Russia and Ukraine

[Thumpalumpacus]

Also, about those tank numbers:

After losing hundreds of tanks trying and failing to capture Kyiv in early 2022, and struggling to expand production of new tanks that summer, the Russian army in mid-2022 reached deep into its stocks of old Cold War tanks—and started pulling out working vehicles.

T-62s that the Soviet Union built in the 1960s and upgraded in the 1980s. First-generation T-72s and T-80s from the 1970s. And a year later, as tank write-offs approached 2,000—two-thirds of Russia’s pre-war force—even T-55s from the late 1950s.

Friends of Ukraine scoffed. But Russia’s own fellow travelers defended the practice of towing a 65-year-old T-55 from some vehicle park, replacing the 41-ton tank’s seals, re-tuning its 580-horsepower diesel engine and hauling it by train to the Ukraine front.

After all, Russian regiments and brigades wouldn’t dare assign a T-55 with its thin steel armor to a direct assault on Ukrainian positions. No, the Russians would use the T-55s and hundreds of other restored obsolete tanks as crude howitzers: position them under cover many miles from the front, angle their guns high in the air and fire at the Ukrainians without risking direct return fire.

That was then. Today, as Russia’s wider war on Ukraine grinds into its third year—and Russian tank losses exceed 2,600, according to Oryx—regiments routinely are rolling their four-person T-55s and T-62s and three-person, first-generation T-72s and T-80s into direct fights with Ukrainian brigades.

[...]

Some of these tanks have received emergency upgrades: new radios, modern-ish optics, fresh layers of reactive armor. Many of the tanks have no upgrades, however. They are as obsolete today as they were 40 years ago.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/20...5cc8b33a04