T-90 Standard Tank by Steven J. Zaloga & Felipe Rodríguez

Author:Steven J. Zaloga & Felipe Rodríguez
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472818249
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2017-11-02T16:00:00+00:00

THE OBIEKT 188M: T-90AM TAGIL

As the two remaining Russian tank plants, rivalry developed between UVZ in Nizhni-Tagil and Transmash in Omsk. The Omsk plant was trying to win export orders for its T-80U tank at the same time that Nizhni-Tagil was trying to export the T-90. Omsk expanded its design bureau in the 1990s in the hopes of becoming a more serious rival. This included the development of a radically improved version of the T-80U, the Obiekt 640 Black Eagle. The Russian Ministry of Defense was impressed enough with Omsk’s concepts that it funded the OKR Burlak research program, an effort to develop a “universal” turret that could be used to upgrade existing tanks including the T-64, T-72, and T-80. In the face of this challenge, UVZ undertook its own turret upgrade effort under the OKR Proryv-2 (Breakthrough) research program. The first demonstration of the Proryv turret was made at Nizhni-Tagil on December 8, 2009 during a visit by President Vladimir Putin. With Russian Ministry of Defense support, the new turret was incorporated into the T-90 as Obiekt 188M, later designated as T-90M or T-90AM. The main focus of the program at this stage was the export market, since by this time the Russian government was supporting the development of an entirely new tank at UVZ, the T-14 Armata. The export version of the T-90AM was first described as “T-90S Modernized” when publicly unveiled in 2011, but in recent years it has been more formally named as T-90MS.

The international debut for the T-90MS Tagil was at the Eurosatory-12 exhibition outside Paris in June 2012. UVZ developed a special export scheme for tanks aimed at the international market.

The T-90MS represented a deep modernization of the T-90. The welded turret has a core very similar in shape to the welded turret of the T-90A, but with a protected bustle added in the rear, containing ammunition. Russian studies of combat experiences concluded that a major source of catastrophic ammunition fires in the T-72 tank was the ammunition scattered around the fighting compartment, not necessarily the ammunition in the autoloader cassette in the hull floor. By shifting ten rounds of this ammunition into the new protected bustle, the threat of ammunition fires was reduced while at the same time freeing up space for a much more extensive array of sensors and electronics. This bustle has blast doors to separate it from the fighting compartment in the event of an ammunition fire. Of the remaining ammunition, 22 rounds are in the improved

AZ-185M2 autoloader cassette and 8 on the engine compartment bulkhead. The AZ-185M2 autoloader is a new design that permits the use of longer APFSDS 740mm long-rod penetrators. This is a very important feature since the earlier versions of the AZ-185 had limited the maximum length of 125mm APFSDS penetrators, restricting the penetration performance of the 125mm gun.

The T-90MS again appeared at the IDEX-13 exhibition in February 2013 in Abu Dhabi, seen here during the mobility display. The vehicles that appeared at the international exhibitions

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