Putin needs tanks to replenish his armed forces. However, the Russian defense industry has little capacity for building new combat vehicles.
Moscow – In the Ukraine War, Russia's tanks became a game changer on the battlefield for Vladimir Putin. Now the president apparently wants to ramp up all the capacities of the Russian defense industry again. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Friday (April 19, 2024) that the country is increasing production of tanks.
Putin ramps up production of tanks – arms industry boosts production
Shoigu's ministry released a video showing him touring a tank factory in the Siberian city of Omsk and meeting with workers, whom he praised for exceeding production targets. “The Omsk plant is fulfilling the program – I can even say that it is exceeding the program,” Shoigu told
officials, according to
Reuters
. “The problems and tasks that we decided on during our last visit have almost all been solved.” But more work is needed to increase the production of armor protection equipment.
The Minister of Defense instructed factory managers to increase the production of anti-tank equipment and explained the need to increase supplies to tank repair brigades. “Now we need to significantly increase the additional equipment for the vehicles used in combat,” he said.
Putin increases military and weapons production - arms industry at full speed?
Employees of the tank factory told Shoigu that the plant had increased the production of the “Solntsepek” multiple rocket launcher by two and a half times and that the next shipment of a new model of the T-80BVM main battle tank was ready for use at the front.
Plant managers also said they had hired 1,200 additional employees since last year and were working around the clock in two shifts to increase production capacity. Shoigu also highlighted the production of anti-drone systems - apparently in response to the Ukrainian drone attacks. Ukrainian troops have carried out frequent drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructure since the beginning of the year. They also hit important oil refineries that had to temporarily stop production.
Russia's arms industry boom just a bluff?
However, experts assume that Russia is setting different priorities for its current production of tanks than it has announced. “Russia no longer produces modern combat equipment,” Nikolai Kulbaka, a Russian economist, told The
Washington Post
. “But it produced much more simple tools, rifles, grenades, mass weapons for mass soldiers.”
According to Russia, 1,500 tanks were built in 2023, and Putin also wants to increase military spending in 2024 and budget the equivalent of around $115 billion. That would be almost a third of Russia's entire annual budget. However, there are increasing doubts about the figures from Russia. The information on the tanks produced could be “technically correct,” said Michael Gjerstad, analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) think tank, to the
Washington Post.
However, refurbished, older tanks that have been stored for a long time could also be included in the figure. Gjerstad believes that Russia could produce up to 330 tanks per year, but in fact only builds half of them.
Putin loses many tanks in the Ukraine war - and wants to increase production
According to the
Washington Post,
the Russian defense industry is also having problems providing capacity to build new combat vehicles. “It is much easier to increase existing production rates,” said Alexander Potapov, CEO of Russian defense company Uralvagonzavod,
told Russian state news agency
Zvezda
.
Russia has already lost many tanks on the war front in the Ukraine war. The International Institute for Strategic Studies said in February 2024 that the Ukraine war had cost Russia more than 3,000 tanks. Russia also had to resort to old tanks in storage because the armed forces were running out of tanks.
It is now becoming all the more important for Putin to boost the production of weapons and equip the military. Putin apparently receives support from other countries. Recently there have even been reports of possible arms deals with North Korea, Iran and China. These countries are said to have supplied Putin with military equipment despite sanctions.
CNN
research has also shown that Russia produces three times as much ammunition annually as the USA and Germany combined. (with material from Reuters)