Written in 1938, the march of Soviet tankmen, which sounded in the pre-war feature film "Tractor Drivers", forever entered Russian life and culture. The line opening the march "The armor is strong and our tanks are fast" became winged and popularly known. This catch phrase has not lost its relevance today. Russian tanks are a product that is consistently in demand on the international arms market.
Today, the most commercially successful tank in the world is precisely the Russian vehicle - the main battle tank T-90S / SK (SK - commander's modification), and a modernized version of the T-90MS tank, which has even higher tactical and technical characteristics, is also entering the market. In the 21st century, no modern Western tank can boast of such sales as the Russian MBT T-90S. The main criterion that makes the tank so popular on the market is the price-performance ratio. Russian-made tanks by this indicator outperform the main machines of competitors. And in terms of mass deliveries from the T-90, only two vehicles can compete - the German Leopard 2 and the American Abrams.
Currently, T-90S tanks are successfully exported to various countries of the world. India has a huge arsenal of such tanks (more than 1000 units), while the army leadership of this country is ready to increase the number of these combat vehicles, both by acquiring new T-90MS tanks and by modernizing the existing tank fleet. Also, T-90S tanks are operated in Azerbaijan, Algeria, Vietnam, Iraq, Syria, Uganda and a number of other countries. Vietnam and Iraq were the last buyers of this technique.
T-90S in Iraq
The other day, Mikhail Petukhov, who holds the post of deputy director of the FSMTC (Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation), told reporters that Russia had fully fulfilled the contract for the supply of T-90 tanks to Vietnam. According to him, the contract was fulfilled in full, the armored vehicles have already been transferred to our Vietnamese partners. For the first time, this contract became known back in 2017, after Uralvagonzavod, which assembles Russian T-90 tanks, published a report on its work for 2016. According to the published documentation, the contract with Vietnam provided for the supply of 64 T-90S and T-90SK tanks. The total cost of the transaction, taking into account the supply of modern ammunition and spare parts for tanks, could be about $ 250 million. This deal was the first major order of the Vietnamese army for main battle tanks in a fairly long period.
According to the reports published at the same time, it became known that 73 more vehicles were acquired by the Iraqi army (perhaps Iraq ordered an even larger number of vehicles - up to several hundred). In 2018, Iraq officially confirmed the receipt of the first 39 T-90S. Moreover, in the Iraqi army, the 35th mechanized brigade is being rearmed with Russian-made tanks, which is transferred to them from the American M1 Abrams tanks. The choice of the Iraqi military in favor of Russian military equipment was a serious blow to the prestige of American tanks, military journalists in the United States believe. In turn, Russian experts say that the effectiveness of their use during the hostilities in Syria, where the T-90 tanks demonstrated a high level of survivability in real combat conditions, played a role in the selection of Russian main battle tanks.
Competitive advantages of the Russian main battle tanks T-90S
The main advantages of domestically produced armored vehicles are traditionally its cost and cost-effectiveness criterion, here today it simply has no equal. The T-90S tank costs foreign customers about $ 1, 9-2, 5 million, and the deeply modernized version of the T-90MS, which is actively being looked at in Kuwait and Egypt, will cost customers about $ 4-4, 3 million. This is significantly less than the cost of modern Western-made main battle tanks, which cannot be purchased for less than $ 6 million. So the new German MBT Leopard 2A6 will cost foreign customers $ 6, 79 million, and its most modern modification, the Leopard 2 A7 +, will cost more than $ 10 million. It should be noted here that Leopard 2 tanks were quite actively exported, but we are talking about machines of old modifications, mainly from the presence of the Bundeswehr, which was actively selling out the available stocks of tanks after the end of the Cold War. Most of the Leopards 2 were transferred to customers from storage bases, and were not new production vehicles. The situation is similar with the American "Abrams". The tank is too expensive, so a large number of countries acquired it from the presence of the American army after a major overhaul. At the same time, the cost of the tank in the M1A2 SEP Abarms version is at least $ 8.6 million.
T-90 at the rehearsal of the Victory Parade in Alabino
An important advantage of the Russian T-90S is that it is a very compact combat vehicle, which also has the lowest weight among all its classmates. The tank weighs only 46.5 tons, which simplifies the possibilities for its transportation by both rail and air transport, separately we can say that the relatively small mass also reduces the requirements for the carrying capacity of bridges, many of which can become an obstacle for Western-made tanks. For example, the combat weight of the M1A2 SEP Abarms tank exceeds 65 tons, and the German Leopard 2A6 weighs 63 tons, in the most protected version of the Leopard 2 A7 + its weight can approach 70 tons. At the same time, a deep modernization of the T-90 tank - the Russian main battle tank T-90MS, although it recovered, still did not step over the 50 tons mark, its combat weight is 48 tons. Separately, we can highlight the compactness of the Russian T-90S tank. Its height is only 2.23 m, the height of the Abrams is 2.44 m, and the Leopada-2 is 2.79 m, while the latter are wider and longer than their Russian counterpart. Due to its compactness, it is easier for the Russian tank to find cover on the battlefield, hiding its silhouette in the folds of the terrain or behind various buildings.
