How Russia's advanced T-90M Proryv compares to the U.S. M1 Abrams tank (2024)

Russia's "main competitor" to the U.S. Army's M1 Abrams falls short of the main battle tank pledged to Ukraine, Newsweek has been told.

The T-90M, also known as the Proryv-3, has been hailed by Russian media as the "most advanced armored vehicle" of Russia's T-90 main battle tank variants, and an upgrade from the T-72. It has a more powerful engine, an upgraded turret and enhanced survivability, as well as multichannel sight to operate through the night, according to Russian state news agency Tass.

It has a 125mm 2A46M-4 smoothbore gun, able to fire missiles towards enemy tanks at a distance of up to 3 miles as well as standard ammunition, the agency reported. It also has secondary armaments, including a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun.

It can exchange data in real time with other combat vehicles, and has anti-slip coating on its armor, much like the T-14 Armata main battle tank, Tass added.

On January 12, 2023, Russian state media reported that Russian tank manufacturer, Uralvagonzavod, had "delivered a new batch of upgraded T-90M Proryv main battle tanks to Russian troops." They have been used against Ukrainian fighters "on the front line," Russia's Defense Ministry said in late February. The first such tank entered service in 2020. T-90M tanks were recently used near Lyman, in the eastern Donetsk region, state media reported on March 16.

Dutch open source outlet Oryx has visually confirmed that Russia has lost 15 T-90M tanks, as of Tuesday morning. Earlier this week, footage of a Ukrainian brigade destroying a T-90M was shared by Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's Internal Affairs Ministry. Ukraine's military has also shared footage of captured T-90M tanks, including in the eastern Kharkiv and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.

The T-90M Proryv "seems impressive, but Russian tanks always look good until they are actually used in combat," according to military technology and defense expert Michael Peck.

However, "unless battlefield experience proves otherwise, I would rate the M1A2 [Abrams] superior by far to the T-90M," he told Newsweek.

Both are good tanks, experts have suggested, and it is hard to draw direct comparisons between them that exclude many of the other factors a tank's success rests on, including support vehicles and trained personnel.

On January 25, President Biden announced that the U.S. would deliver 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, which he said was enough to equip a Ukrainian tank battalion. Kyiv's forces need to "counter Russia's evolving tactics and strategy on the battlefield in the very near term," Biden added.

During development of the T-90M Proryv, the "M1 Abrams—one of the heaviest modern thick-armored tanks—was treated as the main competitor," according to Russian state-owned defense corporation, Rostec.

"The T-90 does have the advantage of being much lighter, which is an advantage in mud or crossing smaller bridges," Peck argued. Depending on the variant, an Abrams can weigh between 67.6 and 73.6 tons, whereas the T-90M is thought to weigh in the region of 48 tons.

The T-90M has a standard diesel engine, and requires less maintenance, Peck added. The Abrams, on the other hand, use gas turbine engines and can even run on jet fuel. Experts previously told Newsweek the Abrams is a "fuel hog" that "gulps fuel voraciously."

But even if the donated Abrams tanks are not the latest incarnations, their sensors will "certainly be superior to those on the T-90," giving the U.S. tanks an "edge in range and accuracy of fire," Peck said.

M1 Abrams tanks, in their different models, can be fitted with 120mm armaments, plus .50-caliber and 7.62mm machine guns.

"While a T-90 can fire anti-tank missiles from its cannon, an M1A2 firing armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) rounds from its 120-mm cannon would be deadlier," Peck argued. But questions remain about how equipped the M1 tanks heading for Ukraine will be against the likes of anti-tank missiles, he added.

Ultimately, when "used properly, the M1A2 should be more than a match for the T-90M," Peck said.