Tanks for the Memories

Meet Russia’s newest — and possibly most lethal and survivable — main battle tank, the T-14 Armata:

By 2020, Uralvagonzavod (UVZ), the largest main battle tank manufacturer in the world, plans to produce 2,300 T-14 Armata models. According to media reports, large deliveries of the tank (around 500 per year) will start in 2017. In total, the Russian Land Forces are scheduled to receive a batch of 32 Armata main battle tanks this year.

The Russian military intends to replace 70 percent of its tank corps with the new tracked vehicle, replacing the older T-72 and T-90 main battle tanks – both of which were also produced by UVZ.

Wikipedia reports that the first 20 T-14s have already been delivered to the Russian Army, presumably for testing, training, and evaluation.

The idea behind the Armata platform is to reduce development, production, and maintenance costs by using a common chassis and drivetrain for a tank, armored personnel carrier, antiaircraft gun, self-propelled artillery, etc. If the Russians manage to pull this off, it will be a disturbing sign that their procurement system is in far less trouble than ours is.

But looking at the T-14, I knew it seemed familiar. 30 years ago, Newsweek ran a report, unfortunately not available online, on what Pentagon analysts were calling the “FST-1,” or “Forward Soviet Tank.” Small and turret-less, it was supposed to be much more difficult for NATO to locate and destroy. Whether the FST-1 was ever a genuine Soviet plan, or just a fevered Pentagon daydream, it never went into production.

With some digging around though, I was able to locate the illustration Newsweek used in its report — on an Italian message board of all places. Here it is:

FST-1

The Armata goes with a low-slung turret rather than a no-turret design, but the intention is the same: To pack a lot of firepower into a small, fast, and well-armored package. In this one case, the future looks much like we thought it would.

Here’s more on the T-14:

According to RT, “the tank’s turret will also carry a 30 mm sub-caliber ranging gun to deal with various targets, including low-flying aerial targets, such as attack planes and helicopters. A 12.5 mm turret-mounted heavy machine gun is reportedly capable of taking out incoming projectiles, such as anti-tank missiles. It’s capable of neutralizing shells approaching at speeds of up to 3,000 meters per second.”

What makes Russia’s new main battle tank so special?

First, the active defense system deserves special attention. It is an individual anti-missile and anti-projectile tank defense system, supposedly capable of intercepting any type of anti-tank ammunition.

“It defends the vehicle from strikes, including those from the air. Thus, even the most modern Apache helicopter will not have a 100 percent chance of destroying a T-14 with its missiles. Active defense is situated along the entire perimeter of the turret at various levels, which ensures complete protection of the tank’s most important elements,” according to the FSMO report.

The three-man crew sits outside the turret, in the main body of the armored vehicle. Given that the top of the turret is a weak spot in any tank, a T-14 crew should have better protection from ariel attack.

I’d take the RT (Russia Today) braggadocio with a grain of salt, and we might learn more when and if the T-14 debuts as scheduled next month.

One last thing though. Russia announced intentions to buy 500 T-14s a year for a fleet of 2,300 by 2020. For a country with Russia’s economic troubles, that procurement schedule seems maybe optimistic — at best.