Russia is to turn its famous T-90 tank into a robot - and wants the wars of the future to be fought by computer gamers.

A close ally of Vladimir Putin announced this week that the T-90 - a staple of Russia's army with some 20 years of service - will be refitted so that it doesn't need physical drivers.

Instead the tank will become the ground-based equivalent of a drone, controlled from a distance by operators in no physical danger.

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Tanks away: Pictured is a Russian T-90 tank, which will soon be converted to work robotically

Not in there for long: Russian tank operators, like those pictured, could become obsolete, replaced by computer gamers

Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's deputy prime minister, said that the change will mean the Russian army of the future will need to be full of computer gamers - then named online simulator World of Tanks as a potential recruiting tool.

Writing on Twitter, Rogozin linked to a news piece about the T-90 conversion and said: 'Now we don't need tank drivers, but World of Tanks gamers'.

World of Tanks is a free-to-play online tank warfare game, which claims to have 75million players.

Users can log in and fight one another on simulated battlefields using an array of of 20th-century armour, including the T-80, a predecessor to the T-90, U.S. Sherman tanks and British Vickers and Cromwell models.

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Future of warfare? Russia's deputy prime minister said that they now need gamers who play World of Tanks, an online war simulator, rather than regular tank drivers. Pictured above is an image from the online game

It is developed by Wargaming, a company based in the former Soviet territory of Belarus.

The move to make a robot T-90 comes as the Kremlin is engaged in highly controversial aerial bombardment in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad.

Moscow has denied it will stage a land invasion to defeat ISIL or Assad foes.

The job of converting the tanks has been given to Uralvagonzavod, which manufactures a huge number of tanks for the Kremlin.

Senior executive Vyacheslav Khalitov said the company was 'seriously engaged now in developing a remote control system based on existing models' of tanks.

Comments: The World of Tanks comment was made by Dmitry Rogozin, the Russian deputy prime ministre

He said: 'Why should we build a robot that will be less efficient on the battle field with weaker protection?

'We have a ready-made product - the T-90 tank.

'It's not a problem to turn it into a robot. And it can be controlled from a distance'.

The remote controls are set to work from a distance of three miles, meaning operators would still have to be near the field of battle - but not in the firing line.

Previously Rogozin has spoken of how in future an army manned with 'bespectacled nerds' would completely destroy the forces of 'handsome athletes who fight on a lower technological level'.

The T-90 has been the mainstay of the Russian army but in coming years it will be replaced by the T-14 Armata tank, heralded as the most powerful and flexible in the world.

Khalitov said recently: 'We are expecting serial procurement of armoured vehicles mounted on the Armata universal platform to begin in 2017-2018.'

'We are building new workshops, training people and creating Armata production facilities at other enterprises with the purpose of building a large batch of these vehicles.'