All armored vehicles are entirely produced in Russia from outdated, low-tech components – analysis of a military expert

Illustrative photo: Facebook/93rd Mechanized Brigade Kholodny Yar

The armored vehicles are entirely assembled in Russia from the components they have in stock. And these are often low-tech components that reduce the basic characteristics of armored vehicles. Military expert Yan Matveev spoke about this on the FREEDOM TV channel.

“Almost all armored vehicles are made entirely in Russia. And this worsens its characteristics. Previously, various special equipment was installed on the same T-90 tanks, which was produced in France and other countries. Plus, you need different microchips and a control device, which can also only be ordered abroad. Now they make tanks without this or use small quantities of reserves and gray imports,” he said.

The tactics that the Russian army has chosen do not require innovative solutions in the components of the same tanks, because the military uses them for movement and firing from positions.

“Many analysts massively note that tanks make do with simpler versions of sights, computing devices, fire control, and so on. The Russian army uses its tanks as armored vehicles, so they don’t need all these good sights, long-range thermal imagers, and so on,” the military expert noted.

He emphasized that tank battles are not typical for Russia’s war against Ukraine.

“When the Ukrainian army receives modern tanks, such as Abrams or Leopard, they have some advantage over such Russian tanks. But in battle they don’t meet each other so often,” Matveev said.

The Russian military-industrial complex (MIC) is not fixated on the quality of the equipment produced; quantity is more important for them.

“The problem with the Russian military-industrial complex is that they do not have enough volumes. That is, they lack workshops and production. They cannot increase production as much as they would like. This is a more key factor,” the expert stated.

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