T-90 Tank Accidentally Hit by Missile During Russian Exercise

A Russian T-90 tank was accidentally hit by an anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) during exercises held in the Astrakhan region on September 15.

Pictures of the damaged T-90 tank appeared in various social media but there is no official confirmation of this incident from the Russian military.  Currently,  multinational exercise “Kavkaz 2020” (“Caucasus 2020”) are being held there from September 15–26. These exercises are spread over the southern Astrakhan region, Prudboi, Ashuluk, Kapustin Yar, Nikolo-Aleksandrovskii and several air-training grounds.

According to some reports, anti-tank missile systems were used during the military exercises, including the Konkurs ATGM with the 9M113M ATGM. One report said that during the exercise the Konkurs ATGM missile hit a tank involved in the exercise. The photo shows that the combat vehicle was seriously damaged, while there was no armor penetration, but there was obvious damage to the mounted protection elements of the tank, Topwar.ru reported.

While the ATGM has caused significant damage to the tank from the side, it has not penetrated the armor preventing more serious damage. It is not known if there was any crew in the tank.

Besides Russia, the Kavkaz exercise includes members of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) incuding China, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. additional foreign participants reportedly will include Mongolia, Syria, Iran, Egypt, Belarus, Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan and even Myanmar.

Images, supposedly of the tank hit by the ATGM, show damage to the side above the running gear with no sign of the ATGM tearing the armor.  Some Netizens have identified the tank as the T-90A while other claimed it was the first generation T-90 which does not have armor protection to stop a latest generation ATGM such as the Konkurs.