Hey sir if you can satellite and see what happen in russia like that than you must be super king hacker. Do you even use any hack code for doing this? For god shake and humanity you can provide information where putin live and his routines and also all his nuke hiding. So ukraine and allies might .... Him than everything will be over.
It's actually pretty smart of Russia to hide their tanks East of the Urals, it keeps them out of reach of the Ukrainian farmers, John Deere tractors simply don't have that kind of operational range.
I served with a tank regiment in Germany many years ago. We had about 15 challenger tanks. Including support staff it took 500 servicemen to keep them fully operational. That doesn't include the trucks that move the tanks to the location of operations. If you leave a car outside for 2 years you almost certainly have issues getting the thing going, tanks are no different... To bring a stored tank back into service is not as simple as jacking the engine and putting in a new battery, I can only imagine what a siberian winter would do a stationary tank...
let dutch youtubers handle this :D though they have mostly light tanks, havent seen any proper MBT + that would cost a fortune per day just for gasoline.
@@effexon They sold them, then leased them back so the expertise was not lost. Honestly, the Dutch don't need tanks. Even in a NATO-Russia war. Countries like Poland, Finland and Ukraine need the tanks. We can provide better in other ways. We should definitely get new subs.
@@Prometheus4096 subs are cool, Id think danes would support you in that, like norway... and swedish industry is awesome in that area. Im not sure if you're swedish or dutch but either way, same applies. I forgot to spesify in comment I meant swedish forces with no MBT's but all kinds of light armored, fast vehicles. Makes sense in forestry alternating terrain, some parts mountainous swedish land, with useful crossing of rivers capability.
I think many of the tanks that look restorable would have some serious problems with how much corruption there is at the storage and maintenance bases. Every valuable piece of electronics and thousands of tons of scrap copper or anything else with scrap value was stripped and sold. That and most of the maintenance budget ending up in officers pockets because they send the crappiest most corrupt officers to Siberia where the tanks are stored making them bitter and even more corrupt there is not much chance for the “thousands and thousands” of tanks Russia has in reserve. Even the tanks Russia brought to Ukraine had horrible issues due to lack of maintenance so the ones they left behind are probably total shitshows.
You can guranteed that only the ones stored inside have engines/transmissions that are not totally rusted out. The Russian military has been stealing from itself for decades...You can guarantee they long ago stripped out the valuable stuff (like copper) and stole the money for the maintenance budget. Also the turret rings are almost certainly rusted solid.
Ты бредишь, дружище, какая электроника, расконсервированные танки идут ремонт или модернизацию, та техника которую бросили не дерьмовая а осталась без топлива , но видимо ты слишком тупой чтобы это понять. В России около 10000 танков законсервированны и на базах хранении - и это по сути только бронекорпуса, которые не могут сразу идти в бой но это поправимо мой недалёкий западный друг.
Great video, but it missed out another important caveat. You can have a lot of tanks, but if you don't have enough crews to man it in short notice, the number of tanks you have in storage won't matter much. Not only that, crews are actually a small part of the manpower requirement to operate a tank, each tank needs support, which required dozens of crews. The support crews are needed to keep the crews fed, the tanks armed and fueled, and if the tank is stuck or damaged - repaired, and if the tank can't be repaired in the field, you must have a recovery vehicle to tow it away to be repaired in a better equipped facility, and those have to be supported as well. If the crews are injured, they must be extracted and lifted away to relative safety. In a high-intensity conflict, a tank can ran out of fuel and ammunitions in a matter of hours, yes, not days, hours. Keeping tank crews alive is important because active service tanks are usually manned by experienced crew, losing them means less experienced ones will have to takeover, and they're more likely to suffer losses.
just like the german army lots of toys and no crews. they had the same issues when i was stationed there. the ended mandatory enlistment soon after i left.
Reservist/former active duty. Russia has universal conscription. Because of that, there are tens of thousands of former tank crewmen, and support crew, in Russia. No, they won't be as good as active duty...not that they've given a good accounting of themselves of late. But they will have some knowledge/training on the tanks they will be using.
@@vlajkovlajko495 that's like saying a junkyard is a car dealership, ye the tanks may be there but its not much good if when you go check on them 90% of them have rusted into dust.
My Russian buddy who was a tank mechanic 2 years ago told me that less than 10% of stored tanks in Russia could ever see service again. They've been stripped for parts for years.
So if we assume Russia has only 3,000 operational tanks and has lost approaching 1,000 tanks, destroyed, abandoned and captured, with another 1,000 needed to defend Russian soil - Poo-tin's special military operation will grind to a halt in another two months, as stocks become exhausted.
@@cs7th Lets hope so. Given that Putin was planning for the war to be over in a week he probably didn’t even think about planning longer term supply of armoured vehicles.
Maybe so, but NATO militaries aren't cannibalizing their tanks at such a high rate, and they seem to be more competently maintained. 100 tanks versus 1000 tanks doesn't matter if you have the same budget and can't afford to maintain your 1000 tanks.
@@cs7th also the billions he spent to maintain/ modernize the military was pocketed by the generals.no joke. he arrested 20 top generals for stealing 10 billion since 2014. that was supposed to be used to get ready to invade ukraine. so putler has been planning this for a long time.
@Ninja Crackpot Yep, but tank it is not something abstract (like a tank in general), one modern tank could easily destroy five older ones. And a lot of rus modern tanks were lost in the first 4 weeks) Rus is a big fake
I too served in a tank battalion. Even with regular maintenance, a tank will break parts just sitting there. we spent many hours doing regular maintenance. so tanks sitting outside would very rapidly deteriorate. Those kept inside are the ones they really care about but even those will need regular maintenance to keep them operable.
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED: Dimitry was cooking potatoes and by accident put the ship's kitchen on fire. The crew then followed the Russian's procedures to extinguish fire: sinking the ship. By the way, Russia didn't lose a single tank in this war: setting their own tanks on fire is a Russian technique to keep mosquitoes away. EVERYTHING IS GOING AS PLANED!
Russia Yesterday: It was an accidental fire that sank the Moscow. Russia Today: And we are striking Kyiv in *retaliation* for... uh... that accidental fire.
Ukraine: 13 heroes died telling the Russians to go fuck yourself Russia: they're right here on video and there's 82 of them. Did you guys ever figure out who the "ghost of Kiev" is? Lololol
@@Привид_Бандери I'm Confused Over Your Comment. Would You Care To Expand Your Thinking And Reply To This Comment. !? That would be great 👍 THANKS..!!!!
One of important point you've missed - we have notorious corruption in our army. And lots, LOTS of weaponry that's stored in all these bases are most likely been disassembled to pieces and inoperable - it's mostly just a pile of metal. The engine parts, electronic equipment, sights, systems - are slowly salvaged to pieces and sold. There are lots of jokes around army corruption and it's well-known thing. Recently a tank batallion commander shot himself after he found out none of the tanks from reserve in his base are able to move. The thing is - you can't have a country with total degradation of all sectors and hope that one exact sector will avoid it. Healthcare, education, industry - all been steadily degrading. There's quite a few people calling not to be scared of potential nuclear conflict cause likely our nuclear powers might be inoperable. The recent loss of "Moskva" flagship is quite indicative too. And it's a huge hit on the morale of militarized people, who support this massacre and compensate their poor life conditions with an idea of how scary we are to the rest of the world.
