A mock-up of the Black Eagle was first demonstrated at the VTTV arms exposition in Omsk, in September 1997, making a single brief pass, far from the reviewing stands.

[6] According to Russian reports, the Black Eagle design had abandoned the carousel-style autoloader in the fighting compartment for an autoloader mounted in the large western-style turret bustle, which incorporates a blow-out armoured ammunition compartment for crew safety, like the U.S. M1 Abrams, the German Leopard 2, French Leclerc and several other modern western tanks.

Development of the Black Eagle was stopped due to financial problems, questions about the reliability of the design and, most importantly, the terrible performance of the T-80 upon which it was modeled in the first Chechen war.

The T-80 performed so poorly that after the conflict General-Lieutenant A. Galkin, the head of the Main Armour Directorate, convinced the Minister of Defence to never again procure tanks with gas-turbine engines.

In late 2011 it was announced that some technical solutions developed for the Black Eagle tank and Uralvagonzavods Object 195 (T-95) would be incorporated into the Armata Universal Combat Platform.