The first two were the T-90 Model 1992 and its equivalent foreign sales version, the T-90S. The T-90 has been produced in four basic models. The Russian Army was not as quick to buy them for a myriad of reasons, and surprisingly has only purchased around 700-800 of them over 20 years of the tank's production run. The Indians were their first major customer and bought 300 of the new tanks, followed by at least 300 more later.

Previously the Soviets had marketed downgraded versions (derisively referred to as 'monkey models' as they were so simple monkeys could operate them) but with the failures of the T-72M and T-72M1 variants in Iraq they had little choice. The new variant was a big improvement over the T-72 series, and also was going to be offered for foreign sales on a nearly equivalent model to the Russian one – the T-90S. Dubbed the T-90 Model 1992, the new tank was now offered for sale as a new vehicle (which it was not). However, President Boris Yeltsin solved the problem when the tank was accepted for service in October 1992 as the 'T-90 - the First Russian Main Battle Tank' as it was announced to the world.

Faced with this dilemma, and then the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991, the UVZ was not in a good position. While the UVZ knew their new model could survive against most foreign tanks, being a 'T-72' meant nobody wanted it. The disastrous performance of the Iraqi army in Desert Storm in early 1991 with the total destruction of T-72s in Iraqi service by M1A1 and Challenger 2 tanks with no confirmed friendly losses turned any T-72 offered for sale into a drug on the market. They dubbed the new Article 188 tank the T-72BM (for modified, but it was also called T-72BU for 'usovershenyy' or 'improved') and prepared to offer it to the government for acceptance and foreign sales in 1990. In 1989 the Ural Railway Wagon Building Factory (Uralvagonzavod) under its chief designer, Vladimir Potkin, reworked their T-72B design to both add built-in second generation reactive armor and the new 'Shtora-1' active protection defense system among other modifications. Mô tả As I noted a while back with the Zvezda T-90 kit, timing, as the advertising men say, is everything.

Russian t-90a main battle tank academy