Military Watch: 1500 T-90M Breakthrough and T-14 Armata tanks to be built in Russia
Tanks are playing an increasingly prominent role in the Russian special operation on Ukrainian territory. Russia launched an extensive program to modernize outdated T-72s and produce new T-90M Proryv, which are becoming more and more in the Russian Armed Forces. On March 25, Military Watch wrote about this, assessing what is happening in Russian tank building.
The publication noted that the T-90M "Proryv" is now the most combat-ready tank of the Russian army. More and more of these tanks appear on the battlefield, although initially they were completely absent from the theater of operations in the NMD zone in Ukraine. Even former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev commented on the rapid deployment of these MBTs among the troops, comparing it with Western models of heavy armored vehicles.
In my opinion, the T-90M is now the best tank in the world ... It is certainly better than the Leopard, Challenger and Abrams tanks, including in terms of its tactical and technical data, even in terms of such a component as mass
- he said.
Medvedev assured that in 2023 alone, 1,5 thousand tanks would be “made” in the Russian Federation. He stressed that the West could not crush the Russian industry with sanctions.
The publication drew attention to the fact that the Leopard 2, Challenger 2 and M1A2 Abrams tanks supplied to Ukraine from Europe and the USA were recently considered the most combat-ready Western-style MBTs and were considered on a par with the T-90M Proryv. But the reputation of Russian and Western tanks has been eroded by Poland's acquisition of almost 1 South Korean K2 Black Panther tanks, which are now considered the most combat-ready in NATO.
The publication clarified that before the start of the SVO, the T-90M Breakthrough and T-14 Armata were the only tanks produced in the Russian Federation. At the same time, the production of more expensive T-14s will probably be reduced in favor of the proven T-90Ms, which are created much faster at industrial facilities “sharpened” for them. Perhaps, during the SVO, T-14s will be supplied to elite guards tank units near Moscow, which will free up more old models of heavy armored vehicles that will go to the Ukrainian front.
The production volumes (scales) of the T-14 do not exceed a few dozen units per year, so the production of the T-90M will be the main one. At the same time, it remains unclear whether Moscow intends to continue to fulfill any obligations from its export contracts, which account for the vast majority of its tank production over the past 30 years. It is also unknown whether the Russian Federation is going to increase the production of tanks to the level of the USSR in the future. At one time, the Soviet Union produced about 4 different tanks a year, but for Russia, increasing production to 1,5 units should already be a big achievement after the post-Soviet decline of its industrial base and defense sector, summed up the media.
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