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XBradTC

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TOW vs. T-90 Tank

H/T to Esli for sending this along. So, it appears the Russians have supplied a small number of their current main battle tank, the T-90, to supplement the Syrian Army’s fleet of T-72 tanks. And the FSA rebels, who have been using the TOW missile system for about two years now, have engaged one.  …

H/T to Esli for sending this along.

So, it appears the Russians have supplied a small number of their current main battle tank, the T-90, to supplement the Syrian Army’s fleet of T-72 tanks. And the FSA rebels, who have been using the TOW missile system for about two years now, have engaged one.

 

The WaPo calls it a glancing shot, and doubts whether it actually penetrated. For sure, impact was high on the turret, but the fact that a crew member did bail out makes me suspect it did in fact penetrate. While not an instantly catastrophic hit, the possibility of post impact fire damaging or destroying the tank can’t be discounted.

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Responses to “TOW vs. T-90 Tank”

  1. Jjak

    If the tank did go up I’m surprised they didn’t capture it on video. Maybe they had to boogie quick.
    And if you look close, it appears the T-90 has the Shorta passive defense system installed (round things either side of the main gun), but apparently not active. Odd since the TC machine gun looks like it fires a couple times so the tank knew rebels were around.
    I kinda wonder if the crewman bailed because generally the tanks do go up, and bailing out fast is the only way to potentially survive, even if this time it wasn’t necessarily a catastrophic kill.

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  2. Quartermaster

    I’m not surprised the tank didn’t brew up. I suspect the T-90 magazine is constructed similar to the M-1, so no ready ammo to go up as it would be with an M-60 or earlier. I suspect the tank was taken out given the bail out. The jet and spalling would have made a mess inside the tank assuming it did get through. If so, the crewman that got was lucky.

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  3. xbradtc (@xbradtc)

    The ammo supply of the T-90 is essentially the same as the T-72, and similarly vulnerable to internal fires.

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