New Armata combat vehicle platforms to have number of advantages over their foreign counterpart TASS 2309164

Military Defense Industry Technology - Russian armour
 
New Armata combat vehicle platforms to have number of advantages over their foreign counterpart
The newest Russian armoured vehicles designed by the Uralvagonzavod (Russian acronym: UVZ) research-production corporation, the Tractor Plants Concern, and the Military Industrial Company (Russian acronym: VPK, Voyenno-Promishlennaya Kompaniya) have a number of radical advantages over their foreign analogues and over the vehicles, previously developed by the indigenous defense industry, Russian analysts suppose.
     
The newest Russian armoured vehicles designed by the Uralvagonzavod (Russian acronym: UVZ) research-production corporation, the Tractor Plants Concern, and the Military Industrial Company (Russian acronym: VPK, Voyenno-Promishlennaya Kompaniya) have a number of radical advantages over their foreign analogues and over the vehicles, previously developed by the indigenous defense industry, Russian analysts suppose. The T-14 Armata MBT (Main Battle Tank) has received a new chassis with seven road wheels on each side, previous Russian tank as T-72 and T-90 have only 6 wheels.
     
The Armata family of heavy tracked vehicles developed by UVZ has undoubtedly become the core of Russia`s military vehicles fleet modernization. At present, it is comprised of three units, namely, T-14 main battle tank (MBT), T-15 heavy infantry fighting vehicle (HIFV), and T-16 armoured recovery vehicle (ARV). The T-14 MBT and the T-15 HIFV have already been unveiled; the vehicles were demonstrated for the first time at the 9 May Victory Day parade in 2015. At the same time, the T-16 ARV remains undisclosed.

According to the open sources, the development of the T-14 Armata MBT commenced in 2009 by the Urals Design Bureau for Transport Machine-Building (Russian acronym: UKBTM, Uralskoye Konstruktorskoye Byuro Transportnogo Mashinostroeniya; a subsidiary of the UVZ corporation) company. The first nodes and components of the tank were unveiled in 2013. As mentioned earlier, several T-14 tanks participated in the Victory Day parade in 2015, having been demonstrated to the foreign official delegation and guests.

The official technical specifications of T-14 are not disclosed. The tank has received a new chassis with seven road wheels on each side, while the previously developed MBTs, for instance, T-72B / T-72B3 and T-90 /T-90A tanks have six road wheels on each side. The dimensions of the newest tank are significantly bigger than those of its predecessors. T-14`s hull length is estimated to be about 8.7 m (T-72B3 has a hull length of 6,860 mm, as well as T-90A) and height about 2.6 m (T-72B3 - 2,226 mm, T-90A - 2,223 mm).
     
The newest Russian armoured vehicles designed by the Uralvagonzavod (Russian acronym: UVZ) research-production corporation, the Tractor Plants Concern, and the Military Industrial Company (Russian acronym: VPK, Voyenno-Promishlennaya Kompaniya) have a number of radical advantages over their foreign analogues and over the vehicles, previously developed by the indigenous defense industry, Russian analysts suppose.Close view of T-14 Armata turret fitted with new armour
     
T-14 Armata is believed to have the autoloader problems fixed. According to the open sources, the tank is armed with an advanced 125mm gun-launcher that can fire both brand-new and previously developed rounds. According to the Defence Review Asia (DRA) magazine, the newest MBT has received the 125 mm 2A82-1M tank gun with an ammunition load of 45 rounds. The gun has a firing rate of 10-12 rounds per minute and a maximum firing range of about 7,000 m. The 2A82-1M`s muzzle energy is reported to exceed the one of the 120 mm L/55 tank gun designed by Rheinmetall Defence by 17%. It is coupled with a 7.62 mm coaxial machinegun. In May 2015, Russia`s Vice-Premier, Dmitry Rogozin said that the Armata tank would receive a new round that could "burn one meter of steel". However, the official did not specify the caliber and the type of the round mentioned by him. Therefore, T-14 is supposed to be effective against such modern MBTs, as Leopard 2A7 by the German Rheinmetall Defence and Krauss-Maffei Wegman (KMW) companies and M1A2SEP V3 Abrams by the US General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) consortium.

The unit price of T-14 is still unsettled. Neither Ministry of Defense (MoD), nor UVZ discloses the cost of the program. According to the experts of the DRA magazine, the T-14 unit price might be RUB250 million (USD3.9 million) or RUB400 million (USD6.2 million). The officials of the MoD have been complaining about "the high cost" of T-14 Armata, sometimes calling it 'inflated'. However, the aforementioned estimations do not seem to be overpriced. For instance, the M1A1 Abrams tank had a unit price of USD2.9 million in 1991 (at present, the manufacturing of M1A1 MBTs is ceased - TASS). The latest serially produced modification of the Abrams tank, namely M1A2SEP V2 has a unit price of USD9.71 million, Leopard 2A6 of USD5.8 million, Leopard 2A7 of USD10 million, AMX-56B Leclerc of USD18.38 million (the full cost - TASS), K2 Black Panther of USD8.5 million. Therefore, T-14 Armata seems to be significantly cheaper than the aforementioned foreign analogues. It is noteworthy that the Russian Armed Forces revealed their intention to get over 2,000 T-14 Armata MBTs by 2020 or by 2025.

The tactical role of the T-14 tank is not obvious. The military is planning to phase out previously delivered tanks gradually, replacing them by Armata vehicles. However, T-14 MBT is the world`s most sophisticated tank that requires advanced maintenance, control and a well-trained crew. Therefore, the newest tank may be used as a support vehicle for deeply upgraded T-72B3 and T-90A tanks. Such kind of interaction will require the integration of state-of-the art sensors and control systems (an identification friend-or-foe (IFF) unit, a GLONASS-type satellite navigation system, secured datalink, and an advanced central processing unit (CPU)) with the previously delivered vehicles.
     
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