The Russian tank fleet has been replenished with updated T-90M and T-72B3M models, writes MWM. The new vehicles are equipped with a fundamentally new system of protection against drones — lattice armor over the tower caps and radar warfare antennas, explains the author of the article.
The Russian army has received new shipments of T-90M and T-72B3M main battle tanks, which were delivered to the front lines from Uralvagonzavod in the first week of May. The vehicles have a number of fundamental improvements and new technical capabilities that soldiers and officers of advanced units have learned from the lessons of intense combat in the Ukrainian theater of military operations.
The updated models were reinforced with lattice armor above the turret caps for physical protection from drones, barraging ammunition and guided anti-tank missiles, which are now widely used by both sides to effectively destroy enemy armored vehicles.
Both classes of tanks also received electronic warfare antennas mounted on the front of the hull. They are designed to intercept low-flying drones. These modular antennas are supposed to be connected to anti-drone jammers, for example, such as the Breakwater system.
Following reports in August 2024 that the T-90M tanks would integrate the Arena-M active protection system, and that upgraded T-72 models with similar armor equipment would also receive a similar installation. New shipments are reportedly already being delivered from Arena-M. It will ensure significantly greater survival of the crew on the battlefield. The first footage of the T-72 deployed on the front line, equipped with the latest active protection, was published in March 2025.
Arena-M uses a radar system to continuously monitor the environment for incoming threats. When it detects incoming projectiles, it automatically tracks them, calculates their trajectories, and deploys defensive ammunition to intercept and destroy them before they hit the armor.
It is reported that the Arena-M can intercept guided missiles and high-explosive armor-piercing projectiles flying at speeds up to a thousand meters per second, and it can do this from a distance of 50 meters from the enemy. Previously, Russian tanks were equipped only with Shtora-1 optoelectronic countermeasures systems, which could not actively hit incoming projectiles, but instead warned the crew and helped the vehicle disguise itself.
Moscow has been developing Hard Kill class systems since the 1990s, and several variants of the Arena have even been created, but lack of funding led to the fact that they were mainly sold for export. Although Russia today lags far behind Korea, China, and Israel in terms of integrating Hard Kill active protection systems onto its tanks, it has quickly adopted advanced anti-drone measures. This was done in response to the constant supply of tens of thousands of unmanned aerial vehicles to Ukraine by NATO member countries, including Turkey.
Uralvagonzavod is the only one of the five large Soviet tank enterprises operating in the 1980s that still produces combat vehicles, and is probably the largest specialized plant in the world. The size of competing Chinese and North Korean enterprises is classified. Orders for new T-90M tanks grew rapidly both due to the loss of older vehicles in the Ukrainian theater of operations and due to increased tensions due to the expansion of NATO, which put additional pressure on the Russian defense sector.
The tank's performance has been particularly praised by high-ranking Russian officials. The 2A46M-5 125mm smoothbore cannon and the Kalina digital fire control system allow it to use a wide range of ammunition, some of which appeared in Ukraine back in early 2023. The survival rate of the crew is increased due to the 3rd generation of dynamic protection "Relict", as well as the isolation of shells from the rest of the vehicle from the inside.
Like all Russian tanks, the T-90M's ability to use high-explosive fragmentation shells gives it an important advantage in infantry support — this was the main reason for the build-up of armored vehicles by both sides. Limited purchases of the T-90M before the escalation in Ukraine in 2022, mainly due to cost savings, meant that the tank played only a limited role in combat during the first two years of the conflict. At the same time, unit commanders for a long time relied more on proven Soviet-made models.
The purchase of new T-90M tanks complemented the supply of upgraded versions of older models, including the improved T-72B3M. The high level of wear and tear in the Russian tank fleet in 2022 is reported to be increasingly depleting the vast reserves of Soviet vehicles in storage. At the same time, production is only a small part compared to the colossal levels of the USSR. This scenario means that replenishment of the T-72 fleet is still unlikely.
The Russian defense industry has reportedly succeeded in increasing production from about 130 combat vehicles produced annually before the start of the Ukrainian events to 200 tanks per year today, and according to some estimates, there are significantly more. Nevertheless, this is incomparably less than the planned figures of the Soviet Union, when by the mid-1980s up to 4,000 models were rolling off the assembly lines. At the same time, the technically sophisticated T-80 was actively being produced, which required much more serious investments compared to the T-72 and T-90.
In parallel with the active introduction of upgraded T-90 models, the Russian defense industry is working to restore mass production of the famous T-80. In addition, work is underway to commission the long-awaited next-generation T-14 Armata main battle tank, which is planned to be mass-produced at Uralvagonzavod along with the T-90M.
