Vladimir Putin's supposed "miracle tank" doesn't make it to the Ukraine battlefield. Defects in Russia's most modern tanks are being reported again.
Moscow – The reports have been the same for weeks: Russia is on the rise in the Ukraine war. And once again the regime of Kremlin autocrat Vladimir Putin from Moscow is accepting high losses in exchange for manageable military progress.
Russia in the Ukraine War: T-14 Armata tank does not appear on the battlefield
Expressed in bitter numbers: According to the General Staff in Kiev, the Russian army has now lost more than 457,000 soldiers due to death or injury since its attack on its western neighbor in violation of international law over two years ago, as of April 19, 2024. In addition, there are reportedly more than 7,200 destroyed or captured Russian tanks. The information cannot be independently verified.
Meanwhile, one thing stands out: Putin's supposed "miracle tank" T-14 Armata has still not made it to the Ukraine battlefield between Donbass, Zaporizhia and Kherson. And this despite the fact that Moscow's supposedly most modern tank is actually supposed to make the difference in battle. At least that's what the warmongers in the Kremlin imagined - so far in vain.
Putin's T-14 Armata: Harsh assessment of Russia's main battle tank
As the US trade magazine
The National Interest (TNI)
now writes harshly in an analysis, the Russians have “dug a hole for themselves with the much-praised T-14 Armata”. The political science classification continues: “Its performance in the Ukraine War was uninspiring and, more importantly, its complexity and cost made the Russian military reluctant to use these monsters because it would have been difficult to defeat them So far it has not been proven that even one of Putin's “Armata” took part directly in the battles against the daring Ukrainian defenders.
The political magazine
TNI
deals with the topic of international relations and is published by the
Center for the National Interest
, a US think tank based in Washington. According to the trade journal, the Russian military would actually shy away from using the T-14 Armata “extensively in combat because they (the Russians, editor) fear the loss of such expensive and sophisticated machines.” Because: The Armata production targets have apparently been significantly missed in recent years, and significantly fewer units have been produced than planned by the Kremlin regime. This information cannot be independently verified either.
T-14 Armata |
|
Crew: |
3 soldiers (commander, driver, gunner) |
Length Width Height: |
10.8m/3.5m/3.3m |
Weight: |
48 tons |
Main weapon: |
125-millimeter smoothbore gun 2A82-1M |
Secondary armament: |
2 machine guns in caliber 12.7 millimeters and 7.62 millimeters |
Speed: |
90 km/h |
Russian tanks: The arms industry was probably unable to comply with Moscow's requirements
That's not all the Western criticism: As
TNI
continues, the "T-14 Armata is a monument to the vanity of the Russian defense industry." Moscow allegedly set a target size of 2,300 units for the production of these battle tanks between 2015 and 2020. However, the actual population is far below this requirement, the report states, without mentioning a number of suspected specimens. Ultimately, the tank is nothing but “a wasteful investment for Russia.”
While the Russian armed forces are bombing large Ukrainian cities such as Kharkiv in view of their air sovereignty, regularly putting the Polish Air Force and NATO on alert on the border with Poland, there are increasing reports that the T-14 Armata is - figuratively speaking - becoming a real disaster . An example: “It has been confirmed that the Armata main battle tank has entered service with the Russian military, but will not be deployed in Ukraine,” the British Ministry of Defense wrote in an April 1 analysis: “This is most likely due to the high cost and “The potential reputational damage caused by the loss of a ‘Prestige’ vehicle in combat.”
Tanks in Putin's army: Even in Russia there are doubts about the T-14 Armata
Even a politician in the Russian State Duma is said to doubt the capabilities of the Russian T-14 Armata tank. Like the armor, which is said to be able to block projectiles with a penetrating power of up to 90 centimeters. Or the supposedly long-range tube guided missiles for combating tanks and helicopters, as well as the distance-active Hardkill system, which is intended to combat incoming anti-tank projectiles. Instead, technical defects are repeatedly reported, for example the tank completely failed during a military parade in the middle of Moscow in 2015.
And: The
German Press Agency (dpa)
recently reported
Citing the general director of the Russian arms manufacturer Rostec, Sergey Chemezov, that the T-14 is technically superior to most tanks, but too expensive for use in Ukraine. Instead, the army should be equipped with the slightly worse but cheaper T-90 tanks. According to unconfirmed reports, the Armata is estimated to cost between $4 million and $5 million each. Does this mean it is too expensive to rust on the battlefield after being shot down?
(pm)