Genesis of the T-90 The T-72BUīack in the 1970s, the T-72 set a new standard for MBTs in USSR, a success story that saw many variants, licence production abroad and countless export derivatives. The elite divisions are equipped with the even costier T-80s. This led to a composite but very efficient model which constitutes the bulk of the Russian armoured division today, soon to be gradually replaced by new the T-14 Armata. So it was obvious the new tank had to be on par with other western competitors, and on comparable assets. However with the opening to the west, a wealth of technical informations were also available about the real capabilities and technologies used on Western, 3rd generation MBTs. An immense country which wide, unencumbered steppes providing an ideal terrain for tanks warfare, but at the same time climactic conditions which pushed mechanics to the extremes.Īfter the turmoil of the end of the USSR and the creation of the Russian federation, and the reconstruction of the army, the T-90 just had to probe into this wealth of experience, engineering, industrial capabilities, and proud legacy. An entire history of tank designs, which after 1941 confounded itself with the survival of the country in the “Great patriotic war”. In between, there was the Soviet era, with a history of building tanks spanning from the early 1920s with copies of the Renault FT to the T-80 MBT in the 1980s. In a sense, the T-90 is the first “Russian” MBT and even the first non-soviet tank ever, as back in 1914-1915 in Tsarist Russia neither the giant Lebedenko (Tsar) tank, the equally giant but more conventional Mendeleev or the small, snail-like Porohovschikova light tank had been pressed into service.
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