The power of Vietnam's T-90 tank in foreign newspapers

After Russia confirmed the start of delivering T-90 tanks to Vietnamese customers, international media rushed to report on this event.

This event has attracted special attention from the leading British defense magazine, Jane's Defense Weekly. According to Jane's assessment, to receive 64 T-90 tanks, Vietnam may have to spend about 250 million USD.

According to the British magazine's calculations, the unit price of each T-90 will be around more than 3.9 million USD. This price is considered quite reasonable when compared to other countries that also buy T-90 tanks from Russia.

But this price is only relative because the specific price of each tank depends on the version, weapons and equipment the customer requests. Especially the accompanying weapons and spare parts.

Russia exercises with T-90 tanks.

Along with Jane's, British military expert Phillip Kaplan also summarized the contracts signed between Russia and different customers and estimated that the unit price of Russia's T-90 tank will fall to around 4.25 million USD/unit.

This vehicle line is ordered in large quantities by many countries, especially after its brilliant performance on the Syrian battlefield, the T-90 has become even more in demand when continuously receiving "huge" orders.

In addition to the Russian armored force currently owning about 550 T-90 tanks with many variants, foreign customers who have been buying Russian T-90 tanks include Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan... and especially India, a country that owns nearly 1,300 T-90s.

While British experts and magazines talk about the price Vietnam may have to pay to own the T-90 tank, The Diplomat magazine has other analyses about the power and usefulness of the T-90 tank line Vietnam bought from Russia.

The Japanese newspaper said that Vietnam has long appreciated the capabilities of the T-90 battle tank, and also purchased the KZKT-7248 heavy tank tractor. The Japanese magazine said that the decision to buy the new T-90 battle tank - one of the most modern third-generation tanks - was clearly carefully considered by Vietnam in terms of both means and purpose.

The principle of the Vietnamese army's defense doctrine is basically to build a modern and powerful armored force, capable of being deployed in many forms of defense or attack.

The Diplomat noted that the Vietnamese Army determined that anti-tank warfare would be part of a larger and more comprehensive asymmetric defense plan, which emphasized the use of tanks against tanks.

The Japanese newspaper noted that this Vietnamese concept of "tank vs tank" is not the same as during World War II, in a large-scale war with thousands of tanks fighting each other in a single battle (for example, the great Kursk tank battle in 1943 between the Soviet Red Army and Nazi Germany).

Since most of the tanks currently in service in Vietnam are old, the general tactic is to rely mainly on the mountainous terrain of three-quarters of the country to conduct ambush attacks. According to estimates from defense experts, tanks and self-propelled guns deployed at close range account for 20% of anti-tank missions on the battlefield.

Furthermore, experience from the two Gulf Wars showed that tanks and other armored units had to be protected by air defense regiments, either by coordinating with the Air Force or by using mobile air defense missiles. That is, the infantry would cooperate with other services to create a combined force.

According to The Diplomat, the purchase of 64 T-90s will help Vietnam overcome the weaknesses that have long affected its tank force. For the first time in history, the Vietnamese Army will deploy third-generation tanks with high technology, suitable for modern warfare. Older tanks such as the legendary T-54/55 or T-62 are still the main tanks of the Vietnamese infantry since the resistance war against the US.

Meanwhile, the T-90 tank has superior firepower including night-time target acquisition, an upgraded fire control system and a laser designator that allows gunners to detect targets beyond their weapons range, and survivability has also been enhanced thanks to the use of a trio of defensive measures.

Furthermore, the reliability of the T-90 has been proven based on Russian operations in Syria, although the missions were mainly focused on counter-insurgency rather than fighting an asymmetric war against a larger army.

All of the above qualities are extremely important to the Vietnamese tank force, which is striving to upgrade itself to meet the requirements of modern warfare.

According to Baodatviet