Good with everything, but too expensive: what fate awaits the Armata tank

Victor Kuzovkov

On February 21, the international premiere of the T-14 Armata tank will take place. True, it will be presented in the form of a layout and multimedia, in particular, computer graphics. But joking about the next "Putin cartoon" is still not worth it - the show will take place at one of the largest international arms exhibitions and it is obvious that they represent not just equipment that is already "in hardware", but has already passed a certain adaptation for export. compliance.

This will happen at the IDEX 2021 exhibition, which will be held at the National Exhibition Center in Abu Dhabi. Russian enterprises will traditionally be very widely represented there - according to some information, almost all Russian manufacturers of weapons and military equipment will present about 400 samples of their products at the exhibition.

Among them there will be very serious premieres, in particular, the Viking air defense system, an export version of the Russian Buk-M3 air defense system, will be presented to potential buyers. Unlike its predecessor, the Buk-M2 air defense missile system and its export version Buk-M2E, the new complex has increased the target engagement range by almost one and a half times, up to 65 kilometers. In addition, the number of simultaneously hit targets has been increased, up to 6 pieces. And the number of missiles ready for launch for a battalion of two launchers has been increased to 18 missiles. Quite a lot of other innovations, in particular, concerning the interfacing of the Viking air defense system with other radars, including airborne ones. In general, the combat capabilities of the complex only in key parameters, such as range, the number of simultaneously fired targets and ammunition, increased by one and a half to two times. And if we add here the improved capabilities for detecting and hitting targets, then we can talk about a multiple, several times, increase in the combat effectiveness of the new air defense system. And this despite the fact that the relatively recent use of the Buk-M2E air defense system in Syria, against the Turkish Bayraktar-type drones massively used in Idlib, has shown their high efficiency. Then, let me remind you, the transfer of these air defense systems to Idlib literally saved the Syrian army from heavy losses and made it possible to stop the counter-offensive of the militants, supported by the Turkish army.

Some other novelties will also be presented, in particular, an armored personnel carrier of a reinforced class of protection based on a wheeled platform "Boomerang", an assault rifle "Kord", which surpasses modern Kalashnikov assault rifles in some characteristics, Lobayev sniper rifles and much more. Many models will be presented in the form of models, which have long and well established themselves on the international arms market - in particular, Su-35 fighters, S-400 long-range air defense systems, Tor-M2KM short-range missiles, Karakurt-E small missile ship and etc. There is probably no point in listing all 400 samples that will be presented at the exhibition by Russian manufacturers.

Nevertheless, the appearance of the Armata tank in the list stands a little apart. There are several reasons for this at once, and let's dwell on this in a little more detail...

A few years ago, representatives of the military and the manufacturing plant argued that export deliveries of the T-14 "Armata" tank would be possible "only after the needs of the Russian Armed Forces were fully satisfied". The tank itself was considered literally mandatory for the acquisition, very necessary for the Russian armed forces, almost perfect and ready to literally go into battle against any enemy from the assembly line. Recall: in 2015, literally in the year of the presentation of the tank to the general public, Oleg Sienko, director of Uralvagozavod, said that the company already had an order for 2,300 tanks of this type, which should be completed by 2020. That is, at the moment, the Russian army should already have at least two thousand of these modern tanks (this is taking into account the possible backlog of the schedule).

Alas, the reality turned out to be much more modest. In 2016, it seems like the Ministry of Defense placed an order for 100 vehicles for large-scale military tests. Whether it was completed in full is still difficult to say, but here's what is interesting: according to the test results, the military put forward several very serious requirements to the developer. In particular, the military wants the tank's power plant to become more powerful, and has proposed installing an engine with at least 1,500 horsepower on it. In addition, they proposed to increase the caliber of the gun to 152 millimeters, thereby disavowing the bravura statements of the developers about the "ultimatum" of the standard 2A82-1C gun. However, these two requirements can be interconnected: it is required to increase the power precisely in the calculation of the new, heavier, gun and ammunition. At the moment, according to data from open sources, the mobility of the T-14 "Armata" tank is simply outstanding - up to 90 km / h over rough terrain. True, it is noted that this has been achieved, in many respects, due to the excellent transmission, that is, there is a possibility that the tank demonstrates high driving performance only on a relatively flat surface, without elevations.

Nevertheless, the tank turned out to be very good, which was noted by military experts from Great Britain, Germany and some other states that have their own tank building. Moreover, we are not talking about retired military men or journalists, but about reports prepared for their defense ministries by the specialized services of the armed forces of these states. In particular, it was noted that the main tank of Great Britain, the Challenger 2, needs to be replaced, because it has little chance in confrontation with the T-14 - it simply will not penetrate the "Armata's" frontal armor. German experts gave similar assessments for their General Staff, only with regard to the "Leopard-2" tank.

True, such power was achieved at a very high cost. Moreover, in the literal sense - the first "Armats" were estimated at about 500 million rubles apiece, and in the event of the start of large-scale production, the price, according to representatives of UVZ, should have dropped to 300-350 million rubles. That is, roughly speaking, one tank will cost about $ 5 million. If we multiply this by several thousand units needed to replace the tank fleet of the RF Armed Forces, and add the cost of maintenance, it turns out to be very expensive. Therefore, it is not surprising that in 2018 Yuri Borisov, Deputy Prime Minister for Defense Affairs, said that the Armata tank was "too expensive for mass production."

And now we are witnessing the appearance of "Armata" on the international market. That is, it turns out that the need for this tank for the RF Armed Forces is closed. And if we take into account that the troops, in fact, do not have this tank, it turns out that the Russian Armed Forces simply do not need it?

This may be partly true: modern upgraded T-72 and T-90 tanks in their capabilities largely overlap the capabilities of the "Armata", but at the same time they are much cheaper. But it is possible that somewhere in the bowels of the Ministry of Defense they considered that in modern warfare tanks are becoming more of a burden than a powerful striking force. In any case, talk about this has been going on for a long time, the military of many countries are divided into two camps, and it is unlikely that this process bypassed Russia. The recent conflict in Karabakh, where Azerbaijani drones "dominated" Armenian armored vehicles, could have added fuel to the fire.

In this case, the declassification of the latest Russian development, in fact, bypassed almost all foreign counterparts in terms of characteristics, may be a completely logical step - it is very rational to "recapture" the money spent on the development of a tank on exports, which, most likely, is not produced at all for our own army will be.

At the same time, it should be noted that such a decision is, in principle, very controversial. In low-intensity conflicts, of which many more may flare up around our borders, tanks will be used for at least another decade. Yes, probably, modernized T-72s will look good against "mujahideen" of all stripes, but one thing we must remember for sure: the security of the crew in the "Armata" is at a fundamentally different level compared to the T-72 or T-90. And if you don't modernize the latter, it turns out that we will once again prefer the worst of all possible savings - saving on the lives and health of our soldiers.

Well, let's say separately that our hopes for the Middle East market are traditionally dashed by the cunning of local monarchs. More often than not, we sign virtual “contracts” there, with the help of which Arab countries manipulate Moscow in order to stop its military-technical cooperation with Iran. No, of course, we are selling something to this region. We will probably sell it this time too...

And yet, with all the reservations, we will venture to assert that the T-14 "Armata", after the appropriate revision, should go to the Russian army. And almost not in single batches, but in thousands, in order to eventually completely replace the existing tank fleet.

And the Arabs can probably wait...