Russia Tank Force: Present and Future (Numbers)

Russian just got the advance training ground to test new rounds and ammo and train tankers.

Russia to Set Up Core Armor Testing Area in Urals



Russia's core center to test armor and shells for it will be established at a testing range of a institute in Nizhny Tagil in the Urals, Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's deputy prime minister in charge of defense industry issues, said on Saturday.
"The center will be major in Russia for tests of armor and shells for armor. It will be a core demonstration center where we will hold top international meetings," Rogozin told reporters.
Russian tank makers will be also obliged to train tank crews for foreign customers.
"We have a great export potential. We are going to widen it by training [the crews] and then [those trainees] will become armed forces trainers for our partners in foreign states," he also said, adding that hotels, showrooms and special simulators of military equipment will be build near the testing range soon.

I rather suspect they already had testing sites for ammo and armour, I suspect this is an all in one training and testing facility that allows testing new stuff and also training domestic and foreign crews in the use of the new stuff.

I rather expect the new battle management systems and communications equipment and new sights and bits and bobs will require a high standard of training to use effectively so this new facility should be very useful... would be a neat place to visit... the ultimate fun park....

http://zapret-no.livejournal.com/25893.html

Not exactly Russia, but still interesting. Part of Kharkov tank factory, where a huge number of tanks was stored after Soviet army left Europe.

IMO, having T-90AMs as main tank force in order to save money in the near future would be more expnsive for them in the future. First, armata mbts have much better modernization potential in the future than t-90(based on 50 year design). you can add as much fancy electronics and netcentric capabilities as you want but the other guy can either do the same in much higher numbers(china) or leapfrog straight to 4th gen(us once they see armata). 2nd getting rid of theolder tanks production and logistics would save more money the earlier it is done. 3rd, high tech tanks(especially those a gen ahead) have a much higher profit margin for export, and surely some big nation would chip in for improvements.

T-90 tanks still sell... there is a market for them.

The purpose of the Armata tank is for high threat situations like downtown grozny in conflict.

Probably less than 20% of the MBTs in Russia will be armata based because less than 20% of divisions will be armata based divisions.

Most of them will be Kurganets or Boomerang or Typhoon based divisions or Brigades and therefore will have Kurganets, Boomerang, or Typhoon based MBTs.

For those units that retain older vehicle types the T-90AM will be a useful upgrade... but the goal is to move to the new vehicles as quickly as possible for purposes of standardisation and compatibility... in which case the upgraded T-72s will allow for the new net centric communications systems to be carried by all MBTs and of course the new thermal sights will mean they can fight in the dark too... there will be differences and of course the T-90AM will be a better machine, but also a more expensive machine... which is a very bad feature for a stopgap vehicle.

GarryB wrote:T-90 tanks still sell... there is a market for them.

The purpose of the Armata tank is for high threat situations like downtown grozny in conflict.

Probably less than 20% of the MBTs in Russia will be armata based because less than 20% of divisions will be armata based divisions.

Most of them will be Kurganets or Boomerang or Typhoon based divisions or Brigades and therefore will have Kurganets, Boomerang, or Typhoon based MBTs.

For those units that retain older vehicle types the T-90AM will be a useful upgrade... but the goal is to move to the new vehicles as quickly as possible for purposes of standardisation and compatibility... in which case the upgraded T-72s will allow for the new net centric communications systems to be carried by all MBTs and of course the new thermal sights will mean they can fight in the dark too... there will be differences and of course the T-90AM will be a better machine, but also a more expensive machine... which is a very bad feature for a stopgap vehicle.

Ah, so out of the 2300 armata by 2020, there would be about 400 mbts(80 per year = t-90 levels:pale:)
and equal number of bmpts. 
And I remember they want 1200 mbts so if we go by 80 per year they would make that number in 2030.
@ above: Cr@p maybe that was posted before and I wasnt being attentive. 

I am pretty sure I have talked about this before... from memory I based my numbers on the CFE agreement which limits Russia to about 6,000 MBTs.

Yes I know CFE is dead, but Russia seemed happy with those sorts of numbers so I used them as a base.

The first thing we need to do is work out the proportion of the forces... armata is not a MBT, so if we assume that the structure of forces will be 20% heavy brigades or divisions, and say 50% medium brigades/divisions, that would leave 30% light brigades and divisions.

If we therefore further break it down that means 20% of MBTs will be armatas, 20% will be kurganets MBTs and 30% would be boomerangs and in the light MBTs 30% would be typhoon MBTs.

