UralVagonZavod Ships Out First Production T-90M Tanks
UralVagonZavod has announced that it has shipped out the first production T-90Ms to the Russian Army. In a press release, the tank manufacturer provided photographs of a T-90M on the production line in two tone dark green and tan camouflage, as well as another two camouflaged T-90Ms on a railcar awaiting transport.
The company did not provide details on which unit the tanks were destined for. The delivery of the T-90Ms comes nearly a year after the Western Military District’s 1st Guards Tank Army’s 2nd Guards Tamanskaya Motor Rifle Division became the first unit in the Russian Ground Forces to receive them. However, the 2nd Guards Tamanskaya Motor Rifle Division’s T-90Ms were in a single tone green as seen on other preproduction T-90Ms undergoing testing, unlike the camouflaged ones now shown departing the factory.
As previously reported, the T-90M (also known as the Proryv or Breakthrough) is the latest development of the T-90 series. Its most distinctive external features are its new Relikt ERA package and new turret, which houses an ammunition bustle holding loose projectiles and propellant charges previously stored in the tank’s fighting compartment.
The T-90M is being procured as an interim measure for the modernization of the Russian Ground Forces’ tank fleet, as trials of the T-14 Armata and its related family of armored vehicles continue. While the Russian Deputy Defense Minister, Alexei Krivoruchko, has been quoted as saying that mass production of the T-14 and other new vehicles will begin before the completion of all trials in order to speed up procurement, a concrete timeline for the Armata family’s introduction is as elusive as ever, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects in industry around the world.
Regardless, the T-14 has already been cleared for export, after years of claims of foreign interest. The T-14 had its official export debut at IDEX 2021 in Abu Dhabi, with a scale model of it on display.