Russia’s Rosoboronexport is displaying the new configuration of the T-90MS MBT with mesh screen armour and revisited the ERA package at the IDEX 2025 exhibition.
The new configuration of the T-90MS shows that Russia has taken notes from its experiences in the war with Ukraine. This resulted in a reworked armour package to fill the gaps in passive and active defence measures.
The most striking feature is the mesh screen armour encompassing the turret, including below-the-cheek sections. This can be regarded as a lighter and less obstructive passive measure against UAVs. Left without an optimised solution, Russian tank crews have mostly used scrapped materials to improvise up-armour their tanks, resulting in hampered combat capabilities.
ERA package rework includes thin but highly encompassing panels at the back of the turret, larger blocks at the hull sides, and NERA panels covering the top of the tracks at the front.
It can be inferred that Ukrainian kamikaze UAVs are also targeting the tracks from the top to immobilise the tanks before going for the kill and the lower section of the turret to detonate the ammunition inside the autoloader.
An electronic warfare system against small UAVs has also improved active protection. While this might be effective against converted civilian types, it will not work against the increase in the use of fibre-optic UAVs.