I grew up with the idea that all Russian military fighters are 15 feet tall & fully equipped for any fight. What is happening is just confusing. HAPPY confusing but confusing nonetheless.
Yea! I look at the comments on Ria Novosti and I get scared of how the russian psiche works. They are not outraged by the killing and rapes, but by the fact the army retreated from Kyiv.
@@johnnyonthespot4375 lots of people here still believe our army is so powerful, despite the fact it's obviously not. And weirdly, they combine all the jokes and stories about overwhelming corruprion in lots of shows, movies and media and belief that our army is the strongest in the world and just ignore all the info about huge losses in this idiotic war. Furthermore, Alexey Arestovich pointed that at this rate soon Russia will loose all of its fight-capable army and will be left with thousands of rusty and disassembled tanks and thousands of people who admire the war sitting on the couch and would never pick up weapon and go somewhere to protect their ideas. This situation will leave the country in extremely voulnerable state where lots of Russian territories could be brought back to it's "historical origin" effortlessly.
@@HeartcoreMitRA They probably rationale that the reports of corruption and bloated prices in e.g. the American military industrial sector has the same effect as the kind of cleptocratic corruption in Russia. Of course not. You still have to produce and deliver a million of those $100 titanium screws, and they will be installed in a working combat vehicle of some kind. Western corruption is selling things expensively, and giving cutbacks to the politicians funding you. Russian corruption is taking the money without delivering anything.
Prior to Desert Shield etc. my tank company at Ft Hood TX .. D Co 3-32 AR was broken up to backfill A, B and C companies. For some reason we simply did not have the warm bodies to fill the BN. So. D Co was broken up and my PLT .. 3rd Herd were transferred to C Co. We walked down the line to our new tanks to find that the company had been using them for parts. It took WEEKS to get them up and running even at a basic level. It wasn't until we were to deploy to Saudi Arabia that the doors of warehouses opened up and we got any part we wanted .. prior to that you had to promise your first born to get anything. I can also tell you that simply not doing any maintenance on a tank (these were the M1 series Abrams) .. no maintenance of as little as a week would mean all kinds of problems .. you need to maintain them CONSTANTLY.
Edward, thanks for your service and insight. The Russians must be having a hell of a time with their equipment. That plus logistics and leadership/doctrine may explain why they are so ineffective in actually invading.
@@joythought Thanks Joy. My point is that when a vehicle such as a tank is put in long time storage there are all kinds of problems .. rubber seals dry out, fittings start leaking. If the vehicle is not stored in a dry desert type area then you start getting corrosion. I remember one time late on a Friday fuel started to pour out of one of our tanks .. then another .. and another. It turned out that the hose clamps that connected to the fuel tank were not flat but had corrugations which snapped all at once on three or four tanks within 15 minutes .. had to do with the heating and cooling there in the Texas moonpool. That was on tanks we worked on regularly. A vehicle that has been stored and is to get running again needs lots of thought about how to store it properly. Not impossible .. just not a park and leave kind of thing.
Swedish vehicles in mobilization storage indoorswhere well maintained when they went in and had extra lubrication added for gunbarrels and such. They where also connected to a dry air system that ventilated them. Batteries where the only thing not present as these get old quickly. Instead the military had contracts with supliers to keep a fresh stockpile available nearby. These vehicles usually started right away or in minures even after decades in storage.
Thats russia my dude,ivan used the money for restoration on hookers and vodka 😅 what we do now?just send as many troops as they can,from 20.000 vehicles...100 or 200 must be still working 😅
That's in Sweden, the land of Saab and Volvo, not Russia, the land of Moskwitch. I didn't get the impression from the video that many of those Russian tanks were stored in climate controlled conditions. I'd guess that money for a contract to have a store of batteries ready to go, would result in a lot of vodka drunk and not much else.
A major failure of Russian tanks and other equipment was the lack of preventive maintenance. Much of their equipment simply broke down. And with many parts only made in Ukraine or in sanctioned countries there was a shortage of replacement parts.
not just that, they can't get parts from Taiwan, South Korea or Japan either that they would usually rely on and I doubt China has the production capabilities to make modern electronics yet, those take a shit ton of money and time to get
Also, When people think of the ww2 Russian military they forget that those tanks were rolling off the assembly line onto the battlefield. They weren't sitting around in a field for 20-30 years
THIS is what good research looks like! And the explanation on required preventative maintenance costs was invaluable to understanding the difference between total tanks and total useful tanks. No one cares if Russia has 10,000 rust rocks. Well done sir.
Dont forget the fact, US tanks are stored in hot dry deserts. While russian's tanks rotten in forests and swamps) All rubber parts and electronics dies after few years in such conditions. So,real numbers about 2000 tanks in action-seems realistic
Videos like this is gold. But according to some Russia has 10000 thousand tanks, 10000 working artillery pieces and unlimited shells.. So why is the russian fire rate in Donbass dropping considerably per day, was 50-60000 artillery shells a day for a month now its half of that on a good day. My guess is Russia wont have the shells to continue todays fire rate for much longer.
@@joggabonkers6380 I'm wondering that too. But of course, we all will just sit and wonder. It's totally unverifiable. Unless we happen to be working the Russian artiliary shell factory.
@@MrChipMC ive seen a t34 being pulled out the swamp thats been under water and mud for 70+ years, and it started up. so rust rocks can still shoot you dead, and those would be sent first to waste the enemies rockets on them rusty rocks!
I once worked for a company that dealt in ex British Army vehicles. Some vehicles had been stored for up to 10 years before being sold off at auction. The vehicles that had been stored for a long time could only be sold for parts or scrap, they would need a major rebuild to be runners
SIR I DID A 100% REWIRE of a 1964 ,(military) BRITISH LAND ROVER , 4 cylinder , carburetor, , 4 wheel drive. ALL WELDED SQUARE STEEL TUBE FRAME , ALUMINUM , RIVETED CAB , MANUAL TRAN S MISSION X REBUILT CARBURETOR , STARTER + D.C. GENERATOR .....AMAZING FIT OF PARTS , PERFECT MACHING. CLUTCH HAD A "DONUT" (HOLE IN CENTER) HYDRAULIC PISTON (SLAVE) OPERATED BY HYDRAULIC CLUTCH PEDAL , 100% EVEN PRESSURE ON CLUTCH DISC ( NO OFFSET CLUTCH "FORK" ) PERFECT FIT OF ALUMINUM INTAKE TO CYLENDER HEAD TO CARBURETOR ( MAXIMUM AIR FLOW ) ....REWIRED REBUILT IN 1975 IN KELLOGG. IDAHO.
In 2000, I was drafted into the Polish Army. These were times when there was still a lot of post-Soviet war doctrine. I remember being in a big truck warehouse. The soldier who worked there said half would not leave. If something went wrong, they took parts from another truck, some of the truck parts were probably sold for vodka. Today is different times, everything has changed. I know it's better, it's not perfect, but it's not like it was then. Things are even worse in the Russian army. I suspect that half of the equipment in stock needs to be repaired or is scrapped.
