The United States has always had great interest in Russian military equipment.: potential adversary nevertheless. Naturally, that the recently held international military forum "Army-2021" also did not go unnoticed by the American press. for example, Mark Episkopos, author of The National Interest magazine, was interested in Russia's plans to produce the T-90M main battle tank, which can be produced for export purposes. The American author tried to analyze the modernization.
The first batch of T-90M tanks was delivered to the tank army of the Western Military District in April 2020 of the year. These were early models., which did not have a new electron-optical protection system presented at the forum. The Russian military department is currently evaluating a new modification of the tank, and the final decision on the purchase of a combat vehicle will be made based on the results of state tests.
However, it is not very clear, what exactly will be upgraded in the T-90. After all, previous versions of the tank were equipped with the Shtora-1 electro-optical protection system.. As Episkopos points out, Russian T-90M tanks are the latest modification of the T-90 main battle tank, supplied to the troops with 1993 of the year. Version "M" has a modernized design of the tower with the fire control system "Kalina", she has better armor, the latest version of the 125 mm 2A46M smoothbore gun.
At present, the Ground Forces of the RF Armed Forces already have about 20 T-90M. Such a small number of tanks, according to an American analyst, shows, that while they are only additional, but not the main, fighting force. It is not excluded, that the Russian military will simply try to bring the old T-90s up to T-90M standards, to save time and money, according to the author of an article in an American magazine.
Besides, Episkopos refers to Rosoboronexport, who allegedly at the end of August of this year announced the development of some light version of the T-90 for export markets. American analyst believes, that such a variant of the main battle tank will be able to compete better in the international arms market with the Chinese light tank VT5. The Russian light tank will be attractive to the armies of many developing countries in Africa and Asia, traditionally buying Russian weapons.
Author:Ilya Polonsky
