Sometimes equipment is sent to test it in combat. And the Russians have a long tradition of doing just that. They did it with the Su-57 and T-90 in Syria for example. They also supposedly adjusted the Su-30 and Su-34 upgrade programs based on experience in Syria.
It wasn't produced for the Russian Federation client. But they sure produced a heck of a lot of T-90 tanks and parts kits for India. And sold tanks they made to several nations including Algeria and several other countries. T
This is also the reason the Kurganets-25 program is seriously delayed. The Russian government decided not to convert the factory to Kurganets-25 production and continued with BMP-3 production.
Yes. Russia produced many T-90s for foreign customers over a decade, while neglecting production of their own.
The new T-90M is just going into service, as we see now. There was a company or so in a training regiment by the end of 2021, IIRC.
The thing about the T-90M is that it has the new battle management system. Testing showed that it was capable of working together with Armata-series in the system. This is significant, as it means they could put T-90M into series production while also gearing up the [slower and more expensive to induct] Armata.
Russian tanks are the way they are right now because of 2014. When it was clear that there was going to be tension with EU/NATO over Donbass, Russian MoD figured that it needed a lot of operational tanks quickly.
Original plan was to go with all the next-gen systems, like Armata, Kurganets, Bumerang. With some T-90 + BMP-3 stopgaps.
But the immediate need to counter all those NATO tanks on their borders led to a bigger T-72 modernization program than you'd expect. Because they needed those tanks fast. T-72B3 costs about $300,000 USD, I think. About 9 months to refurbish? That's a lot cheaper than a T-90M, which is at least $2m, IIRC.
So they got a lot of T-72B3 now, and numbers of B3M. Also BMP-2 Berezhok, although they started late with that. These were things, along with large numbers of BTR-82A, that could be ready for the 'next war,' which was already taking place in Syria. [Syrian army loves its T-72B3].
What didn't happen was rapid Armata development. For lots of reasons. But a large one was that suppliers wanted to charge too much for subsystems. Russian government apparently spent a lot of time trying to bring down the costs, with some success. A revolutionary vehicle like that also needs a lot of testing.
Bumerang was going very well, and could have gone right into service. But testing revealed that it should be a little larger, and also something about amphibious capability. So there's a version 2 that been in testing.
I don't know the score with Kurganets. I thought it was something like a more modern BMP family that could be produced in existing factories. If they produced BMP-3 instead, that would explain Kurganets delays. You'd think they'd just set up a new factory, but funds are limited as we all know.
So Syria + Ukraine meant an immediate need for many, many T-72B3. Enough to form tank divisions again. Looks like a similar situation with BMP-3. And they were sluggish with Berezhok. All the next-gen stuff took a backseat, while they used the time to test + train on them, and find ways to lower costs.
Testing things like T-90M is in character for Russian/Soviet army. Even something like the old SKS was rushed into the front-lines at the end of WWII in order to test it for combat conditions. They did stuff like that in the Winter War as well, but in a less coherent manner than today. SU-57 prototypes were flown around a bit in Syria, maybe the Terminator as well.