Well it doesn't matter if they have 80.000 tanks available. If they keep feeding them unsupported and under supplied single file into the meatgrinder any army on the planet will suffer extreme losses. Combined arms and good logistics is key.
JESUS KNOCKS ON YOUR HEART AND LONGS FOR YOU TO ANSWER! HE DOESN'T WANT TO SEE ANYONE PERISH INTO HELL. GOD LOVES YOU SO HE GIVES YOU FREE WILL AND A CHOICE TO ACCEPT HIM OR REJECT HIM. TO LOVE HIM OR TO LOVE SIN/THIS WORLD. CALL UPON JESUS & ASK HIM TO FORGIVE YOUR SINS! SURRENDER YOUR WILL & YOUR LIFE TO HIM & HE WILL GIVE YOU ETERNAL LIFE IN HEAVEN! PICTURE YOUR BEST DAY ON EARTH TIMES A BILLION FOR ETERNITY, THAT'S HEAVEN! NOW PICTURE YOUR WORST DAY ON EARTH TIMES A BILLION FOR ETERNITY, THAT'S HELL! HE WILL GIVE YOU WHAT YOU WANT SO IF YOU REJECT HIM YOU WILL BE SEPARATED FROM HIM & HIS BLESSINGS (LOVE, PEACE, JOY, HOPE, REST, ETC). IN HELL YOU WILL BE ALONE WITHOUT GOD OR PEOPLE... YOU WILL BE HOPELESS, IN DESPAIR & AGONY FOREVER! GOD'S STANDARD FOR HEAVEN IS PERFECTION AND ONLY JESUS (THE SON OF GOD/GOD IN THE FLESH) LIVED THAT PERFECT LIFE! HE LAID DOWN HIS LIFE & TOOK THE WRATH OF THE FATHER ON THE CROSS FOR YOUR SINS! GOD IS JUST SO HE MUST PUNISH SIN & HE IS HOLY SO NO SIN CAN ENTER HIS KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. IF YOU ARE IN CHRIST ON JUDGEMENT DAY GOD WILL SEE YOU AS HIS PERFECT SON (SINLESS SINCE YOUR SINS ARE COVERED BY JESUS' OFFERING). YOU CAN ALSO CHOOSE TO REJECT JESUS' GIFT/SACRIFICE & PAY FOR YOUR OWN SIN WITH DEATH (HELL) BUT THAT SEEMS PRETTY FOOLISH! GOD SEES & HEARS EVERYTHING YOU HAVE SAID & DONE. YOU WONT WIN AN ARGUMENT WITH HIM & YOU CANT DEFEND ANY OF YOUR SINS TO HIM. YOU'RE NOT A GOOD PERSON, I'M NOT A GOOD PERSON... ONLY GOD IS GOOD! WE'RE ALL GUILTY WITHOUT ACCEPTING JESUS' SACRIFICE FOR OUR SINS! MUHAMMAD DIDN'T DIE FOR YOUR SINS, BUDDHA DIDN'T DIE FOR YOUR SINS, NO PASTOR/NO PRIEST/NO SAINT/NO ANCESTOR DIED FOR YOUR SINS, MARY DIDN'T DIE FOR YOUR SINS, NO IDOLS OR FALSE gods DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO MUSICIAN OR CELEBRITY DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO INFLUENCER OR UA-cam STAR DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO SCIENTIST OR POLITICIAN DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO ATHLETE OR ACTOR DIED FOR YOUR SINS! STOP WORSHIPING THESE PEOPLE! JESUS CHRIST ALONE DIED FOR YOUR SINS & WAS RESURRECTED FROM THE GRAVE! HE IS ALIVE & COMING BACK VERY SOON WITH JUDGEMENT (THESE ARE END TIMES)! PREPARE YOURSELVES, TURN FROM SIN & RUN TO JESUS! HE KNOWS YOUR PAIN & TROUBLES, HE WANTS TO HEAL & RESTORE YOU! TALK TO HIM LIKE A BEST FRIEND! ASK HIM TO REVEAL HIMSELF TO YOU & HELP YOU TO BELIEVE IF YOU DOUBT! DON'T WAIT TO CRY OUT! NO ONE IS PROMISED TOMORROW! HE LONGS FOR YOU TO INVITE HIM IN, HE LOVES YOU MORE THAN ANY PERSON EVER COULD, HE CREATED YOU! Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."-John 14:6 "But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven."-Matthew 10:33 “For the wages of sin is death (hell), but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”-Romans 6:23
Great research. Unfortunately, you also have to ask the question... how many trained tankers do you have? I had a friend would as an M1 guy in the First Gulf War, and he said the amount of money in ammo they spent per tanker was staggering. A few minutes at the range could be tens of thousands of dollars, and large scale exercises would be in the hundreds of thousands (1990s) per crew. He said that Russians on average often only fired 5 rounds per year per crew. If you bring even 1,000 tanks out of storage, who runs them? Taking some 50-year-old who hasn't fired a shell in 15 years... no so effective.
I would say a lot less tankers now. Russia has probably lost a lot of its main tanks and tank crews but could probably scrap together replacement tanks and crews. They will probably be less capable tanks and tankers whilst the Ukrainians will be waiting for them with TB2s, Switchblades, Nlaws, Skifs, artilley, Javelins etc high on confidence from the amount tanks they have destroyed. Actually uKRAINE does not really destroys single tanks they destroy columns of 3, 5, 10 vehicles at a time.
@@galimbertino4939 Okay bro, there are dozens if not hundreds of videos and photos of Russian loses. Go to Oryx to see them. Soviet era tanks and vehicles are no match for 21st century western tech. No.. no.. sorry I am wrong.. Russia is a great super power they strategically withdrew from Kiev and their Black Sea flagship magically caught on fire and all those videos and photos are western propaganda. Tsar Putin #1. Lol what kind of propaganda are you on? P.s Armenia and its Soviet Era weaponry got pumped in Nogorno-Karabakh.
@@nikola12nis Yeah bro everything is bullshit Russia is number 1. Sleep well tonight. P.s I am guessing by your name you are Serbian. Serbians are pretty smart do your own research(on both sides) let me know your conclusion. We are being fed a lot of western propaganda and are restricted from Russian propaganda but it does not look good on the Russia side..
When the Berlin wall collapsed and East Germany was taken over by the West, Battalions of lawyers and inspectors descended upon the East to find out what would have to be done for reunification. One of the first inspections was the military bases and staged equipment but what they found was shocking. 97% of the equipment, including tanks had simply been parked and sealed up when received from Russia. they are completely inoperable, not just dead batteries but cylinders and tracks rusted in place, there were actually trees growing through trucks and tank tracks. The Western forces could have walked in and taken over at any time and the Eastern forces would have been powerless to stop them. I suspect Russia's forces are the same.
