Russian Army has fewer than 3000 tanks

Images from one of the training grounds in the Astrakhan region, where a T-90A tank was destroyed by Russian soldiers.

Citing an intelligence report by military experts, the Russian Lenta website reported that Russia’s Army has a total of 2,685 main battle tanks in its active inventory. About 1,200 of them, or 45 percent, are new or upgraded tanks produced in 2000 or later that have been deployed in combat units, the report says.

Previously, Russian state run Sputnik news reported that Russian Army has almost 12000 tanks which is now proven to be incorrect and disinformation campaigns by Kremlin.

The T-72B3 or T-72M (T-90 export variant of Indian Army) is the most modern T-72 tank in service with Russian Army as of 2013

In addition, Lenta reported that “39 new tank battalions were formed during the past few years, and 32 of them were deployed in the western and southern directions,” and “the total number of deployed tanks has almost doubled.”

The website also noted that the Russian defense industry has raised the rate of modernization of older vehicles. “If in 1998-2010 about 150 T-72B and T-80U tanks were upgraded to the T-72BA and T-80UE-1 levels, then in 2011-2020 supplies to the troops amounted to more than 600 T-72B3 tanks, more than 300 T-72B3M tanks and more than 60 T-80BVM tanks,” Lenta quoted the intelligence report as saying.  

The Russian Army mostly operates Soviet-era T-72 tanks, — Uralvagonzavod, a Rostec company tried upgrading T-72 tank to T-72B3 standard and sale tanks to Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand and Pakistan. Thailand and Bangladesh rejected the proposal and opted for Chinese tanks instead.

Meanwhile, the Defence Blog website said that Alexander Potapov, CEO of defense company Uralvagonzavod, part of the state tech corporation Rostec, announced that the production of the latest T-14 “Armata” tanks was postponed indefinitely. The Armata is of great interest to both the Russian Army and foreign customers, which are inquiring about possible deliveries or licensed production of the hardware, the Uralvagonzavod chief said.

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