You all seem to forget that the M-84AS has a125 mm 2A46M smoothbore gun and a 9M119 Svir as main armament. Now last time I checked, this tank is more of a twin, to the Russian T-90. Only difference is that the T-90 has thicker layered armor under it's NERA, but the M-84AS is 15km/h faster! Meaning the thing damn near flies with it's top speed of 75km/h on road. Last time I checked, that's on par, if not faster than a damn fuel guzzling gas turbine M1A2!!! So in essence, a 2.5Gen like the M-84AS can compete 1-1 with 3rdGen's as long as there is enough numbers for it to be a 1-1 fight, and not to mention logistics. I know of Desert Storm/ Iraq 1 vets saying that the only thing holding them back was fuel, and with a much greater Anti-Air capabilities that Serbia has, since it's a lot smaller, and has mastered stealth killing Low Frequency Radar, it is hard to assume that the M-84AS wouldn't have a good shot putting up an awesome fight against any current 3rdGen. The problem is not the design, the problem is logistics, and manufacturing. Look at the M-95, Croatia has been trying for 10yrs to field this thing and all it resulted was 2 tanks, one export dummy version(which Kuwait is buying) and another tech. demonstrator.
What I am more interested is the future of the M-84AS, Serbia is in talks with Russia about buying a new fighter. The latest talks have yielded that if Serbia agrees to purchase, I believe it was 30 Sukhoi Su-30MKII that Russia would give Serbia a $3 Billion loan for military spending. How this has to deal with tanks is, if it goes through, this will give Serbia the opportunity to have the cash to upgrade to Relikt ERA or even get some idea of how to indigenous produce the top secret, and highly sough after Kaktus ERA which was specifically designed to defeat the US M829A3 round, which in turn was developed to defeat Kontakt-5. This would boost the M-84AS into almost Gen.3 status lol, it's like 2.9Gen. The only thing holding this back from happening is the very pro-western government who is running, I mean ruining Serbia. They are having a hard time choosing between the Russian deal and Europe's deal of some Typhoons plus upgrades and export guarantees of the Super Galeb. Me as an ethnic Serb, always goes with Russia lol. It's really the only plan that makes sense considering Russia's plans to build a gas pipeline through the Balkans and Serbia. Well enough current events on Serbia for you guys, back to tanks.
The more interesting option, and the one Serbia can afford today, would be Russia's new Nakidka RAM (Radar-Absorbing Material), this is not your regular RAM found on the F-117, if you guys never looked this stuff up, I WOULD! This stuff almost eliminates all IR, Radar, TV/Optical, and Thermal detection. And Serbia has a long history of developing paints such as these, so I would not be surprised if they created an indigenous version themselves. The only weakness of Nakidka, is that if you plan on using a "Roll-Cage" add on(found on most western armor), for better armor, it eliminates the effectiveness. But I don't see this as a problem since Kontakt-5, and a possible upgrade can stop RPG's. Another cool option for defense is Russia's new EMT-7 electromagnetic pulse creator, that blasts an EMP whenever any guided munition is detected incoming and literally bricks it in mid air. Though it should be mentioned that it has never gone operational, only been fielded in tests, but Russia says if it were to get into a major war, like with a modern country, it could upgrade all T-72's, and 90's in their inventory.