[Every Point New Defense (Issue 1672) December 28]: At present, the battle between Russia and Ukraine on the front line has fallen into a stalemate, and both sides lack a good way to break the situation. Although Ukraine has received a lot of advanced Western equipment assistance, most of it is defensive equipment. Currently, only a relatively large number of artillery can be used to stabilize the front. As for ground armored vehicles, it is still in short supply. The Russian army has also been reported by the outside world to have lost a large number of armored combat forces, especially tanks used for offense. Therefore, neither side has given up the "meat war" and switched to armored offensive forces. But after all, the Russian army has better technology and resources than Ukraine. It has now announced that it will put the T-14, the world's first fourth-generation main battle tank , into the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Although the number is not large, it is the best time to test this type of tank. If the T-14 performs well, the Russian army will have reason to equip a large number of them, and Russia can even make a lot of money with its foreign trade model. Of course, the T-14 currently does not seem to have the ability to change the situation of the battle. The
T-14 "Armata" tank first appeared at the Russian Victory Day military parade on May 9, 2015. It is a heavy-duty tracked standardized platform. The same system chassis was used to develop the T-14 main battle tank , T-15 infantry fighting vehicle , armored personnel carriers and other armored vehicles models. It features fully digital equipment, an unmanned turret and a separate armored cabin for the crew. Russia believes that the Armata is the first 4th generation main battle tank and has announced that it will purchase 2,400 units to replace the increasingly obsolete T-72 and T-80. However, due to immature technology, the T-14 "Armata" has never entered mass production. The Russian Army later decided to upgrade and improve the T-72 and T-80 to make up for the delay in the T-14's service time.
In April 2020, Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov confirmed that the T-14 "Armata" tank's engine, fire control system and thermal imager all need to be improved. The reason why Russia wants to send T-14 "Armata" to the conflict area this time is because the third-party war statistics website "Oryx" calculated Russia's military equipment losses in Ukraine based on photos from the front line. According to their calculations, the Russian army lost at least 1,577 main battle tanks, mainly T-72s, followed by T-80s, including 7 more modern T-90Ms. Therefore, Russia now needs the T-14 "Armata" to play the role of "God of War" to boost morale and find suitable actual combat targets for this new tank to increase its popularity.
Russian TV host Vladimir Solovyov shared several photos and videos of the T-14 "Armata" on social media. It is not yet clear where the T-14 was taken or the photos were taken, but Russian reports indicate that these T-14 "Armata" crew members were filmed during combat training, possibly in the rear area of a "special military operation." According to some Russian media sources, these tanks are preparing to be deployed in Donbass.
T-14 "Armata" features digital technology and three compartments, including a hull with a crew of three in the front, an unmanned remotely controlled turret weapon station in the middle and a power unit in the rear. The 2A82 125mm gun can be replaced by the new 2A83 152mm gun in the future. According to reports, the gun can fire a new missile , which can penetrate armor and its armor penetration thickness will be twice that of the American Abrams tank .
In terms of protection, the T-14 "Armata" is equipped with an active protection system (APS) to intercept and destroy incoming missiles. According to reports, the APS of the T-14 "Armata" can defend against all types of anti-tank missiles . In addition, the tank has reactive armor on the front and rod armor on the rear for additional protection against rocket-propelled anti-tank grenades. If desired, the tank can be provided with additional active and passive armor. There are three hatches in the front of the hull, the driver is on the left, the gunner is in the middle and the tank commander is on the right. The three-man crew sat in a separate armored cabin.
The unmanned turret on the T-14 Armata is equipped with a 125mm 2A82-1M smoothbore cannon with an automatic loader.There are 45 rounds of ammunition in the turret, including 32 ready-to-use rounds. The main gun can also fire laser-guided missile with a range of 7-12 kilometers. It is currently known that the T-14 "Armata" can operate at temperatures as low as -50 degrees Celsius, and is also equipped with a mobile power station to ensure that the engine can start immediately and smoothly even in cold weather. This is an essential capability for combat in Ukraine, which is about to enter the cold winter.
But currently, considering that the Russian military does not seem to have many T-14 "Armata" tanks, it is unclear how many tanks in total can be deployed to the theater. Video showed at least two tanks driving along a dirt road, with one capturing thick fog en route. In November last year, the Russian TASS news agency reported that a batch of 20 experimental T-14 "Armata" tanks will be delivered to the Russian Army combat forces before the end of 2021. About a month later, in December 2021, the Russian state-owned Rostec company announced the start of small-volume production of T-14 "Armata" tanks.
Not long ago, Andrei Yelchaninov, the First Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Russian Military Industrial Commission, said in an interview with Interfax that the testing of the T-14 is in progress and is expected to be completed in 2022. "More than 40 Armata tanks will be installed after 2023." Handed over to the troops. This shows that Russia can deploy a small number of T-14 "Armata" from its experimental batch for testing in actual combat in order to incorporate theater experience into the further development of the tank.
The most powerful tank deployed by Russia to participate in the war in Ukraine is the serial production T-90M "Breakthrough-3".
