T‑90M: Russia's prized tank falls to flaws, and Ukrainian drones

Russians have lost thousands of tanks in Ukraine, with 3,221 losses confirmed by photos or footage. Now, the 100th unit of "Putin's pride," whose numbers were estimated to be about 100 at the beginning of the war, has been destroyed. We present the performance of the T-90M tank and its factory defect.

On the list tracking and documenting the losses of Russian and Ukrainian military equipment on oryxspioenkop, maintained by a group of intelligence analysts, the 100th unit of the T-90M tank, considered the best Russian machine and often praised by Vladimir Putin, has appeared. It is worth noting that real losses may be higher because not all instances of tank destruction are recorded or photographed.

At the beginning of the war, it was estimated that Russia could have had just 100 of these machines in stock. Of course, their number could have increased since then, but Uralvagonzavod plants in Nizhny Tagil, which manufacture them, also have to allocate production capacity for the T-72B3/B3M variants and for refurbishing older models from the deep Soviet era.

The T-90M, introduced into service in 2021, was supposed to revolutionize the Russian army. However, it is a modernization of the T-90 machines originating from the T-72 family. The T-90 tank family was a marketing strategy intended to suggest a new quality compared to the T-72 tanks, which gained a terrible reputation during the First Gulf War when Western equipment massively destroyed them.

Vladimir Putin proudly showcased the T-90M at military exhibitions, highlighting its advantages over older machines. The Russian novelty, compared to its predecessors, gained new heavy two-layer reactive armour, Relikt, which provides increased protection against double-charge warheads and kinetic penetrators. Nevertheless, like other reactive armour, Relikt does not completely cover the entire tank, leaving unprotected areas which became easy targets for Ukrainian FPV drone pilots.

Initially, Russians field-enhanced the armour with scrap metal, but in 2024, a new version appeared, which gained additional contoured steel plates intended to detonate cumulative warheads used on drones prematurely. This is very important because T-90M tanks still have a design flaw that poses a considerable risk of explosion in the case of armour penetration.

The flaw is the autoloader and ammunition storage capacity of 22 rounds with propellant charges placed in the hull, where two of the three crew members sit. Furthermore, in the case of a full ammunition load, it is additionally spread out in every nook, which, in the event of, for example, a cumulative stream penetrating inside, causes a massive explosion. In comparison, in Western machines, the crew can survive in such a case because the ammunition is more or less isolated depending on the tank model.

Other changes in the T-90M compared to older models of the T-72 family include a more powerful engine with up to 932 kW, a modern fire control system Sosna-U equipped with a thermal imaging camera, and adaptation to use the latest anti-tank ammunition with an elongated penetrator.

Despite all these modifications, T-90M tanks often fell victim not only to specialized anti-tank weapons such as Brimstone, Bonus, or FGM-148 Javelin but also to simpler solutions in optimal conditions, such as ambushes.