232
‘Steel Coffins’: Russia’s T-90M Tanks Are ‘Blowing Their Tops’ in Ukraine
(nationalsecurityjournal.org)
this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2026
232 points (100.0% liked)
World News
53648 readers
2291 users here now
A community for discussing events around the World
Rules:
-
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
-
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
-
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed.
-
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
-
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF OCTOBER 19 2025
-
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
-
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
-
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
Lemmy World Partners
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
Recommendations
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/
- Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
They store it in a carousel on the bottom of the tank just under the turret.
Sounds like something out of WH40K. Lots of firepower with a 0% survival change if hit.
Well, it makes sense for the loading mechanism they use and on paper it leads to a higher rate of fire due to the more accessible rounds.
However, when asking Ukrainian tank crews, who operate both Russian and Western style tanks, what they prefer, the answer is pretty much always western tanks. Better ergonomics is also a thing (Russian/Soviet tanks are notoriously cramped) but I guess the higher survivability even after a full penetration might be what tips the scales.
Russian tanks have excellent ergonomics, provided you happen to be a Chimpanzee. If you don't have really short legs, really long arms, and absurd upper body strength to operate the various manually cranked parts though, you're gonna have a bad time in a Russian tank.
Why did they make a machine that would be better operated by chimpanzees?
Are they planning something?
The thing is, you can design an autoloader in a way that protects the crew.
The survability of western tanks isn't just about where the ammo is stored, but how it's stored. Western tanks, both with and without autoloaders, place all the ammo at the back, either of the turret or the hill respectively. More importantly, the ammo is stored in a heavily armoured compartment, which has blow-out panels on the outside of the vehicle; the ammo detonates the panels collapse, allowing the force of the explosion to spread out from the tank.
The problem with the T90 design (which is really just an updated T72) is that the autoloader is attached to the bottom of the turret basket. This means there's no possible way to vent the explosion outside, other than by going through the turret, and through the crew along the way.
Yes, you can. But they didn't. Hence, why I said it makes sense in this specific case.
At this point I'm waiting for a war thunder player to leak us some documents
Leak documents about military hardware that can be found in museums?
I don't know maybe they added shackles for the prisoner soldiers
Considering the general lack of population and the issues it will cause for both Ukraine and Russia, I think Ukraine's preference for survivable tanks is the smart move. No point in winning the war if your nation becomes insolvent.
*the higher rate of fire can occur inside the tank occasionally
Yeah western tanks have their ammo stored in the turret bustle with blast panels and blast doors that save the crew in the case of ammo being hit (if the doors are closed and if the shell that hits ammo did not punctire said doors). They also often use propellant less susceptible to exploding if the ammo gets hit.
The russian tanks on the other side have a way smaller silhouette as well as being cramped to all hell which just compounds this issue.
Cries in British Challenger 2 with no blow out panels
Other way round really.
Russia...