The opening gambit of 1700 T-72s is a big number. Leaving the T-90s outside the discussion, that fleet would seem to field 150 top notch conversions and 200 new production upgrades (of which 10% have been delivered).
The T-80s were only just pulled out of storage and I am sure they will be fine machines when the upgrades get done; when would that be?
There no doubt that even a T-90S is a competent tank, and the M upgrade to it will make it better.
Throw in the T-14 prototypes and all of the above, once delivered will number under or about a thousand. The rest of their fleets will be as they are today.
RetroSicotte wrote:In short:
- All T-72's being upgraded to T-72B3
- 150 of the T-72B3 being upgraded to T-72B3M
- T-80BV being upgraded to T-80BVM
- T-90 being upgraded to T-90M.
- Perhaps 100 T-14 in existence
The "M" is essentially the designator of Relikt, new gunsights and new ammunition, in addition to other upgrades. Essentially moving T-14 protection and technology onto the T-72, T-80 and T-90. T-14 also has it.
To underestimate it because of the "lol Russia uses ancient crap tanks and relies on numbers" thing is naive. Their tanks are lethal, as they've been upgrading constantly, while the MoD has barely done anything with CR2 since 1993.
There is a problem, or two:
- the 2nd generation thermal sights, quoted in some of the linked articles; do they match Catherine MPs (as in Mega Pixels)?
- and as per the bolded end statement in the quote, it is time for our MoD to get off its thumbs in this matter (why does it take 2 years for prototyping??). And the Germans have added to the damage by being politically correct and shelving the development of their long-rod penetrator round for political correctness (depleted uranium) when the Berlin Wall came down. Thus the alternative, new round can only be used in Leo A7s (plus the 200 to- be- modernised to the Leo2A7 standard... again by when??... even taking the 16 Dutch Leo2A6s back to active use seems to be a big story - as they are part of 1st Panzer - so that's about a company's worth and can be used to plug one major road crossing
).
Just saw the one from UnionJack: " For example, IIRC, the B3 has already seen service in Ukraine as of this year (possibly as early as 2016, though i don't know the exact chronology) so it is hardly
the "fresh off the production line" model the first link claims it to be."
So, to dive back into the minutiae (Just when I thought I had coined a smashing ending statement):
Both of the "other B3 models" in the quote below were preceded by the B3 conversions, so chronologically the report on new ones rolling off from the factory - in effect, a production restart stemming from the Armata "failure" - should be correct
" T-72B3M ( T-72B3 obr. 2014) is not the same at all as
T-72B3 obr. 2016. The B3M is a SPECIAL EDITION to show off in the"Tank Biathlons" since 2014"
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)