T-90M tank captured in Ukraine reveals latest Russian technology

The T-90M battle tank that Ukrainian forces have found abandoned by Russian troops in the offensive they launched a few weeks ago in Kharkov, in the northeast of the country, is not just another war trophy.

This model is unique among the nearly 400 tanks that Kiev troops have captured from the enemy since the Russian military operation began on February 24.

Thanks to the hasty abandonment of this unit, Western countries will be able to access the latest technology used by the Kremlin in its tanks.

Hence the importance of getting intact one of these units of a model that the local troops had already managed to put at least two out of combat since it destroyed the first one last May.

The capture of the first complete T-90M was announced last September 18 by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense in a post on the social network Twitter in which it states, with the usual humor with which it usually makes these announcements:

“Announcement: the newest Russian T-90M tank was found in the Kharkov region in perfect condition. We ask its owner(s) to contact the Ukrainian Army. Please identify yourself with a sign: a white flag.”

The London-based financial weekly The Economist illustrates this capture’s importance by recalling the United States’ enormous efforts during the Cold War to get its hands on a unit of the T-72, the family of tanks now most widely employed in Ukraine by Russia.

In 1987 a Romanian arms dealer sold one of these tanks to the Americans for scrap, but the model had already been in service for 14 years. However, the source adds, the T-90M has only been operational for two years, making it more valuable.

Finally, after two months of the war, Moscow sent the T-90Ms to Ukraine.

THE MOST ADVANCED IN SERVICE

The T-90M is the most advanced tank in the Russian arsenal. It is the latest update of the T-90, which began operating at the end of the last century.

According to several analysts, the British weekly highlights that these tanks were not deployed in the first moments of the invasion, perhaps in an attempt by Moscow to preserve it so that it would be ready for a possible confrontation with NATO.

SECRETS UNCOVERED

Among the developments that will now be known in the West from the T-90M is its outer layer of protection, called Nakidka, composed of an unknown material and that its developers qualify as a “stealth layer” and claim that it absorbs heat and radio signals so that it hinders its detection and destruction by guided missiles thanks to the heat.

Also noteworthy is its active protection system to repel attacks at close range, and its physical armor, which is also unknown.

By gaining access to these secrets, Russia’s potential enemies will be able to counter them on future battlefields and perhaps use them in their own developments.

With information from InfoDefensa