Traditionally, it was believed that the main advantage of the Western Abarms and Leopard 2 tanks is their better survivability. But the hostilities in Iraq and Syria in the past few years have demonstrated that these tanks are successfully hit by the enemy using Russian and even Soviet-made anti-tank systems. At the same time, Russian T-90S tanks performed very well in Syria.
Of course, the compact size of the tank also entails disadvantages, which include a very dense layout, including the engine compartment. The fuel system of the T-90 is vulnerable to armor penetration, the fuel tanks are partly placed in the fighting compartment and partly in the frontal part of the hull. Vladimir Nevolin, chief designer of the armored vehicles of Uralvagonzavod, admitted that there was a problem when ammunition, fuel, and crew members were in the same circuit. This problem is partially solved by installing a modern emergency fire extinguishing system on tanks, isolating fuel tanks from the crew. One of the steps to combat the increased explosiveness of T-72 tanks and their successors in the face of the T-90 was the appearance on the T-90MS version of an automatic loader with enhanced local armor and the removal of a part of the ammunition, which was not in the AZ, into a separate aft niche of the tower with knockout panels. In fairness, it should be noted that such a decision is not a panacea, as evidenced by the Turkish Leopard 2 tanks destroyed in Syria, in which the ammunition detonated, including with the destruction of the hull and the detachment of the tank turret.
Projections of tanks Abrams M1A1 and T-90
Traditionally, the advantages of Russian tanks include good maneuverability and mobility. The T-90S was even known as a "flying tank" for its jumps during demonstrations at various international arms exhibitions. But in reality, in terms of power density, Russian T-90S tanks with a 1000-horsepower engine are inferior to their western counterparts equipped with 1500 hp power plants. According to this indicator, only the T-90MS version, which received a more powerful V-92S2F engine, which can produce 1130 hp, is compared with the "Leopard" and "Abrams". Also, this version of the tank got rid of a serious drawback that was inherent in all T-90s of previous series, the maximum reverse speed of the car was increased to 30 km / h, while on the T-90S with a manual gearbox (7 + 1) the reverse speed travel was limited to only 5 km / h. What cannot be taken away from Russian tanks is the ability to overcome water obstacles, tanks are able to overcome reservoirs up to 1.8 meters deep, and when using underwater tank driving equipment, they can storm water obstacles up to 5 meters deep and up to 1000 meters wide.
The advantages of Russian tanks of the T-90S family include the reduced crew size by one person. For a tank, three trained tankers are enough, since an automatic loader is used on a combat vehicle. The automatic loader itself can be considered a significant plus, it allows you to make the car more compact, reducing the volume of the armor, provides a good level of rate of fire (including in motion, when the loader's work would be complicated by shaking) and allows you to reduce the costs of training tankers. At the same time, the crews of "Leopards" and "Abrams" consist of four people, their crew still includes a loader. An automatic loader is also available on the French Leclerc main battle tank, but this tank is considered quite expensive and is not in demand on the international market. The United Arab Emirates is the only foreign operator of a French combat vehicle, besides France itself.
At the same time, in terms of firepower, the Russian tank is in no way inferior to its foreign counterparts, armed with 120-mm smooth-bore guns. The ballistic characteristics of the guns are very close, so their real effectiveness is largely determined by the types of shells used. And here, the advantages of the Russian tank include a wide range of 125-mm ammunition, including the presence of high-explosive fragmentation shells, which make it possible to effectively deal with enemy fortifications and infantry hiding in various buildings and structures. An important factor is the presence of guided tank ammunition. The ability to use the Reflex-M guided tank armament complex is a very big plus for the entire line of T-90 tanks. Anti-tank guided missiles "Invar-M1", which can fire from a 125-mm smoothbore cannon of Russian tanks, confidently hit targets at a distance of up to 5 kilometers (while the effective firing range of traditional armor-piercing sub-caliber ammunition is usually limited to 2-3 kilometers).
It is also important that the buyers of Russian military equipment are often countries that previously acquired or received Soviet-made equipment. In this regard, they can have certain reserves of 125-mm shells, which can be safely used by modern Russian MBTs. At the same time, when switching to Western-made tanks, they would automatically be forced to switch to 120-mm ammunition, which would entail additional expenses.
Tank T-90MS
The traditional advantages of Soviet and Russian military equipment also include simplicity in maintenance and operation, as well as high reliability. Ease of maintenance and savings on the maintenance of your own fleet of combat vehicles are quite weighty criteria when choosing armored vehicles, especially for developing countries. When carrying out routine repairs, the T-90S tank returns to service in two hours. After a run of 2, 5 thousand kilometers, technical maintenance of the car is provided for 12 hours, overhaul is carried out after 11 thousand kilometers. These are very good indicators for heavy tracked combat vehicles.
