Russian army has taken delivery of new T-90M Proryv Main Battle Tanks.

According to a statement released on April 13, 2020, by the Russian army press service, the first T-90M Proryv Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) have been delivered to the 1st Guards Tank Army of Western Military District deployed in five regions of Russia.

New T-90M Proryv Main Battle Tank of the Russian army. (Picture source: Russian DoD)

The T-90M model 2017 also nicknamed Proryv-3 is an upgraded variant of the export version of the T-90MS Main Battle Tank (MBT) developed and designed by the Russian Company Uralvagonzavod. The T-90M was tested by the Russian army during the military exercise Zapad-2017 which was held from the 14 to 20 September 2017. This tank was upgraded thanks to the combat experience of the Russian armed forces gained during the counter-terror operation Syria.

The Russian Defense Ministry and the company UralVagonZavod has signed a contract for the delivery of T-90M main battle tanks to the Russian army at the Army-2017 International Military-Technical Forum that was held near Moscow in August 2017.

Last month, a military source from the Russian Defense Ministry told the Russian press agency TASS that T-90M Proryv tanks could take part in the Victory Day military parade on May 9, 2020.

The armament of the T-90M Proryv consists of one 125 mm 2A46M-4 smoothbore gun able to fire standard ammunition but also anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) Refleks NATO Code AT-11 Sniper-B. The main 125 mm armament is stabilized and enables the T-90M to shoot on the move with a high probability of a first-round hit. The second armament includes one PKT 7.62mm coaxial machine mounted to the right of the main armament. at the rear of the commander hatch is mounted a remotely operated weapon station armed with an NSVT 12.7mm heavy machine gun.

The design of the T-90M Model 2017 Proryv-3 is similar to all the family of Russian T-90 MBT with a driver at the front, turret in the center with commander and gunner and the power pack at the rear. As for all current Russian MBTs, the T-90M Proryv is equipped with an automatic carousel loader mounted on the turret floor and also on the rear wall of the turret. The T-90M features a new all-welded turret design protected by the Relikt ERA (Explosive Reactive Armor) armor fitted at the front and on each side of the turret. It features higher protection performance and serviceability compared with the Kontakt-5 ERA suite.

The T-90M Model 2017 Proryv-3 is motorized with a V-92S2 engine developing 1,000 hp coupled to a manual transmission with seven forward and one reverse gears. It can reach 60 km/h with a maximum cruising range of 550 km.

The T-90M is also protected by a soft- and hard-kill active protection systems (APS), which seems similar to the Afganit system installed on the T-14 Armata. It is also equipped with a new multi-channel sighting system that allows employing weapons at any time of day or night and, as its major advantage, it can exchange data with other vehicles in real-time.