Russia has depleted its tank stocks: the industry is not covering combat losses
-
According to the researchers, even though there are still about 4,700 tanks in storage, most of them will be difficult to restore due to their poor technical condition.
This is Russia though - "poor technical condition" is "ready for service."
Covert Cobal has been classifying in mainly 4 categories. Abysmal is the lowest one, and are often missing such minor accessories as the turet, tracks, engines, and wheels. Not to mention having sat outdoors for upwards of 50 years. Those conditions are mostly what they're down to. It might allow for slightly higher throughout on production to start on these rusted husks rather than from raw steel, but it'd definitely be harder and more expensive to make these usable than to build a new tank from scratch.
-
Yet we must triple up military budget in case they decide to invade whole europe on empty tanks...
Shut up, cuck
-
This post did not contain any content.
I hope this hits Russia hard, but I wonder how much Russia needs tanks at this stage of the war vs a breadth and depth of infantry and artillery reserves.
Main battle tanks are for punching through enemy defenses and making a run on enclosing enemy forces/enemy territory.
Once you capture that territory tanks are still very much useful, especially because of their mobility and ability to reposition quickly, but they aren't necessary in the same way that you need some kind of tank or something behaving like a tank in the maneuver portion of the war. Even if Ukraine counterattacks with main battle tanks, the most effective counters in that case are artillery, entrenched infantry, and mechanized infantry with effective AT that can respond and reposition to slow down armored columns attempting to break through their front lines. Don't get me wrong, tanks would absolutely decisively help too, but if I had to choose between depriving Russia of artillery and depriving Russia of tanks, I would choose artillery. I mean... obviously but especially at this stage of the war.
Who knows though, I hope Ukraine can get a steady supply of main battle tanks from someone (do they currently?), if Russia can't field main battle tanks even if it doesn't immediately affect the strategic balance of the war, the immediate psychological impact and tactical efficiency of tanks chewing through emplaced machine gun nests and enemy positions will be huge. No matter where you are on the battlefield you know that if Ukranians show up with an actual main battle tank, you are fucked as a Russian unless you have a whole lot of artillery/air support at the ready.
-
This post did not contain any content.
the industry is not covering combat losses
Since it's not clear from the headline, that the restoration industry. We're not even talking about the production of new tanks (which was never that impressive during this full-scale war).
-
According to the researchers, even though there are still about 4,700 tanks in storage, most of them will be difficult to restore due to their poor technical condition.
This is Russia though - "poor technical condition" is "ready for service."
Nah, adjust for Russian standards in what that even means. It has to be able to drive off the base.
-
I really hope Russia is collapsing soon so Ukraians can have actual peace.
Donβt worry, the US will probably bail Russia out to keep that from happening
-
I'm going to go with what European military leaders are saying, out loud and in public. God knows what those leaders really know and talk about.
I'm guessing you're European? Well, you've had 80 years of mostly peace and prosperity. Timed to get armed, personally. (Yes my fellow Americans, Europeans can acquire guns without too much hassle. Yes, real guns. Gun ownership just isn't a major part of their culture like it is over here.)
If you're allergic to guns, consider these two scenarios:
-
Hostile foreign power invades America.
-
Hostile foreign power invades Europe.
In which case do you expect the invader to suffer the most? Which case do you consider more likely?
You are ignoring the elephant in the room, which is that a rising sense of militarism quickly feeds into a decay of your society, if you make an incredible amount of guns somebody is going to use them, that is how these things work.
I am not saying Europe shouldn't absolutely take being able to militarily counter Russia seriously, as they should any regional threat, but what is needed isn't necessarily to reshape Europe into a hypermilitarized environment, especially in the area of police and the militarization of police, what Europe needs is to make sure it has effective counters to a mass, mechanized land war.
One of the most effective counters, and a decisive element of the war in Ukranian has been HIMARs, long range missiles capable of striking mobile Russian SAM assets and other high value targets from extremely far away. These make maneuvering a large concentrated armored force much much much more costly and dangerous.
...but this all devolves into a sense of militarism that undermines the original reason for making all the guns in the first place, it is just a matter of how far you can push it in your society before that cancer becomes terminal... see the U.S. as a prime example....
