Analysis: Russian armoured vehicles at Victory Day Parade

Date Posted: 09-May-2025
Author:  Christopher Petrov, London

Key points

• The Russian army displayed multiple new equipment additions during its annual 9 May parade through Moscow
• Additional protection was widely seen on MBTs and IFVs

As part of the celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, Russia held its annual Victory Day Parade featuring a mix of military equipment and personnel in most of its major cities, with the main parade taking place in Moscow in the presence of foreign dignitaries and media. Janes examined some of the armoured vehicles displayed to observe design changes and showcased features.

Main battle tanks

Three types of main battle tanks (MBTs) were paraded through Red Square: T-72B3M, T-80BVM, and T-90M. All three have undergone various upgrades in response to feedback from operational use in Ukraine.

Russian Victory Day Parade 2025: A T-72B3M with Relikt ERA on the upper glacis and the hull's side now entirely covered with ERA. (TV Zveda/Russian MoD)

From the observable differences in these MBTs, each representing the most modern variants of their respective families, the prevailing trend is survivability enhancements through the addition of passive armour and explosive reactive armour (ERA). The T-72B3M now appears to use the same upper glacis armour module as the T-80BVM and T-90M, replacing the original 4S22 Kontakt-5 ERA coverage on the upper glacis with 4S23 Relikt. This brings the T-72B3M's protection closer to that of the T-90M. In addition, the tip of the lower glacis is equipped with bolted-on Kontakt-series blocks arranged in a line of seven – a configuration also seen on accompanying T-90Ms.

Russian Victory Day Parade 2025: All three main Russian MBTs, including the T-80BVM here, now have near-fully protected hull sides using ERA, and include rear-mounted ERA. (TV Zveda/Russian MoD)

Furthermore, all the vehicles seen now feature near-fully protected side skirts. Previous examples used statistical armour (also known as bar or slat armour) to protect the rear portion of the sides. Instead, all three tanks have both hull sides covered by side skirts containing 4S23 Relikt ERA, with a small gap left for the exhaust outlet on the T-72B3M, which can be protected by statistical armour against rocket-propelled grenades. Smaller areas, such as gun mantlets and smoke discharger sections, have also been protected with additional ERA blocks.

While ERA has been used extensively to enhance protection across all aspects, in areas where ERA placement is challenging, statistical armour, mesh nets, and polypropylene carbonate (PPC) mats have been employed to increase passive protection. These measures may also aim to provide additional defence against unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). To bypass such countermeasures, UAVs would need to target areas likely covered by extensive ERA, which is designed to defeat the single-warhead munitions commonly used by anti-armour UAVs. Gunsights and electro-optical sensors have also received additionally reinforced shrouds to improve ballistic protection against fragments and small-arms fire.

Russian Victory Day Parade 2025: A T-90M appears to have a subtly reconfigured ERA arrangement on the turret's roof. (TV Zveda/Russian MoD)

Specific to the T-90M, the turret ERA appears to have been modified. Paraded T-90M MBTs featured a different ERA tile arrangement on the turret's roof, using uniformly rectangular tiles, whereas previously the turret's roof had ERA tiles of various shapes. The change to the configuration of the roof tiles has given ERA coverage to a previously exposed area on the turret's roof to the left of the gun mantlet, while in other areas, smaller gaps have been created between the roof tiles and the ERA blocks mounted on the turret's frontal arch. Furthermore, the ERA seems to feature rubber dampeners integrated under the tiles, likely in order to minimise damage to the turret upon activation. The change to standardised tiles may have been to reduce logistical costs associated with producing and supplying specific tile shapes.

Despite claims of operational use, none of the tanks paraded had Russia's Arena-M active protection system (APS).

This article includes analysis from Janes Military Intelligence Lead Analyst Miroslav Vranic.