That would mean about 2/3rds would be wheeled vehicles which would be lighter and more mobile on hard ground and roads and also cheaper to buy and cheaper to operate.

20% of 6,000 is 1,200, so 1200 armata MBTs, 1,200 Kurganets-25 MBTs, and 1,800 boomerang MBTs and 1,800 typhoon MBTs.

And I remember they want 1200 mbts so if we go by 80 per year they would make that number in 2030.

Why do you think they can only produce 80 tanks per year?

UVZ has the production capacity to build thousands of vehicles per year... it just hasn't had the orders or the money...

Here with a question,  Does anyone know how much tanks are in service for example list of how much t-72b3 or t-72ba's ect ect.  And is there a some sort of way to see how what we have and how much kinda like a inventory?

VladimirSahin wrote:Here with a question,  Does anyone know how much tanks are in service for example list of how much t-72b3 or t-72ba's ect ect.  And is there a some sort of way to see how what we have and how much kinda like a inventory?

Apparently around 4,000 T-72B's were built for the Russian Army, of which 800-1,000 were T-72BA's. As of last year's end, around 300 had been modified to BM's, 150 to B2's and 300 to B3's.

Not sure where you are getting those numbers from.
UVZ built over 20,000 T-72s from 1974 to 1990. Only 4000 T-72Bs in total? Much more IMO.
Assuming all plans were met like reported, there were 370 T-72B3 upgraded from 2012-2013.
T-72BA was upgraded in several different variants, but at best there are a couple hundred of them, less than B3 at this point.

It's around 1500 T-72B(BA, B3) in an active service now. And around 7000 T-72 of all modifications are in reserve. Exact numbers are classified actually

TR1 wrote:Not sure where you are getting those numbers from.
UVZ built over 20,000 T-72s from 1974 to 1990. Only 4000 T-72Bs in total? Much more IMO.
Assuming all plans were met like reported, there were 370 T-72B3 upgraded from 2012-2013.
T-72BA was upgraded in several different variants, but at best there are a couple hundred of them, less than B3 at this point.  

I'm afraid that I acquired those numbers from many different sources over time. I was never able to determine if the BA's were included in that 4,000 T-72B total, so it has potential to be 800-1,000 higher (I always go conservative). Remember that the B / BA were the last production models, so 20-25% would not be out of the realm of possibility. I'm comfortable with the breakdown of Modified tanks, there are plans and there is actual. Noticed the other day that getting ready for the biathlon, they had been upgrading both BM's and B2's to B3's standard to use in the competition. I would have used the funds to upgrade some B's first.

Asf wrote:It's around 1500 T-72B(BA, B3) in an active service now. And around 7000 T-72 of all modifications are in reserve. Exact numbers are classified actually

It would actually be almost twice that amount in active units as the T-80 has been completely withdrawn from service. The twice would include training units and spares kept with operational units.

It would actually be almost twice that amount in active units as the T-80 has been completely withdrawn from service.

Russia has around 40 motorised rifle brigades with one tank batallion (around 40 tanks). It's about 1500-1600 tanks. Plus a limited number of tanks in naval infantry and 4 tank brigades (or now 3 ar one brigade was converted into a division), but don't forget about T-90. It's around 2000 in the active service at all

spares kept with operational units.

They are technically in reserve

 training units

Those can have older T-72 models btw

My info shows 37 tank battalions in brigades of which 8 are T-90A's. A normal Russian tank bn has 41 tanks plus an unit generally has another company of older versions used for training.
This would equal 1189 primary + 290 training T-72's.
There are 4 tank bdes plus 1 regiment (18th MG div) with 94 tanks per plus a training company per bn all T-72's.
This would equal 470 primary + 150 training T-72's.
There are 4 training tank regiments plus 2 bns of which 1 bn is T-90.
This would equal 417 training T-72's.
This would equal 2516 total T-72's. If you include the 13 Reserve bde tank bns then it goes above 3,000.



Not trying to argue my friend, just sharing what information that I have. Only the Russian MoD has the correct answer... we hope   

plus 1 regiment (18th MG div)

plus 2 regiments from Kantemirovskaya division

Still we don't the exact numbers per model

Asf wrote:Still we don't the exact numbers per model

No, and probably never will. But the fun is in the searching in the interim   

plus 1 regiment (18th MG div)

I don't know about Tamanskaya motor rifle division, but there are 2 regiments from Kantemirovskaya tank division instead of 1 tank brigade. Btw they are 2th and 4th divisions, what is a 18th division?

