Three systems in particular beg for hard data...the 9M119M guided AT missile (range/penetration/accuracy/flight time?)
The data i have seen all seems pretty similar, that the missile has a range of from 100m or so to 8 km (i have my doubts that it can travel 8 km accurately enough to hit a tank-sized target) and can penetrate about 800 mm of armor. It also supposedly can be used to destroy enemy aircraft, like helicopters ( i would REALLY like some proof on this, cause i would REALLY like to blast those Apaches that seem to chew me up all the time)
I havent seen any information that stated it had any off-axis targeting capability, so i would assume that the aircraft would need to be flying low enough that the tank could get it's gun pointed at it, which is no easy feat. I dont think helo pilots intend to sit still and let the tank take potshots at them. Claimed hit probability is "over 0.8"
Unfortunately, the Russians havent returned my calls....sigh
The Shtora & Arena active self defense systems....how reliably can it destroy/negate incoming hostile projectiles? How many can it track and engage at once? How effective is it at jamming them? Supposedly the Shtora/Arena combination makes the tank 1.5 to 1.7 times as "survivable"
And the "third generation" reactive armour, which supposedly has increased protection versus top attack weapons (the effectiveness of the top attack protection could be disputed by the tank's showing in urban environments in Chechnya, however, tanks do not now, nor have they ever, belonged on confined city streets)
The tank itsself, on paper , seems extremely impressive. The limited combat use it has seen is mixed...ie, Chechnya. But is that the fault of the vehicle, or of placing it in a position where hostiles can shoot missiles at its roof from extremely short ranges? Supposedly it can detonate HE rounds at a predetermined distance for added use versus helicopters or enemy infantry in defile? It uses a steel/ceramic/plastic composite armor that, once again, supposedly, is the equal or superior to any armor in the world today....and lastly, perhaps a tribute to how good it might just be, Saudi Arabia is negotiating an order for 180 of them, i thought they used the M1? Seems fishy to order a new tank unless it offers something your current tank dosent provide? India has also signed on to purchase several hundred (possibly 1 thousand) T90s....
Russia posesses about 400-500 T-90s and T-90As (which seems to be an up-engined T90, with horsepower improved from 840 to 1000) as of this writing (reports vary depending on the source on the numbers that they have in service) also have seen some reports that they are "upgrading" T-72s to T-90 standards....once again, the data somewhat conflicts with itsself. The T-90s armor (steel/ceramic/plastics) was NOT used in the T-72, so it will not be the equal of the T-90 in all areas, though upgrading weapon and add-on systems certainly never hurts (as our good friends in Israel like to demonstrate, time and again)
How much of this is to be believed? Is it generally agreed this tank is superior, in armament and protection, to the T-80 series? Is it the equal of, or superior to, the mainline western tanks, such as Leo 2A5 or M1A2? I dunno why, but this particular tank has intrigued me since i first saw a picture of it several years ago. From a wargaming standpoint, for the "red" player, this is pretty exciting stuff. From a real world standpoint,
its impact on the world environment is largely undetermined.
The sources varied from Wikipedia, to Janes, to globalsecurity.org. I checked about a dozen different sources, the information that is available all seems pretty consistent, EXCEPT the numbers the Russians currently posess. However, they do seem to generally increase as the dates of update/posting on the various sites grew more recent, which i would assume is because they are building more of them all the time (production figures vary from 10 to 30 a month)
I suppose i better order a bunch anyways....if nothing else, i like how the thing looks.
[/img]edited cause i found more data=)
at close range during the first Gulf War. 
As for hard data, it's simply not there, but at least there are some "war stories" floating around at there. Besides, even if you had test range data, if a game doesn't conform to gamers' preconceived ideas it doesn't matter what data says! 