"Never again war" because "Russians love their children too, moaned the Euros, the man from Russia a mensch just like me and you" therefore "go home Yankee go home" demanded West Germany. But despite West Germanys infatuation with left wing terrorists like the red Army Faction - formed in West Germany, equipped and operating out of East Germany - the West quickly turned to mocking the East Germans, not the Russians, for being stuck in the late 50s and not embracing modern expansionist Green Communism, which sent Germany to war in Kosovo with NATO. Now the Greens are clamoring to arm Ukraine with weapons for peace
@@epicgamer3614 Agreed, East Germany WAS the best of the Warsaw Pact, and because of their German heritage were undoubtedly more "en ordnung" than the rest of the Bloc. However, my comment was not about the Warsaw Pact but of the USSR. The USSR then and Russia now are inefficient and corrupt. And are no real threat other than their nukes. Do you think E. Germany would have remained cowed for so many decades if they knew the truth?? One MASSIVE lie....
except the ones left out in the open thru Russian winters, are the ones only kept for parts, or waiting for some one to authorise their disposal for scrap. Anything still viable would be kept under cover and not see-able from satelite.
@@orangephoenixbrazier4978 I think you do the old "I underestimate my enemy" trick. All the numbers we have about destroyed vehicles are Ukrainian propaganda numbers. Do not make the same mistake the Russians do in believing your own propaganda. All the numbers we have of Russians tanks being in storage (by simply some dude analyzing Google Maps) aren´t necessary correct either.
@@sierraecho884 no, we have more than Ukrainian propaganda. There are lists that only take confirmed destroyed vehicles into consideration. (confirmed means there are pictures of the destroyed vehicle available)
@@Jehty_ And who made this "list" ? Was this list being checked by multiple sources ? In short how credible is this source ? We can only guesstemate. Both war parties use the same type of vehicles. It is not that easy to distinguish the loses. BTW what kind of loses do the UA have ? Do we also have a list ? Do they even share their loses in detail ?
Remember kids: Wealth isn't 10,000 tanks in a garage or 10 million tons of wood in a warehouse. Wealth is 1000 new tanks a year and a million tons of wood production. Things in storage degrade and become obsolete. They represent waste in the system.
Might be a bit better to say that efficiency and resiliency area a trade off. Having a stockpile is less efficient because of degredation, but it helps you to survive a shock and makes you resilient. Russia's grand strategy is cleary to be resilient rather then efficieny, but this only works if the shock is brief, not sustained and this war is getting longer every day.
A large group of Russian soldiers in the border area in 2022 are moving down a road when they hear a voice call from behind a small hill: "One Ukrainian soldier is better than ten Russian". The Russian commander quickly orders 10 of his best men over the hill where Upon a gun-battle breaks out and continues for a few minutes, then silence. The voice once again calls out: "One Ukraine is better than one hundred Russians." Furious, the Russian commander sends his next best 100 troops over the hill and instantly a huge gun fight commences. After 10 minutes of battle, again Silence. The calm Ukrainian voice calls out again: "One Ukraine is better than one thousand Russians: The enraged Russian commander musters 1000 fighters and sends them to the other side of the hill. Rifle fire, machine guns, grenades, rockets and cannon fire ring out as a terrible battle is fought... Then silence. Eventually one badly wounded Russian fighter crawls back over the hill and with his dying words tells his commander, "Don't send any more men...it's a trap. There's two of them."
I was looking at the grass, trying to determine how much the tanks have been moved. My logic being, a tank that can have grass growing nearby must be moved very rarely and therefore not maintained. The ones move to the Ukrainian border are nearly grass free, but even tanks you said looked functional have grass growing around them. I think that might be the best way to judge the inner workings of complex machinery from space.
especially if trees are growing around and through it. rusky military - more propaganda/bolivood industry. plus corruption/theft club protected by secresy
In a sea of pathetic and worthless videos, this one is simply outstanding. Informed, rational, measured and researched - it does not get any better than this. Well done.
Yes! I might have shed a tear, when he said, that he went looking for storage bases along the railroad network manually. After so many numbers thrown around mindlessly!
I would hazard a guess that every tank we can see that has a "black circle" instead of a visible turret in the satellite imagery is in fact missing its turret and most likely the whole interior has been exposed to the elements via that gaping hole, so are extremely unlikely to be repairable.
And most probably those covered by tarp are just cardboard boxes - they took money for tanks from putler and bought yachts instead. On a satellite u see a shape means nothing in rwality
@@tsugumorihoney2288 Especially the interior equipment, all the electronic, cables, etc. sounds about as time consuming and costly as building a new tank from scratch.
@@CzechMirco repairing a badly serviced tank is far more time consuming than building a new one from the ground up (assuming it's not a completely new type of tank). Servicing tanks is just not remotely fun, or time efficient. Keeping a tank operational already costs a hilarious amount of manhours and that's only if someone uses the damn thing at least a couple of hours a week
The biggest problem that the Russian Army has is that their design engineers incorporated a fatal flaw in the design of all T-72. T-80 and T-90 tanks. The carousel for the ammunition almost guarantees a one shot kill on these tanks. This was very evident in the Gulf Wars where the Iraqis fielded export versions of the T-72. The Abrams tanks had no problem destroying these tanks outside the range at which they could reply. Modern ATGW only make it worse because they exploit the weakness of the top armor over the turret and engine deck. So it really does not matter how many tanks the Russians have in reserve if they can be defeated by armor and man portable weapons. I understand that many of the reserve tanks had their engines removed and stacked separately from the older tanks. Due to Russia's climate, these engines and hulls rusted over many years and despite being greased, they have still deteriorated. I doubt that any of the T-54, T-55 and T-62 are capable of being restored. Many of the best were gifted to other nations as surplus because they were thought obsolete when the T-72 was mass produced. However, the design flaw in the T-72 only became evident after Russia had committed to building vast numbers. The T-80 and T-90 were supposed to correct those mistakes with active systems to block ATGW, but these were nothing more than a way of reassuring the crews that they would live in a hostile environment, much like the 'cope-cages' recently fitted to try and defeat Javelin and NLAW. These systems do not work and Russian tanks would likely not survive contact with a NATO tank. The Russian tank bogeyman is made of straw. Even the T-14 is incapable against NATO weapons systems. Russia has not fielded them because they need to sell them abroad and they cannot do that if they are soundly defeated in battle - especially as the Ukrainians seem to have access to all the ATGW they need.
You missed one fact, Russia defeated Germany who's tanks were a lot better, with lesser quality tanks but higher numbers of them. Also Russia has ATGWs too
One Russian storage facility I think you missed is in Omsk at 55.01623495426101, 73.39539285738252. Quite sizable. I counted at least 3000 armored vehicles (mixed tanks, DTR, BMP, propelled artillery etc,) and about as many trucks and cargo vehicles.
That is Omsktransmash, a former tank factory. It appears to be basically a boneyard. There was a series of companies controlling it, getting contracts to refurbish the equipment there, and going out of business in questionable circumstances. Currently they do seem to have some business rebuilding old T-72 chassis into TOS-1A MLRS vehicles.
The maintenance budget was clearly stolen along with anything that could be stripped out for cash. If they are outside you can guarantee that even the turret rings are rusted out.
