Ukrainian drones expose fatal flaws in Russia's T‑90M tanks
The Ukrainians continue to dismantle Russian armoured equipment, with a focus on the increasingly rare T-90M tanks. These are Russia's best machines, which, even after modifications, have little chance against a swarm of Ukrainian drones.
The video below shows how Ukrainian drone operators from the 24th Mechanized Brigade successfully targeted and destroyed T-90M, T-72, T-80 tanks, and a BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle near Chasiv Yar. According to a list maintained by the analyst group oryxspioenkop, Russia, based only on photos and recordings, has already lost at least 122 T-90M tanks.
Tanks from the T-72/90 family are usually a deadly trap
The T-90M tank appears to be a wartime production model with an added armour plate over the turret and a drone jammer. However, the Ukrainians apparently operated outside its operating frequency or used drones controlled via fibre optic cables or with an artificial intelligence module.
The crew and two soldiers riding on the armour were caught off guard and can be seen jumping off the tank while the driver closes his hatch. The FPV drone strike was not critical but forced the Russian crew to flee. This is evidenced by open hatches on the turret in subsequent drone attack recordings, which destroyed the abandoned machine.
The Russians from this unit were luckier than many other tank crew members, because a successful hit on a tank from the T-72 or T-90 family usually results in a spectacular explosion of the ammunition cache, with the characteristic launch of the turret even several dozen metres into the air.
The T-90M tank: Final evolution of a flawed machine
The T-90M tanks, introduced into service in 2021, are an evolution of the T-90A machines, effectively a rebranding of the deep modernization of the T-72B family machines. The Russians created this series to escape comparisons to the massively destroyed T-72 family machines during the First Gulf War.
The T-90M tank was also, in the years preceding the full-scale war in Ukraine, a mascot of Russian arms fairs, where Vladimir Putin repeatedly touted it as the best tank in the world.
The key features of the T-90M include a modern fire control system with thermal imaging (initially French, now sourced from alternatives) and dual-layer reactive armour, Relikt, which offers protection against tandem warhead-shaped charges and reduces the effectiveness of kinetic penetrators fired by other tanks. However, the blocks are applied over the basic armour from the T-72B, leaving gaps in protection that Ukrainian drone operators easily exploit.
Like other tanks in the T-72 series, the T-90M has an autoloader with an ammunition stash in the hull, which is not isolated from the crew. As a result, any penetration of the armour carries a high risk of causing the explosion of 22 rounds and propellant charges, often resulting in the dramatic detachment of the turret. The Russians are attempting to field-reinforce the tanks in various ways, with varied success.