-
-
It's seriously astonishing that they managed to wear though the entire massive Soviet stockpile.
Covert Cobal has great tank and apv counting vids, documenting the ever worsening condition of the vehicles remaining.
https://youtube.com/@covertcabalYes. Back when analysts used to talk about a war with Russia pre-2022, something you heard pretty often was "they're not as advanced, but they have so much stockpiled armour".
This is like America running out of guns or Canada running out of syrup.
-
I'm going to go with what European military leaders are saying, out loud and in public. God knows what those leaders really know and talk about.
I'm guessing you're European? Well, you've had 80 years of mostly peace and prosperity. Timed to get armed, personally. (Yes my fellow Americans, Europeans can acquire guns without too much hassle. Yes, real guns. Gun ownership just isn't a major part of their culture like it is over here.)
If you're allergic to guns, consider these two scenarios:
-
Hostile foreign power invades America.
-
Hostile foreign power invades Europe.
In which case do you expect the invader to suffer the most? Which case do you consider more likely?
European leaders are already talking about using the new army to invade the Middle East.
-
-
Even in modern war, a significant amount of armor is lost not from literally being blown up, but from breaking, getting stuck, being abandoned after a flank cuts off retreat in a vehicle etc...
-
According to the researchers, even though there are still about 4,700 tanks in storage, most of them will be difficult to restore due to their poor technical condition.
This is Russia though - "poor technical condition" is "ready for service."
Even without assuming they'll use low quality examples, the article also says
According to researchers, only about 1,200 tanks can still be relatively easily restored after major repairs.
It sure sounds like the title is BS.
-
Donβt worry, the US will probably bail Russia out to keep that from happening
lets bankrupt them next. they obviously have too much power and dont know how to be responsible with it.
-
According to the researchers, even though there are still about 4,700 tanks in storage, most of them will be difficult to restore due to their poor technical condition.
This is Russia though - "poor technical condition" is "ready for service."
Nah. In those photos, where there's one or two tanks left but all the others have gone... those are immovable tanks. Couldn't even get them to the service bay. Why else would that one tank have been left behind?
-
It's seriously astonishing that they managed to wear though the entire massive Soviet stockpile.
Covert Cobal has great tank and apv counting vids, documenting the ever worsening condition of the vehicles remaining.
https://youtube.com/@covertcabalThe stockpile was built in the 50s, 60s and 70a though. The vast bulk of it is 50-70 years old. Post soviet Russia didn't have the money, and prior to that the stockpile was good.
-
This post did not contain any content.
Mourne the loss of history, but blame the people who threw them to be destroyed.
-
Even without assuming they'll use low quality examples, the article also says
According to researchers, only about 1,200 tanks can still be relatively easily restored after major repairs.
It sure sounds like the title is BS.
That is not really out of line with the title, especially if you line it up with the rest of the article. 1200 tanks that need major repairs does not mean a potential 1200 combat-ready vehicles. It means that you can, if you are really good, salvage 60% of that by cannibalizing the rest.
They drew down 350 tanks last year. Oryx confirmed 3800+ tank losses over the past 3 years, Ukraine claims 10000+. This means that they have enough tanks to last them another 6-8 months if we're being incredibly generous, if they could do 2 years of work in an instant. This is practically an empty stock.
And that doesn't count that these are the last vehicles for a reason. They are not 1200 T-72s that can be restored to full working order, it's mostly going to be very badly damaged and worn T-55s or even T-34s, compared to which an RPG-7 is space-age technology.
-
This post did not contain any content.
-
European leaders are already talking about using the new army to invade the Middle East.
Could you back that up with a citation?
-
Yet we must triple up military budget in case they decide to invade whole europe on empty tanks...
I think at this point the unspoken truth is that we must have a military that needs to be a deterrent to the US as well.
-
The stockpile was built in the 50s, 60s and 70a though. The vast bulk of it is 50-70 years old. Post soviet Russia didn't have the money, and prior to that the stockpile was good.
Prior to Ukraine the stockpile was good. Then it started disappearing.