A Leopard 2 A6 engine is replaced within an hour. The engine of a T 72 is estimated at over 10 hours with good mechanics. The Russian main battle tank with crew is mass-produced, high losses are accepted. The training of the crew cannot be compared with the very high standard of the NATO armored units.
Accepting losses is a false economy. A crew cooking inside a T-72 is money and time pissed away. A poorly trained crew means they'll lose the tank before it even reaches combat.
true, they out-tanked WW2 germany in eastern front, but also due to elongated supply lines of germans, no spare parts and that familiar story. But crew morale is other thing... seems high mercenary army or patriotic cause could stir up that, both very difficult to achieve these days.
You know what's funny, is that if they were actually smart they could sell some of them off to collectors and actually make some money off of them instead of them just becoming a huge waste of metal.
You "seen"? Lmfao sorry bud, but it doesn't sound like you've seen (correct usage here) the inside of a book.... I wouldn't trust your opinion on whether or not those APCs you "seen" could be refurbished and brought back into service.
@Kaiser Meme could have****.... as in, "you could have paid attention in English class, then you would have noticed that "could of" is just an uneducated person trying to spell out the contraction "could've" without realizing that it's a contraction and is actually the combination of the 2 words "could have".
@@joshh535 well I am ex army and yes I know when gear like that is wasted. You may can refurbish, however the amount of time you would need is not cost effective. So don't be a smart arse, btw English is my second language, how many do you speak ?
@@joshh535 lol, another homeschooled grammar nazi. Haven't seen one in a while. Thought the likes of you have died out already. But no, you keep correcting peopke in an arrogant way while embarrassing yourself. Do you know that people around the world mostly speak english as their 2nd, 3rd, 4th language? You really are pathetic low-life individual without any self esteem.
My WAG is that there are a lot of tanks on inventory lists, but of those tanks many have been cannibalized for spare parts and many others are inoperative hulks. Maintenance hasn't been a priority for the Russian military for a long time, it seems.
There was Allegedly/apparently a scandal this past month when the Russian's started trying to do maintenance to reactivate mothballed tanks in which it was found at one depot only like 1 in 10 tanks were even potentially operational due to the vast majority being stripped to the bones of parts due to corruption. Some general got in trouble and the kremlin quietly buried any info on it.
It's also likely the stated number is for the more loose definition of a tank, Is, big metal thing with tracks and a BA Gun.to that end, many of their IFVs could count.
A lot of the money allocated to equipment purchases have been stolen by corrupt russian officers in recent years, that is one of the reasons why they are running low on supplies.
True. And take note here that most of those tanks are from the 70, 80's, and 90's designs and are not equal to most Western tanks. Also, their only tank manufacturing plant, Ural Vagonzavod stopped producing tanks because of the lack of parts, especially electronics, sensors, and microchips that are imported from the West. So because of the sanctions, it will be difficult for the Russians to replace the tanks, smart munitions and other equipment that were destroyed or captured by Ukraine in battle.
It reminds me of my first car, a 1973 Toyota Corona. It was one of the first ones produced that year, and it was made out of leftovers from a few '72 models, like the engine from a 72 Celica with a wiring harness from a Corolla and instruments and sensors from a few other models. New parts never fit, and I'd have to keep taking them back and guessing at a different model to order for. T72's and such have to be like that, too.
A number of years ago I met a young fellow from Finland, At the time, Finland had a mandatory military draft of two years for young men. When he was in basic training about 300 in his group herded into a large classroom for training in regards to the enemies Finland was facing. One of the instructors was at the podium and he informed the class that Russia had about 2000 tanks sitting at the border pointed straight at Finland. There was a collective gasp in the room and all the draftees sat thinking about the fact that they only had about 300 tanks in their forces. The instructor them smiled and told the, "It's not as bad as it looks boys. You see, we calculate that only about 500 or so will make it very far into our country. Why? Because Russian tanks are so poorly made that only about 500 will make it inside the border while the other 1500 won't even start or they will break down along the way and become a parts source for those remaining."
Mandatory military service in finland has been max 1 year since 1922, so I highly doubt that "young fellow" was a) finnish or b) actually ever been in the military here. Longest possible service would be civilian service instead of military and the longest it could take was 16 months for a few years during the late 80s and early 90s.
@@tumppu1975 I stand corrected. It was a long time ago back in the late 60's and my memory could be fading in time. In any event, he wasn't in the service for very long. He managed to mangle his foot and was mustered out.
I am pretty sure finland used russians tanks during the cold war. The finnish military doesnt think they are poorly made although they are poorly maintained
"Why does Russia hold onto so many old tanks?" I watch a lot of decluttering videos, and there's this idea of hoarding your Fantasy Self - all that wood you're going to woodwork, all those suits you're going to wear when you one day get another office job again - Russia is hoarding it's fantasy army! I wouldn't advise decluttering though, Siberia's pretty big and especially older tanks might have useful iron etc you can always sell for scrap.
I am not from Europe but old tanks are needed in losing condition for war of country them may help to fight for some period it's is actually smart decision by countries like USA Russia and China like this
А зачем их утилизировать....они как оборонительные орудия, очень годны... На все остальное, ест ядерное оружие... Мы ни на кого не собирались нападать....а если уж и случилось бы нападение на нас, то тут нет смысла в новых танках с большим серийным выпуском .
Good video. A couple of adds here: 1.) Their combat effective inventory is likely only around 2K. The fact they have already lost 700+ tells you have quickly they are degrading their military force 2.) As we are seeing in Ukraine, most of their crews are being destroyed with their tanks. The Japanese learned this lesson the hard way in WWII: it is much easier to replace equipment (planes) then the people (pilots) who can effectively operate them. My guess is their losses in skilled operators is much worse than their material losses. 3.) Tanks are only as effective as their supply lines - Germany learned this the hard way in WWII as well. Russia is notoriously bad at supply logistics and with mud season starting in the Ukraine, the only place more dangerous then being in a Russia tank could be being in their supply lines that are exposed and stuck to the roads.
@@galimbertino4939 I love the Azov Battalion... There are 30 million Special Forces in that battalion, and they have magic war powers. They are invincible, and they never miss. When they were surrounded in Mariupol they respawned in Bucha, committed war crimes, and then blamed the Russians!!! They attacked and drove the Russians out of Kyiv causing enormous losses. They have infiltrated the highest levels of the Russian military. They have combat units hidden under the beds of Russian civilians, and they come out, at night, and commit war crimes behind the Russian lines. Nothing the Russians can do will ever stop them. How do you stop 30 million Special Forces that have magic war powers?
what happens after mud season? in WW2 many battles were timely, then slow intensity period, then big attack again... if it will be stalemate, summer can be another attack. But ukraine can be exhausted by May too.
The logistics of the wehrmacht was superb - the best army in the 20th century. Germany had not the resources, mainly no oil. Thats why they tried to reach the oil fields in egypt or the oil fields in azerbaidschan.
