Vietnam's T-90 tank officially has "Red Eyes"

In June this year, Russia's Nizhny Tagil TV channel aired a report on a "young tank engineer" about a boy with very novel ideas for future tank designs, forcing the director of the UralVagonZavod Plant to arrange a field trip for the young "engineer."

However, the most notable detail in the video is the T-90 main battle tanks being assembled, they have green paint and a configuration completely different from the batch of T-90S/SK this facility manufactured for the Iraqi Army.

Currently, UralVagonZavod has a contract to produce the T-90S/SK tank version for two customers, Iraq and Vietnam, so it is almost 100% certain that these are our T-90s.

Based on published information, Vietnam's T-90S tank has a fundamental difference compared to the product manufactured for Iraq, which is that the front of its turret still has the mount of the famous "Red Eyes - OTSh-U-1-7 Interference Light" belonging to the Shtora-1 active defense system.

Thus, it can be seen that the configuration of Vietnam's T-90S/SK main battle tank has the ability to defend against 2nd generation anti-tank missiles better than Iraq's T-90. The OTShU-1-7 interference light will effectively interfere with the guidance system of 2nd generation ATGMs and below, causing the bullets to fly into the sky or miss the target.

However, there is still some doubt whether the mount is really for the OTShU-1-7 jammer or if it is to support an explosive reactive armor plate or some other equipment, until the vehicle is completed then we can be really sure.

And yesterday, on Russian military sites, a picture of a completed T-90 with red eyes on the front of the turret appeared, bearing the factory code V-31, further confirming that this is the Vietnamese T-90 (T-90 tanks for Iraq are marked "I").

Thanks to the OTShU-1-7 interference lights, Vietnam's T-90S/SK tanks have been equipped with a full Shtora-1 "soft" defense complex, including sensors, camouflaged smoke bullets and interference lights, bringing great peace of mind to the crew during combat.

However, there is one thing that still needs to be waited for, which is that it is not clear whether Vietnam's T-90 tank is integrated with the new generation of side armor with 3rd generation Relikt explosive reactive armor - the type that Russia equipped for the most advanced T-90M Proryv-3 version, or it is still similar to the T-90A, that is, only has a fairing made from rubber panels to cover the tracks.

Tung Duong