More Russian-made T-90A main battle tanks for Syrian army.

According to the website AMNEWS, Syrian army has taken delivery of dozen of Russian-made main battle tanks T-90A in recent months. Russia has delivered more than 40 around 40 T-90A main battle tanks to Syria.

Russian-made T-90A main battle tank of Syrian army (Picture source Twitter account Syria frontlines)

These T-90A main battle tanks were sent to Syria via Russian cargo ship via the Bosphorus to arrive at the port city of Latakia to be delivered to elite units of the Syrian army.

The T-90A is a Russian-made main battle tank and the successor of the standard T-90. T-90As entered service in 2005, replacing the aging T-72s and T-80s and forming the backbone of Russian ground forces.

The main armament of the T-90A MBT consists of one 125mm 2A46M-5 smoothbore gun which fires conventional natures of separate loading ammunition (projectile and charge) including HE-FRAG (high-explosive fragmentation) and APFSDS-T (Armour Piercing Fin Stabilised Discarding Sabot - Tracer). It can also fire a 9M119M laser guided anti-tank projectile fitted with a tandem HEAT (High Explosive Anti-Tank) warhead out to a maximum range of 5,000 m.

The hull and turret of the T-90A over the forward arc is fitted with the latest generation Kontakt-5 ERA third-generation explosive reactive armour which provides protection against APFSDS and HEAT-type projectiles. In addition to being fitted to the hull and turret, ERA panels are also fitted either side of the hull front to provide lateral protection to each side of the driver's compartment. To improve its battlefield survivability the T-90A is fitted with the TShU1-7 Shtora-1 countermeasures system which is also fitted to some models of the T-80UD and T-84 (Ukraine) MBTs. The Shtora-1 is an active defense system that protects the tank against guided missiles, using both the semi-active command to line of sight (SACLOS) guidance, by an IR source that mimics the flare on the back of missiles, as well as laser beam riders and laser-homing weapons.