@@effexon The difference is that a lot of foreign aid is pouring into Ukraine while sanctions continue to tighten on Russia. Time is on Ukraine's side. Frankly, ever since the Kiev offensive failed, this war has been about how Russia can do something that could reasonably be interpreted as anything other than a humiliating defeat. The recent loss of the Slava class cruiser Moskva has made matters even worse for Russia. This is shaping up to be the biggest national humiliation since Afghanistan.
Good work, thank you. Serving in a maintenance company in '84, I can tell how much work our fully functional Leopards were... And hell yeah, it was expensive
Thank you! I'm fascinated by the level of maintenance and logistics necessary. I knew it was huge and expensive, but never really appreciated it until recently.
It's nice to see someone mention the lack of modern production to keep up. It's an often overlooked issued of modern combat. In the 1970's my father's carrier with its several fighter squadrons had an active combat expectation of around 28 days before they expected all aircraft to be lost or down for maintenance, etc. The same would be said of armoured units. In a real, full-blown shooting war, most major combatants would plow through their modern equipment and ammunition with frightening speed. While we see the tremendous impact of ATGMs, etc...those are so vastly more expensive/time consuming than something like a simple bazooka round, etc. Major super powers would deplete eachother's conventional forces with alarming speed - heading to either a quicker cessation of hostilities by treaty...or the unfortunate other option; nuclear war.
@@thelitsquad2718 If I am informed correctly the USA currently produces about 1500 Javelins a Year. Their Stocks are said to be almost halved because of the war. The Source i have seen has the Maximum Capacity of about 6000 a Year.
In a full blown war manufacturing is repurposed for the military. Within 6 years in WW2 they were all making new versions of everything, with designs modified to suit manufacturability during war
They led with the best they had. Their "Sunday Punch". So every destroyed tank means two things. Partially destroyed BTGs combined to make whole BTGs, and vehicles from non-deployed units being sent to deployed units to replace lost tanks. And after that? T-64s? Refurbished? Maybe? T-62s?
2 роки тому+2
They can make new. Missings part they can find in India what have west licences, Israel what is in favour with Russia, or China what have west parts.... Russia can make at full power avg 400 - 600 tanks per month ( T-72B3M, T-80BVM, T-90M) few armata..... if Russia go on war economy in arms industry, they can make avg 800 tanks per month with their capacity....
@ I am afraid you are being overly optimistic. The Armata is not yet in serial production. It is still a prototype. As is the SU-57 Felon. Russia needs to get out of Ukraine, arrest and hang Putin, and issue a big apology to all of eastern Europe for 70 years of authoritarian, imperial crap.
@ Except that they cant, russia's tank production has been shut down since the war started because they are reliant on western parts to produce their tanks.
Even if Russia could get 3000 of those tanks into combat ready condition, they likely don't have enough crews to operate them or mechanics to maintain them or logistics to make sure they have sufficient fuel and ammo. They're already having huge problems with draft dodgers with this years April conscription (Russia does it's annual conscription every April).
@@PhilippSeven But do they really? They were also supposed to have all their infantry in body armor that could stop a 50cal, thousands of modern T-90M tanks, and an air force that was supposed to crush any trace of Ukranian air power or defense in days. And yeah, we see how THAT turned out haha. A lot of paper army that really went into general's pockets
@@mrvwbug4423 >>They were also supposed to have all their infantry in body armor that could stop a 50cal, Not all. Only front-line units and special forces. And they have it. >>thousands of modern T-90M tanks Why? T-72B3 is enough. T-14 or T-90M it's overkill, almost all armored forces of Ukraine have been destroyed already. >>an air force that was supposed to crush any trace of Ukranian air power or defense in days And it's already done. Only manpads is still active. >> A lot of paper army that really went into general's pockets In Ukraine right now Russia use very limited forces. And that's why they call it "operation", not a "war". They assault Ukrainian position with fewer troops than the defenders, and do it well. They not use 'carpet bombing' tactic over cities as US did in Iraq.
Pretty much almost every country would have like "millions" of rusty old tanks if they would store them like that, put there are many reasons why it's not a commom practice. Everyone who understands something about machines can only imagine in what kind of shape those tanks are.
Some tanks have been sold as scrap metal, others are used for joy riding near the city of Khardiv,, a few found their way to a Russian theme park and most of them are hired to a movie company for a live action shoot about the WO 2 Kursk battle.
I wonder what are the effects of being stored out in the open in winter in Siberia? Metal contracts and expands with changes in temperature. If liquid water gets into joints and crevices, then freezes, it expands almost irresistibly, as we know from burst water pipes. Frequent changes, with a freeze-thaw cycle, are probably more damaging than a long period of uninterrupted freeze. Just something to consider.
@@_tyrannus yeah, but that is not what I asked. What I mean is that, for example here in Germany: During the winter it is normal that at night it is below freezing and during the day it thaws. So you have a freeze-thaw cycle every day, even during winter. Whereas I would assume that in Siberia it stays below freezing for the most part of winter.
There is a difference between a combat ready tank, a tank in reserve that can be made combat ready (which takes time and resources the russians may not have) and tanks that are in boneyards that are only good for parts.
Russia is different in that if resources, people and time are needed. Women will go and the disabled will go for machines and will produce both bombs and tanks. But all this is bullshit when there are missiles capable of flying 2 times the globe with a radius of destruction the size of Britain.
A small note; the Red Army of June 1941 had 12000 tanks of all sorts at the front (and more in reserve). They ranged from outdated to T-34s and KVs. So this is not a new thing. Military historians generally say that "The USSR never scrapped anything" when describing the Red Army (and airforce) of early war. I suspect if you look at Tzarist Russia you will find the same holds true for The Great War, Crimea and the Napoleonic Wars, but I cannot say for certain.
Reminds me of civ games, your army ends up including everything from modern armor to crossbowmen because you don't have enough money to upgrade them all.
They are not bad to keep around for defensive purposes. It doesn't take fuel or much maintenance to park an old tank at a crossroads or other defensive position to slowdown incoming forces. Now offensive wise that's a whole different story.
Another video to help us question Russia’s “honesty” from the past. I always had a little eyebrow raised at the amount of tanks Russia allegedly had because I knew something wasn’t right but good to have a video like this to remind me why.
Given the poor standard of maintenance we've seen on Russia's frontline operational equipment, I'd be amazed if 1 in 10 of their reserve vehicles is actually usuable. Not that it really matters - we've seen that logistically they've been unable to support 90 BTGs (about 900 tanks) in the field. Adding more would make things worse, not better.
Just like Germany right it worked out great for them. It is not 80 years ago, tanks are like metal boxes they have all sorts of items and we have none of them. It takes oil (which we don't have as they got rid of the pipeline). Hyper-inflation, food rationing, and a collapsing economy. But lets send over hundreds of billions of dollars (while infrastructure here in the USA) is in shambles.
There are reports saying exactly that 1 in 10. One of the commanders responsible for restoring tanks from reserves recently committed suicide because none could be restored. Many parts and electronics containing precious metals have "gone missing" over the years.
You need to distinguish between what is in reserve and ready to go and what is in storage and can be refurbished. Those 10% are the active reserves. From the other 90% in long storage about half is usable. Rest is for spare parts. Especially with low production numbers having a large backstock is important to be able to maintain equipment levels for a war that will last months, not weeks. This is exactly what looks to be the case in Ukraine. Those reserve tanks or from storage arent intended to use directly at the front all at once. They will be dripfed into the war alongside freshly trained crews.
