The Russian military destroyed its own T-90A tank and dig a hole in Russian export markets

The Russian military confused targets and destroyed their T-90A tank.

According to Russian media reports, anti-tank missile systems were used during the military exercises, including the Konkurs ATGM and the 9M113M ATGM.

It is reported that during the exercise, the Konkurs ATGM missile hit a tank involved in the exercise. The photo shows that the combat vehicle was seriously damaged, there was armor penetration damaging to the hinged elements of the tank’s protection, reported the War News Today.

While the ATGM was homing towards T-90A tank, the Shtora KOEP (optical-electronic countermeasures) failed to trigger and intercept the anti-tank missile. The T-90A is equipped with a third-generation Kontakt-5 ERA (explosive reactive armour) which supposed to degrade the penetrating power of kinetic-energy APFSDS ammunition; these ERA blocks give the turret its distinctive angled “clamshell” appearance. In this occasion, both ERA and Shtora countermeasures failed to protect the tank.

Representatives of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation are currently trying to figure it out, how could the Russian military made such a fatal mistake destroying the tank and publish the news to Russian media. According to experts, the missile was not supposed to destroy a heavy tank.

The missile fired from the anti-tank missile system could penetrate the tank’s armor, the combat vehicle sustained critical damage – according to sources, the turret turning mechanism, engine, chassis and inside the tank were damaged.

India is to buy more than 450 T-90 tanks from Russia in a £1.5 billion deal that underlines its status as Moscow’s biggest arms customer.

The purchase of the tanks, which are expected to equip ten armoured regiments, was approved by India’s cabinet committee on security, Jane’s reported, citing officials. The committee is headed by Narendra Modi, the prime minister.

The Indian defense ministry’s acquisition body approved the purchase in November 2016. Indian Army may take notice of a recent failure by a Russian tank in Russia and rethink procurement of Russian tank.

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