In 2020, the Russian Armed Forces received 300 new and upgraded tanks. The "model range" has not changed much – it is already well-known T-72B3 and T-90M "Breakthrough", produced in one line, T-80BVM tanks with a gas turbine engine, the last batch of which came to the troops this year. Deliveries of the T-14 Armata are expected in 2021. These are completely different tanks that cannot be unified. But the United States, for example, has only one type of main battle tank - "Abrams", as well as Germany – "Leopard", France – "Leclerc", and Britain, and Japan, and South Korea – all have only one.
Why does Russia need several heterogeneous armored vehicles at once?
The short answer is that this is the Russian legacy of the Soviet military tradition. Now let's try to understand in more detail.
Let's start with the number-there are really a lot of tanks in Russia. In the" bins " they are stored a huge amount. According to the calculations of the American publication We Are The Mighty, with reference to the data of the Global Firepower website, there are approximately 22 thousand tanks in the Russian arsenal. The European countries that are members of NATO have a little more than 11 thousand armored vehicles in service. Taking into account the United States and Canada, the number of tanks in the alliance reaches 18 thousand. That is the obvious advantage of Russia in terms of armored vehicles.
But the numbers lie. Of the actual combat vehicles that are on the move, we have a little more than 5 thousand tanks. The rest are either in storage or being prepared for modernization. More in the conditions of modern war and do not need. A tank is a powerful thing, but sometimes, especially in urban conditions, it is quite useless.
After the Great Patriotic War, the outcome of which was largely determined by tanks, the Soviet Union continued to boom in tank construction. Their development and production were engaged in several enterprises that issued their own types of armored vehicles. Kharkiv Malyshev Transport Engineering Plant created T-54/55 tanks, then T-62/64, which then served as the basis for the T-80, which were produced at the Kirov Plant in Leningrad, at Omsktransmash – with gas turbine engines, and in Kharkiv itself – with diesel engines. The designer of military equipment Valery Venediktov at Uralvagonzavod in Nizhny Tagil created his T-72. A little later, the same designer Vladimir Potkin redesigned this model, which became the world's best-selling T-90 tank. As a result, the Russian army – the successor to the Soviet one – has three types of different tanks in service with the Ground Forces (and now also in the airborne assault brigades).
This is due to several factors.
First, many military leaders of those years grew out of the "tank helmet" - had experience of service in armored forces, and therefore a priori preferred this military equipment.
Secondly, the length of the country's borders was huge-62,710 km (now a little less – 60,932 km), a third of them were overland, and tanks could be quickly transferred to any potentially dangerous area-up to the shores of the English Channel (under this idea, high-speed T-72 and T-80 were created).
Third, the Soviet Union provided tanks to all countries of the Warsaw Pact bloc and countries of socialist orientation, and here a variety of types of armored combat vehicles was required. There were more export models than own ones. Now, for example, the Indian army is armed with more than a thousand T-90S tanks, while the Russian Armed Forces T-90, T-90A, T-90M have about 350 vehicles.
Finally, with the help of various tank design bureaus and many factories in the Soviet Union, intraspecific competition for the creation of the best weapons systems was ensured.
Tank, of course, and now can not be called an outdated type of weapons, it is a killer force with a powerful gun and modern means of protection. Infantry is afraid of tanks, but has means of counteraction. Of the main Russian tanks can now be called the T-90 is upgraded to the level of T-90A or T-90M and T-72, now in the new version of the T-72B3, plus the T-80, which is modified as T-80БВМ. These tanks are undoubtedly quite successful and competitive, but their age is already gradually disappearing. A new tank should replace it, and here the only option is the T – 14 Armata.
"30 years before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian tank industry created three fundamentally different armored vehicles," military expert Colonel Viktor Murakhovsky, a graduate of the Kazan Tank School, told the newspaper VZGLYAD. – This is a very high figure, given the fact that our country did not fight during this period, and the "arms race" was more expensive in terms of nuclear weapons technologies, various military space programs, the development of the fleet and strategic aviation. Nevertheless, then three fundamentally new directions in tank construction were developed and created. These are the T-62-64, T-72-90 and T-80 series tanks, which are the main tanks of the army even now.
If we take a similar time period after 1991, only one tank was created – T-14 "Armata", known as"object 195". It has great prospects, and it is really the tank of the future, which will become one and the main tank of the Russian Ground Forces.
This is probably the most correct decision for the long-term development of tank troops. Similarly, as there is one main tank in the United States - "Abrams", or in Germany – "Leopard", they are modernized, acquire a new look, but these are still the same tanks of early modifications, the improvement of which does not require special additional investment.
We are developing the T-72 – T-90 series along this path, but with the T-80 with its gas turbine engine and high-speed characteristics, not everything is so clear.
Speed for a tank is not particularly important, for example, 99 percent of the mileage for an armored vehicle falls on the advance in the column, where any other equipment slows down the advance. By definition, it will not work faster, and it will take additional time to break out into the operational space. And the current promotion of the T-80, even in an improved T-80BVM, is only a support system for the tank-building industry, in this case Omsktrasmash, where they are produced. These are by and large problems of poverty. Upgrading is easier than creating something new from scratch.
"Tanks are not a priority for the Russian army right now," Viktor Murakhovsky continues. - The main funds of the defense budget go to the fleet, hypersonic weapons and other priorities. Therefore, tanks are not particularly spent, and the same T-14 is "slowed down" due to financial problems. This is despite the fact that the gas turbine T-80 eats much more fuel and air-when underwater driving, it requires two pipes to supply it to the engine and crew, which also creates more problems. And here, of course, the best option will be the possibility of modifying the main tank and gradually getting rid of the previous types of armored vehicles."
One of the priorities in the development of tank construction is the unification of combat vehicles. It is cheaper to operate, especially in combat conditions. In Russian tanks, it is present to a certain extent. First of all, due to the caliber of weapons, which is now brought to a single – 125-mm smoothbore gun, which allows you to fire both projectiles and guided missiles. There is a replacement of spare parts, T-72 and T-90 have a similar repair base. With the T-80 turbojet engine, it is somewhat more difficult, it is easier to repair it with the help of parts from the helicopter.
The planned gradual replacement of Russian armored vehicles with one main tank, which means the T-14 "Armata", will allow to adjust the armored fleet to a single standard. However, this does not mean that the current T-90, T-80, T-72 will immediately go under write-off. They will remain in service for at least another 20-30 years.
Viktor Sokirko