Asf wrote:

plus 1 regiment (18th MG div)

I don't know about Tamanskaya motor rifle division, but there are 2 regiments from Kantemirovskaya tank division instead of 1 tank brigade. Btw they are 2th and 4th divisions, what is a 18th division?

I have yet to see any proof that there was any actual increase in size of these two "divisions" being increased from "brigades" other then their Recon element increased from 200 to 500 men. Believe it was strictly to restore their historical names and honours. The 18th MG division is the unit defending the Kuriles.

Zivo wrote:

Vann7 wrote:
Does russian MOD have said how many armata main battle tanks they will order for the army?

The last figure I've heard was 2,500 Armata's in various configurations. I would guess they're aiming for around 500 MBT's over the next decade. Who really knows though...

Thats actually not a bad number.. They should also keep their T-72s i think they have about 10,000 and upgrade/reinforce them.. They can be very useful in urban /guerrilla warfare ,as support tanks.. What i would also like to see is also many orders of Koalition -SV and Iskanders..

You know how many Iskanders Russia have in inventory at the moment and how many ordered.?

Vann7 wrote:

Zivo wrote:

Vann7 wrote:
Does russian MOD have said how many armata main battle tanks they will order for the army?

The last figure I've heard was 2,500 Armata's in various configurations. I would guess they're aiming for around 500 MBT's over the next decade. Who really knows though...

Thats actually not a bad number.. They should also keep their T-72s i think they have about 10,000 and upgrade/reinforce them.. They can be very useful in urban /guerrilla warfare ,as support tanks.. What i would also like to see is also many orders of Koalition -SV and Iskanders..  

You know how many Iskanders Russia have in inventory at the moment and how many ordered.?

No, Russia does not have anywhere near 10,000 operational, reserve, or even stored in barely decent condition T-72s. Not at this point.

TR1 wrote:

Vann7 wrote:

Zivo wrote:

Vann7 wrote:
Does russian MOD have said how many armata main battle tanks they will order for the army?

The last figure I've heard was 2,500 Armata's in various configurations. I would guess they're aiming for around 500 MBT's over the next decade. Who really knows though...

Thats actually not a bad number.. They should also keep their T-72s i think they have about 10,000 and upgrade/reinforce them.. They can be very useful in urban /guerrilla warfare ,as support tanks.. What i would also like to see is also many orders of Koalition -SV and Iskanders..  

You know how many Iskanders Russia have in inventory at the moment and how many ordered.?

No, Russia does not have anywhere near 10,000 operational, reserve, or even stored in barely decent condition T-72s. Not at this point.

That number is way inflated, so you are correct... They could simply upgrade the T-72's to the B2 and B3 standards, while producing both the T-90 (of some variant, at a slower pace) and Armata. That would leave them with a rather powerful ground force without breaking the bank, and it *shouldn't* take much time either... They still have a large number of -72's in reserve, right?

The bulk of the T-72's in service will likely remain in service for a long time, but will be upgraded. Which isn't a bad thing, considering NATO has the same plan for their MBT's. The clock is ticking down for the older reserve vehicles though, T-80's are also on the chopping block.

Zivo wrote:The bulk of the T-72's in service will likely remain in service for a long time, but will be upgraded. Which isn't a bad thing, considering NATO has the same plan for their MBT's. The clock is ticking down for the older reserve vehicles though, T-80's are also on the clopping block.

Which is a mistake IMO. Even given their vulnerabilities, they are very advanced even today.

Instead of wearing out their life as quick as possilble (T-64s or spare T-72s could be used for that instead), they should be retired but placed into the reserve and kept in good condition; while T-64s should make their way into training units.
T-62s, T-55/T-54s should be scrapped or converted into civil or utility vehicles same as the current plan calls for.

That way, Russia would easily have a pool of advanced MBTs on top of the T-72 pool under active exploitation, and as T-64s would be used for training, tank crews will end up acquainted with a lot of the same features that are present in the T-80s. In times of high military tension, those T-80s could be rapidly mobilized and would be highly effective even without further modernisation.

Zivo wrote:The bulk of the T-72's in service will likely remain in service for a long time, but will be upgraded. Which isn't a bad thing, considering NATO has the same plan for their MBT's. The clock is ticking down for the older reserve vehicles though, T-80's are also on the chopping block.

Figured that, and it seems like a good option both economically and militarily... Why are the T-80's going to get chopped when the T-72 is technically older?- I've been wondering this for a while now, and it doesn't make much sense.... I'd like to them get upgraded to some sort of export spec and sold. I'm sure that there are potential buyers, why not?