The Russian T-90A main battle tank that was spotted in Louisiana sparked lots of heated debates and discussions about the reason why and also how this machine appeared in the United States.
Russian main battle tank T-90A on a trailer in the United States. Image credit: Special Kherson Cat via Twitter
The images circulating on social networks were taken quite freshly. But the tank itself was apparently captured by Ukraine last year, writes The Drive.
The fact of the tank’s capture by the Ukrainian Armed Forces was confirmed by the open source intelligence (OSINT) trackers. The trailer carrying this vehicle was photographed at a truck stop on the southernmost cross-country highway Interstate 10.
The T-90A is considered one of the most modern Russian combat machines among those used during their invasion of Ukraine. As with all tanks, it is also exceptionally heavy – according to the publication, the truck that was hauling this huge load experienced problems with its transmission.
Russian tank spotted in the USA, Louisiana. Namely the T-90A, which the Ukrainian military captured last year in the Kharkiv region. Now it looks like Russian tank was handed over to the Americans for research. https://t.co/YXbBOLYiyL pic.twitter.com/Nplhao1LEj
— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) April 13, 2023
The tank itself does not contain its full equipment and add-on systems – for example, its machine guns and fire control systems have been removed. However, some explosive reactive armor containers have been left on the gun turret.
The exact reason why T-90A appears in the United States remains unknown. The experts, however, say that the U.S. Military may have brought this tank to the United States to thoroughly analyze its features in order to gain insights into its capabilities and potential vulnerabilities.
We could expect that later the results of this analysis could be handed over to Ukrainian defenders in order to improve their defensive capabilities against this machine and similar military equipment.
Oryx, an open source intelligence community, reports that the Ukrainian Army has captured at least 549 Russian tanks to this date, not counting those units that were destroyed in combat.
