Indian Army's T-90 Bhishma tanks taking part in a military training exercise.
The Russian Defence Ministry made a selection of a single Main Battle Tank (MBT) in 1995.
The T-80 was more expensive and its delicate, fuel-hungry gas turbine engine provided a questionable advantage. It was also notorious for the poor showing of older T-80BV tanks in Chechnya. In January 1996, Col.-Gen. Aleksandr Galkin, Chief of the Main Armor Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, announced that the T-90 had been selected as the sole Russian MBT. However newer and upgraded T-80s will remain in Russian service until the end of their service life. Plans called for all earlier models to be replaced with T-90s by the end of 1997, subject to funding availability.
By September 1995, some 107 T-90 tanks had been produced, located in the Siberian Military District. By mid-1996 some 107 T-90s had gone into service in the Far Eastern Military District . Several hundred of these tanks have been produced, with various estimates suggesting that between 100 and 300 are in service, primarily in the Far East.
1999 saw the appearance of a new model of T-90, featuring the fully welded turret of the Obyekt 187 experimental MBT instead of the original T-90's cast turret. This new model is called "Vladimir" in honour of T-90 Chief Designer Vladimir Potkin, who died in 1999. It is unknown how this design affects the protection and layout of the turret, or whether the tank's hull armour layout was changed.
The T-90S saw combat action during the 1999 Chechen invasion of Dagestan. According to Moscow Defense Brief, one T-90 was hit by seven RPG anti-tank rockets but remained in action. The journal concludes that with regular equipment T-90S seems to be the best protected Russian tank, especially if Shtora and Arena defensive protection systems are integrated in it.
In 2006, there were about 279 T-90 tanks serving in the Russian Ground Forces' 5th Guards Tank Division, stationed in the Siberian Military District, and seven T-90 tanks in the Navy. Some 31 new T-90 tanks were expected to enter service in 2007, and 60 in 2008.
The T-90 is an interim solution, pending the introduction of the new Russian Main Battle Tank (MBT) which is currently under development.Meanwhile, the T-90 will probably remain in low-rate production to keep production lines open until newer designs become available.