effective anti-armor weapons systems in Ukraine, the T-90 has proven to be far from invincible.
Executive Summary
When it comes to Soviet- and Russian-made armor, a number of well-known weapons systems easily come to mind. There is the venerable T-34 heavy tank, which held its own against Axis forces in WWII and UN forces in the Korean War. There is the not-so-venerable T-72 main battle tank (MBT), which saw poor performance in Iraqi service when up against superior Western tanks during the Gulf War. Then there is the T-14 Armata, referred to by some as a “stealth tank,” which is yet unproven in combat, but is still a subject of keen interest and dynamic discussion.
However, when it comes to the T-90 MBT, the first Russian tank to enter service after the fall of the Soviet Union, much less seems to be known and much less attention seems to be paid. Indeed, unlike other better-known Soviet and Russian tanks, a cursory overview of publicly available books on armored warfare shows a clear lack of mentions of the T-90. Although the T-90 entered production in 1994, this state-of-the-art Russian tank saw little actual combat for almost two decades – that is until Russian forces launched their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022.
The ongoing fighting in Ukraine grants observers a unique, and heretofore unrealized, opportunity to evaluate the Russian T-90 MBT and its performance in Ukraine. Here are the key takeaways available from OSINT sources on this topic:
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