T-90C has been developed on the basis of thorough investigation and interpretation of tactics and strategy of using tanks in specific present-day combat conditions, considering long army service experience of the T-72 tanks in many countries of the world and taking into account the results of the perennial arduous field tests.

T-90C has low combat weight, minor overall size, powerful armament and high mobility, common to all Russian tanks.

The main armament of the T-90C tank is a 125-mm smoothbore gun of improved accuracy with built-in boresighting device, quick-detachable barrel and independent two-plane stabilization. The gun is loaded by an automatic loader holding first 22 rounds.

The use of the automatic loader has provided high rate of fire (up to 7 rounds per minute). The tank gun possibilities to hit ground armoured targets and aerial low flying targets have been improved considerably thanks to usage of guided weapon system. Laser-controlled hollow-charge missile is loaded into the barrel bore by the automatic loader and fired from the gun barrel.

The gun uses the following types of ammunition: APDS, HEAT, HEF rounds with separate loading/and rounds with guided missiles. Additional armament consists of the coaxial machine gun, caliber .30, and remotely-controlled antiaircraft

machine gun, caliber .50. High level of protection is achieved by usage of welded hull and turret equipped with universal explosive reactive armour and optoelectronic suppression system. Tank T-90C can perform the following:

• cross streams up to 5 m deep under water without stopping to perform its combat mission upon crossing

• ford 48-inch deep water barrier

• span a 110-inch trench

• clear a 32-inch vertical obstacle

• climb a 30-dg slope

The tank has entrenching equipment, arrangement for mounting mine sweepers. The tank can be carried by all transport means.

The T-90C tank is made by the configuration traditional for the Russian tank building with main armament fitted in rotary turret, power plant and power train in the rear of the hull, the commander and the gunner sitting in the fighting compartment, and the driver in the driving compartment. Though new units and systems, which improve T-90C combat and operational characteristics, have been incorporated, the tank overall dimensions remain as those of the T-72C tank. Only it has become heavier by 2 tons, but the tank is still lighter by 9 t than Leclerc by 16 t than M1A2 Abrams and Leopard-2A6. Achievement of higher combat properties of the T-90C tank resulted in its design complication. This, seemingly, in its turn should lead to additional difficulties in maintenance, increase of the time to prepare the tank for the battle and use of additional tooling for that. However, thanks to a number of original design approaches, this is not the fact.

The T-90C tank has the following features:

• the optimum fitness for combat by day and at night

• remarkable reliability of all components and units, machinery and systems

• excellent mobility and maneuverability on all types of terrain and under any climatic conditions including high mountains and dust-laden areas

• low cost of crew training

The Russian battle tank T-90C has embodied advanced scientific and technical ideas in its construction. Therefore it yields to none of the best foreign tanks of the third generation both in its combat and technical characteristics and in its possibility to fight in specific present-day combat conditions. And even there is a number of parameters that make the T-90C tank superior over the other tanks.