It’s also important to keep in mind that said Ukrainian commander hasn’t (presumably) commanded a T-90M himself, thus the conclusions made are on rather thin ice (Not that I think the T-90M is all that relevant, as I’ll explain later).
Another Ukrainian service member has released what is essentially a ‘‘Chieftain’s Hatch’’ episode on a captured T-90M, in which the following remarks are made:
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- Built in 2020, documentation found dated to 2022.
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- Features Nakidka cover to reduce thermal signature.
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- Ability to detect laser radiation systems.
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- Taken out of action by an ATGM striking the turret side inbetween two Relikt plates killing the commander, additional FPV drones struck the vehicle, and it was later unsuccessfully attempted to be scuttled.
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- Camera’s integrated in wind sensor for 360° situational awareness.
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- Dynamic protection coverage improved over T-72 models.
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- 22 rounds are stored in the carousel autoloader, this is the most protected area of the tank and least likely to be struck, the rest of the ammunition are moved to a isolated bustle rack at the rear of the turret.
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- The tank should’ve been equipped with Arena APS but ultimately weren’t fitted
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- The panoramic commander’s sight complex accounts for 20% of the vehicle’s overall cost, it is fully stabilized with a wide-angle view, features day and night channel, thermal channel, and a integrated laser rangefinder. The commander can also conduct fire independently from the gunner.
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- The spall liner succeeded in containing the secondary debris from the penetration.
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- The comfort of the vehicle has much improved due to the new turret giving much greater interior volume, this large size improves all battle capabilities of the tank drastically.
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- It has climate control.
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- Features navigation system and tactical management system, but don’t work consistently because there is no unified communication system in the Russian brigades. Communication systems are also behind Western counterparts.
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- Gunner’s thermal sight does not feature cooling matrix, this leads to reduced observation capabilities and is limited by time.
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- This specific T-90M uses an older 2A46M gun produced in 1992.
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- The driver has improved situational awareness due to receiving his own monitor.
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- The tank was attempted to be scuttled by placing the engine deck on fire, but the engine remained intact and functional.
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- The T-90M features an auxillary power unit at the rear flank, this powers a great amount of devices and is the first time such a unit is fielded on a tank of Russian/Soviet origin, this allows the vehicle to work autonomously for a long time while saving the resources of the engine, this also reduces the tank’s visibility due to reduced thermals signature and reduced engine noise.
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- Features powerful modernized engine.
The T-90M does however have one major upside over (nearly) all Western tanks supplied: It’s significantly lighter. This is the most common complain I’ve read from Ukrainian units operating Western designs. Their weight has limited their battlefield mobility and thus their avenues of attack were often predicted by Russian forces, which had established kill-zones for these vehicles.
Of course, I’m not implying this is automatically a deal-breaker, just something that should be kept in the conversation.
All that being said, I’ve also done some research into the kinds of tanks Russia is fielding, I compiled it into a chart:
I get the feeling that many people who tend to argue from the Russian-side overrate how numerous the T-90M is. It’s a VAST minority, and even at that I don’t personally believe the T-90M is superior.
The vast majority of Russian tanks are simply outdated cold war vehicles, namely the T-72B, T-80BV and T-80U. These are obviously lacking compared to Western main battle tanks.
The T-72B3 and B3M also make up a large proportion of the tank fleet, but I’m personally not very impressed with that particular upgrade effort.
But then it’s also difficult to dismiss the fact that Russia is fielding several THOUSAND more 125mm-armed tanks than Ukraine has M1A1’s. With this conflict being centered around artillery fire, you cannot argue that having such a drastic imbalance in barrels is a non-factor.
But not one that was unique during the period of it’s development.
It’s important to keep in mind that the M60 was the primary US counterpart during the development of the T-64 and T-72 (as well as Leopard 1, AMX-30 and Chieftain), over 50% of the M60’s frontal profile could be filled with (non-isolated) ammunition stowage.
At least the T-64 and T-72 placed it’s ammunition as low down as possible, and behind the most sophisticated armour protection in the world at that time.
The obvious issue is that Germany has now developed insensitive ammunition and the Abrams stores it’s ammunition fully isolated. These Soviet designs have just become outdated.
- M1 Abrams reload rate: 5.3s
- Leopard 2/Strv reload rate: 6.4s
- Merkava reload rate: 6.4s
- Leclerc reload rate: 5s
- Type 10 reload rate: 4s
- Challenger reload rate: 5.3s - 6.4s
- T-90, T-72, T-64, T-80, ZTZ-96, ZTZ-99 reload rate: 6.5 - 7.1s
Slowest reload rates at top-tier are those of Russian and Chinese MBT’s.
This particular comment leads me to believe you’re quite ignorant when it comes to the gameplay of top-tier Russian/Chinese tanks.
I’ll take a wild guess and assume you’ve never played them yourself, otherwise you’d have known this.
[Citation Needed]
[Citation Needed]
I’ve recently listened to a podcast interview of a Indian ex-military, he explained that 87% of Indian military equipment is of Russian/Soviet origin, he also explained how India is not having trouble with reliability issues.
No, Gaijin is basing it’s vehicles off of publicly available documentation.
Said documentation might very well be incorrect, but there is obviously no better alternative available. Perhaps you are personally inclined to have every stat made up, but I’d then point you to World of Tanks or Armoured Warfare for that particular experience.
Current documentation shows that the premise of the in-game M1A2’s having DU hull armour is simply false.
Aside from that, the M1’s are still absolutely excellent MBT’s as they stand, and easily capable of dealing with any Russian MBT they come across.
