Pass it on to NATO: Reports of Turkish Backed Jihadists Capturing T-90 Tanks Could Spell Bad News for Russia

Reports and footage showing the capture of at least one T-90A main battle tank by Turkish backed jihadist militants in Idlib may have more serious consequences than providing additional armour to combat the Syrian Arab Army in the area. Other than the T-14 Armata which has yet to enter mass production, the T-90 is the only class of Russian tank not to have fallen into NATO hands - and is today relied on heavily to form the elite of the country’s armoured units alongside heavily enhanced variants of the older T-80 and T-72. NATO member states such as Britain, Germany and the United States have shown considerable interest in acquiring Russian armour both during and since the Cold War, and the fact that the T-90 has fallen into the hands of militants backed by a NATO member state offers a clear path by which the design could end up in the hands of the Western powers.

The variant of the T-90 deployed by the Syrian Arab Army is the T-90A, which first entered service in 2004 and boasts a welded turret, V-92S2 engine and ESSA thermal viewer. These tanks began to appear in 2015, when Russian committed itself fully to ensuring a victory for its longtime ally against Western, Turkish and Arab backed insurgents. It has been speculated that they were provided as some form of military aid, supplementing Soviet era T-72 and T-55 tanks previously relied on by Syrian forces. More capable variants of the T-90 have since entered service in the Russian military - most notably the T-90M which boasts many next generation technologies developed for the T-14 Armata such as the 2A82-1M gun and Kalina fire control system - as well as Afghanit and Relikt armour protection systems and other enhancements. The T-90A nevertheless remains in service in considerable numbers in the Russian Army, and an understanding of the design will also allow NATO forces to better counter more advanced variants such as the T-90M despite their differences. Russia for its part is not thought to have gained access to any of NATO’s major tank designs such as the M1 Abrams or Leopard II, leaving its defence sector at something of a disadvantage.