Russia will use a different tank in the war in Ukraine. We are talking about the T-14 Armata, a tank introduced in 2015 and which has since had to deal with several defects. “During the parade on Red Square in Moscow, he already had engine problems,” says defense specialist and analyst Patrick Bolder of the Center for Strategic Studies in The Hague.
Even the British Ministry of Defense called the deployment of the T-14 a risky decision, because the tanks would be in poor condition. According to Bolder, several thousand copies of the T-14 were supposed to be in the Russian armed forces. But the tank has been plagued by all kinds of setbacks, which could also be the result of design flaws.’
Sanctions
“They have been very reticent to use it. And the project was also stopped for economic reasons,’ says Bolder. Because of the sanctions against Russia, not many new ones can be built.
It is estimated that the Russian army now has about forty units. “Although technologically quite advanced, I don’t think this tank will bring much change to the battlefield.”
Before the war
The fact that the Russian military has now decided to deploy the T-14 in Ukraine is, according to Bolder, partly due to a lack of better ones. “They have already lost thousands of tanks. Some can be fixed, but many are really gone. But the tank is very important in the Russian doctrine of warfare.”
And so the Russians will want to use what they have, says Bolder. “We also saw very old tanks, like the 1955 T-55 and the pre-WWII T-34. What you have and what you can roll will be used.’
German tank builders in legal battle
The two German companies that build the Leopard 2 tank, Rheinmetall AG and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), are involved in a legal dispute over intellectual property rights. Düsseldorf-based Rheinmetall makes the Leopard 2’s gun, while Munich-based KMW makes the chassis.
The CEO of Rheinmetall said in an interview that the rights to Leopard 2 would go to his company. “False and misleading,” says KMW. Earlier this year, the German government agreed to supply Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
Source: BNR
Sharon Rock is an author and journalist who writes for 24 News Globe. She has a passion for learning about different cultures and understanding the complexities of the world. With a talent for explaining complex global issues in an accessible and engaging way, Sharon has become a respected voice in the field of world news journalism.
