On the brink: Russia doesn’t currently produce T-90 and T-14 tanks

By Boyko Nikolov

PANAGYURISHTE, ($1=1.81 Bulgarian Levs) — The Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February has prompted 33 countries to impose various types of economic sanctions, including those related to export trade with Moscow.

T-14 Armata vs. M1A Abrams: the Russian Tank Takes an Advantage
Photo credit: National Interest

Ukrainian intelligence says that as a result of the imposed economic sanctions, Russia’s Uralvagonzavod is trying to overcome the crisis. BulgarianMilitary.com reminds us that Uralvogonzavod [Nizhny Tagil] is a Russian manufacturer of armored vehicles, mainly the main tank of the Russian Federation T-72.

According to intelligence, the problems are due to rising interest rates on loans, lack of funds to service foreign currency loans, and rising prices for materials and components [including armored steel]. “Substitution of imports” – a widely advertised campaign from Moscow clearly does not bring the expected results, said in Kyiv. “Production of new equipment, including T-90 and T-14 [Armata] tanks, has been halted,” Ukrainian intelligence said in a statement.

According to Ukrainians, Moscow has set up an “operational headquarters” whose main area of ​​work is repairing military equipment damaged in the war with Ukraine.

Washington says the same thing

The first batch of the latest T-90M tanks came into service at the Russian Army
Photo credit: Military Watch Magazine

Washington says the same thing. In a speech at the end of March, Thea Kendler, assistant secretary for export administration at the Ministry of Trade, said that in addition to Uralvagonzavod, the Russian company Baikal Electronics was experiencing difficulties. It is a company producing computers and semiconductors. According to Kendler, the company no longer receives integrated circuits. They are needed, she says, to maintain the company’s server equipment.

Kendler recalled that only 5% of imports to Russia come from the United States, but almost 50% come from Europe. At the same time, Taiwan has dealt a very serious blow to Russia’s military industry as the local TSMC has left the Russian market. TSMC is the world’s largest chip maker. With the departure of the Russian market from TSMC, Russia is losing a huge number of MIPS needed in the development of military intelligence systems and other military systems. In particular, it concerns the interruption of access to Elbrus chips.

Uralvagonzavod suffered another blow

Against the background of difficulties with the production of heavy armored military equipment, Uralvagonzavod suffered another blow, but this time not from the west, but from the court in Moscow.

A year ago, the Moscow company Promtransinvest AD purchased 222 railway wagons manufactured by Uralvagonzavod. It turns out that after the inspection all 222 wagons had defective traction mechanisms. To run his business, the buyer decided to fix the problem, costing him $ 161,000, and then filed a lawsuit in a Moscow court.

On the brink: Russia can no longer produce T-90 and T-14 Armata tanks
Photo credit: Uralvagonzavod

The Moscow court made its final decision in favor of Promtransinvest AD and ordered Uralvagonzavod to reimburse the funds spent on repairs by Promtransinvest AD. Uralvagonzavod appealed, but Moscow’s Ninth Arbitration Court reaffirmed the court’s first decision. Currently, the manufacturer of heavily armored vehicles has filed an application with the cassation instance to suspend the execution of the court decision.

Regardless of what will happen in the coming days, it is clear that Uralvagonzavod suffers serious losses and a lack of necessary materials and components.

T-14 was a problem even before the war

Even before the war, BulgarianMilitary.com wrote that the production of the new Russian T-14 Armata tank was not going according to plan and the main reason was the lack of finances. At the time, however, the lack of funding did not come from military conflict or sanctions, but from a lack of interest from Russian partners.

The T-14 Armata was expected to completely change the world’s tank market. India, Pakistan, Egypt, and other Russian customers have been linked to the purchase of thousands of such armored vehicles. To this day, no real request for a price from a foreign client for the T-14 Armata has arrived.

The probability that this project will be included in our list of “Promising Russian Weapons That Remain Unproduced” is already quite high.

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