@@5p4rt4k But the 10% in active reserve should all be ready to go at a week or a months notice. If only 10% of those are in working order after that time, it means Russia has about 1% of their tanks actually operational. And that means more than half the Russian tank fleet is now in the hands of Ukranian farmers, even if you believe the 20000 tanks in total. So I suppose the situation isn't quite that bad in the active reserv, but far from 100% readiness that would be expected.
@@mosatsoni4324 My guess is they embezzled the maintenance budget for the active units and pulled parts from the tank reserve to repair the active duty tanks. So say you need 10 new transmissions for an active division. Instead of paying for the new parts, the officer splits the money with the parts factory and put in some fake orders. Then they open the tank reserve depot and pull 10 transmissions from the reserve tanks. Do that over a couple decades and pretty soon most of the reserve tanks will be missing parts.
You are very generous. I think it’s more like 25% of those stored tanks that are usable. Most likely the parts that can be sold, such as engine parts, optics, etc. are all but gone in all of them.
I was about o get in the comment section like “well we don’t see them because they’re defending the rest of Russia and this and that but your argument that they just don’t have 10k tanks makes more sense especially with your research and explanation of hard it would be to build and maintain modern tanks. Thanks for making educated and researched videos so jackasses like me are forced to use the common sense part of their brain 🤣
It's worse. Your argument is true, on top of the shrinked stockpile. Literally everything Russia can mobilize without mass mobilization (difficult if it's just a "special operation" and would take 3 month minimum to mobilize reservist units and get them trained and orgsnized, if their logistics can handle it.) or stripping large parts of the country from its defenses is alreads mobilized. The garrisons in the russian heartland (the actual Russia. I have a friend from the border region to Kazakhstan and he keeps laughing at the russian nationalists and theit slogans. "What do you mean, 'Russia for the Russians?' You're more than 500 km away from the eastern tip of Russia.") must be able to defend agsinst incursions and the Kaliningrad garrison is the most central piece of Russias NATO-Strategy. How do the americans say? Russia is "A day late and a dollar short". Don't mind the Russians in the comments. I have a lot of russian friends i love dearly, but the "Russia and russian stuff is objectively better than anything the other dwarf countries can do"-brain worm is real. Most of them rarely reflect on why their families came to western Europe if thats true and most just live in denial that Russias total GDP is smaller than that of Italy. Which i don't mean disparagingly. There is nothing wrong with being a regular country among equals. They just have a hard time accepting Russia isn't commanding a global empire anymor
You forgot to mention the problem of systemic corruption in the Russian military. Because of this, the actual numbers of serviceable Russian tanks is actually considerably lower. Word is, that a great many stored Russian tanks have been stripped of wiring, sights, radio equipment, and critical engine parts which have doubtlessly been sold off on the black market. Maintenance and upgrade budgets have been pilfered with funds being redirected toward other illicit uses or being outright stolen. This is the state of much of Russia's stored equipment. It has been looted for going on 30 years now. The parking lot at the Russian Ministry of Defense in Moscow is full of high dollar European sports cars and SUV's. Where do you think Russian colonels and generals get that kind of money? Considering that Russians on average are worth less than 1/6 the net worth of the average American, how do they afford $75K-$150K cars? That is Putin's Russia. It is corrupt and criminal from the tippy top, all the way down to the nobody Transural conscripts who were trading their diesel to the Belarusian locals in exchange for liquor before the war. The whole system is rotten to its core.
Corruption in Tsarist Russia, USSR, and in the Russian Federation is the only thing that has ever saved the West in war. Consider: Crimean War, Winter War, and now Ukraine War.
7:31 You know he is a professional tank mechanic when you see him strapping in the Russian Army's Tactical Acordeon Mk V before proceding to engine bay inspection
I like how part of the maintenance performed, includes playing the accordion to it. 7:31 I worked next door to a General Dynamics site that refurbished the Abrams tanks .They would unload/ load them on railcars on the other side of our building.
Searched the comments for this. While watching I had to rewind..."does that guy have an accordion...yup." While USA mechanics are blasting heavy/death metal.
Active and effective are completely different things. Remember what the Allies pulled on the Germans? Some of these could be inflatable as well. Tanks for this video
@@Ass_of_Amalek I'm American and I am still waiting for the Germans to make an utterly impractical but badass looking 80 ton tank powered by liberal democracy and German efficiency
There's a great video that came out showing some of the captured T-72 tanks. The reactive armor was removed from the carrier and stuffed with foam. The tank was captured because the reverse gear broke and the tank could not escape so it surrendered. Some are so rusted and maintenance has not been done on it for so long that some bearings were seized up and links on tracks were fused together. The rubber pads had disintegrated so bad that the metal was in contact with the road. Just piss poor condition.
Excellent assessment of Russia's tank situation. I knew Russia was scrapping a lot of their old equipment, but it is hard to get a handle on what was scrapped. I sometimes wondered if people who were "info mining" were simply taking relatively old figures and putting it down as fact. Also, a lot of people call things like IFVs and self propelled artillery "tanks". The Russians do have large quantities of BMPs and BMDs in storage as well as other AFVs. The situation with those vehicles is similar to that of the stored tanks. , e.g. only a fraction of the number could be brought into service in a short time period of time. One thing you brought up that many people ignore is the problem with bringing such vehicles back into service, and in a realistic time from. Hypothetically, any of those vehicles could be brought back into service given time, money, and resources (spare parts), but it is realistic to do so? As you stated, some are really only good for spare parts since the cost of bringing them into service would be exorbitant. Another thing many fail to consider is that most of these vehicles are older and lack many of the protective measures needed on the modern battlefield, such as reactive armor. Sure, you could throw them into combat without it, but they wouldn't survive very long. Russia would also need to train people to operate and fight in these vehicles, something that takes time. As such, regardless of what number you take for Russian tank loses, that number is significant. With the western nations clearing out their warehouses of older, cold war era, vehicles to give to the Ukrainian forces, especially former Soviet bloc nations getting rid of Soviet designed equipment, it won't beong before Russia is scrounging for vehicles. You will know they are getting desperate if you see them fighting with ancient T-62s or T-54/55s! I imagine you will see other nations trying to make a quick buck selling off their old equipment to either side. How long will it be before Russia starts committing their tiny force of T-14s or even experimental vehicles? Russia does not have the money to replace their loses in the long term, let alone the short term. They can only turn to vehicles held in storage to continue this fiasco. The same could also be said for their air power, which is even more of a problem because modern combat planes are extremely expensive.
@@Dopaaamine27, nope. They have proven with this debacle that they aren't that smart. But it sire is giving the west a great idea of how their older equipment performs against modern Russian equipment in combat situations. All they need is for Putin to order the commitment of their meager force of T-14s to get an idea on how far behind the Russians are. The west needs a free look at the best the Russians can throw at their second hand munitions.
