The Russian T-90 main battle tank is a modernization of the T-72B MBT. It was designed by the Ural Design Office of Transport Mechanical Engineering. In 1992, its production started and then it entered service in Russian troops. The tank consists of a large caliber smoothbore gun which can launch missiles, auxiliary machine guns and an automatic fire control system; it is mounted with Russian Shtora (“curtain” in English) combined electro-optical countermeasures suite to protect the tank against laser guided weapons; and it is also fitted with a NBC protection system. In total, about 120 T-90 MBTs were produced. Later they have been gradually replaced by more advanced T-90A.