“Due to higher value placed on lives of crew by modern democracies, and the fact that technologically more advanced vehicles need more investment in personnel, there is a much greater emphasis on survivability and protection, plus incorporating more effective weapons and systems that mean the tank is more lethal than its opponent (more effective gun, longer range, better sights, more stable platform for firing on the move, ability to engage one target after another rapidly),” he said. No tank is perfect as each design is a tradeoff between mobility, firepower and protection, said Mr Crump. He added that the current pledges of Western tanks, which have been designed to outperform Soviet armour by “beating quantity with quality”, will likely increase, posing a further problem for Russia. As a result, the MoD said it is unlikely that any deployed T-14s will have met the usual standards for new equipment to be deemed operational.ĭr Smith said the design and production problems could “undermine the confidence of troops required to operate and deploy with these tanks in potential combined arms operations against Ukrainian armoured forces”. The planned T-14 production run for 2022 was described by Russian Defence Minister, Sergei Shoigu, as an “experimental-industrial” batch.
The MoD said Russia had prepared a small number of the T-14 Armata tanks for the first operational deployment in Ukraine but forces on the ground were reluctant to accept them “because the vehicles were in such poor condition”, possibly due to reported problems with the engine and thermal imaging system.ĭeployment may also cause logistic problems because the T-14 is larger and heavier than other Russian designs. In December, T-14s were spotted on a training area in southern Russia, which has previously been associated with activity ahead of deploying weapons to Ukraine.
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