@@gregwasserman2635 Russia hasn't even used it's high tech and latest weaponry, basically they are getting rid of old stuff . Still they have captured 1/3 Ukriane and Turned 40 cities into Rubbles. The over $25 billion worth military aid and equipment given to Ukriane is being falling into Russian hands. West is actually arming Russia indirectly. Soon end of Ukriane is coming.
@@Dopaaamine27, yaaaawnnn...according to state run propaganda. I suppose you will next tell me Russia has lost less than 2000 troops. Sure, Russia is great at destroying homes and killing civilians, not so good at fighting actual combatants. Purely a second rate army. I suppose you will also tell me they didn't lose their largest warship in the Black Sea, right? No goals have been met yet. Oh, and no Su-34 and Su-35 aircraft have been lost too, right? Please, Putin, commit your tiny force of T-14s. The west needs a free look at it.
A more informed commentor will correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding is that these various tanks in Russia's arsenal require different fuels (i.e. diesel vs a different fuel), which means the different tank columns heading to Ukraine all require their own separate supply chain logistics to keep them moving.
That wouldn't surprise me. I notice they have so many different types of artillery and missiles that must be a nightmare to have the correct ammo in the right place at the right time.
They all drive on diesel except for the T-80. The T-80 series of tanks use a gas turbine engine (like the M1 Abrams). So they run on jet fuel. All other Russian tanks just have regular diesel engines and the Ukrainians have some diesel-powered T-80s. T-80s usually serve in different units than T-72s and T-90s. Battle Order made a video about the T-80 and its units if you're interested.
@@julesb6816 Are t-80s not multi fuel like the Abrams? I know diesel would cause more carbon buildup and fouling compared to jet fuel because of impurity grade but it should still work well in a turbine.
One factor not mentioned is that when these tanks are put into mothballs, I would imagine most of the valuable electronics, thermal/night vision, tracks, and perhaps even entire engines are almost certainly removed and put into storage facilities where they can be kept for a very long time. This would definitely be valuable not in the sense of the total number of tanks Russia possesses, but in terms of strategic depth in its ability to repair and refit combat damaged vehicles that are recovered, or just general maintenance.
So by today, Russia has lost approximately 20-25% of it`s entire working combat-ready tanks in the war, and that is only visually confirmed cases. Wow.
Yeah, tanks aren't nearly as good of a platform as they used to be. The Abrams has such a good record because it was ahead of its time in comparison to its opponents. Now, everyone has drones and missiles, which are turning traditional land platforms into sitting ducks. I think the real winner of the conflict in Ukraine will ultimately be drones and hypersonic missile tech, in terms of what ultimately gets funded by different nations
Not a Russian fan at all, but one needs to keep in mind that not every tank is stored, some will have been in active service and some might actually be stored underground or in hangars without having several tanks outside serving as spare parts. Then again, tanks being outside in Syberia.....really, this all is hard to estimate, though saying the current Ukraine war really killed plenty of percentages off of Russian tanks that actually matter is pretty much confirmed i think.
@@fowlerfreak7420 Saudi Arabia lost 20 M1 Abrams tanks in the military intervention in Yemen, this would give more than 100 Russian T-72s as Abrams is 5 to 7 times more expensive and was not ahead of its time when the first prototypes were built the Russians they already had a tank with a 120 mm cannon this only changed with the end of the USSR as the American army continued to modernize itself with a huge budget unlike the Russian
@@sierraecho884 deluded comment made by an unimformed clown..poland would destroy russia nowdays (no nukes) if they d face each other, nvm that POLAND IS IN FUCKING NATO . NVM THAT UA PEOPLE AREN T SHELLED BY THEIR SHIT TANKS THAT GET DESTROYED DAILY BUT BY ARTILERY. but yeah otherwise be very afraid of the gas station with nukes.
The more real number is number of tanks combat-ready that can reasonably survive a modern combat engagement with peer opponent. I suspect that the reserves are just marginally better than WWII tanks, and only a fraction of these are combat ready with gen1 thermal sights, no commander thermals (no hunter killer capability), no protected munition storage with blow out panels, and no reactive armor upgrades installed or ERA removed and installed on tanks in active units.
Think about how wild it is that some guy in a nation across the globe can go online and take a tally of another nation's military stockpile from his couch.
TBH, saying Russia reduced its tank count due to treaty is silly. They signed the treaty to cover up economic need to downsize, if anything. You really need to stop thinking Russia isn't lying all the time.
Its also worth noting that Russia sells a lot of its old stock to mainly the Middle East and Africa. Things like T-62’s and T-72’s are the usual exports.
I drew vehicles for reserve training from National Guard units that had full time Care Bears working year-round to keep them ready. We would do full tech inspections including all Basic Issue Items drawn from the warehouse in the motor pool anything not ready was fixed within a day, so our training be it 2 days on a weekend or a 2 week annual training went relativity smoothly broken fan belts a few times and one ruptured radiator were the worst we had to deal with. We expected to change track pads every rotation sections of ten for the most part but that was in the scheduled maintenance well before we showed up. I still miss the hustle and fun of drawing and turning in the tracks M113 family we used.
Thanks, really good info. I’ve heard recently from the Ukrainian office of the president that the Russians are already running out of tanks from storsge. This is based on eyewitness reports of reinforcements coming into Ukraine from all over Russia. Many of those tanks have unmatching road wheels which indicates they were assembled from several tanks and all are lacking reactive armour. Also, just about a week ago there was report a commander from a Russian military base (with large storage tank facility?) put a bullet through his head when he failed to mobilize tanks from storsge as ordered - only one out of ten (or so they say) was abke to be started and in condition to move. Just thought I’d let you know.
Russia's military is just as corrupt as every other aspect of its government, which is why it will fail in Ukraine. I hope I live to see the day when Vladimir Putin is murdered by his subordinates.
even with the tanks they get going... it seems the armour is definitely not up to par - one assumes with corruption etc it would be hard to ensure that the armour was correct and not just some soft iron made to look good until the times comes to actually go in to combat....
One thing I learned from my days in the military is that numbers should always be considered suspect. Saying you have X number of anything is all well and fine but the real question is how many are serviceable and battle ready at any one time and how well trained are the crews? It's evident from looking at the Ukraine situation that the answers to those questions are a) not that many and b) pretty piss-poor.
yes in similar situations the americans took out the Iraqi military and the afghani military in weeks... this has been really eye opening... as always assumed the us and russian military were on a similar par but that obviously is not the case,, one hope the Americans do not get too over confidant... mind you this knockback should get the russians to re-evaluate their military.. mind you the failure of the Russians in Afghanistan - but then again i think that was under the USSR....
Great work. The Info on your channel is excellent. One thing's for sure between UAVs, drones and MPATS, traditional armoured warfare is certainly looking like it needs to adapt.
The thing about Russia's invasion of Ukraine is that they didn't even follow basic armored warfare doctrine established in WW2. For example they didn't employ infantry screens for tanks. In WW2 tanks were shown to be extremely vulnerable to attacks when they didn't have infantry supporting them (to make for example RPG attacks much harder). So it isn't best example of even good WW2 armored doctrine, much less modern armored doctrine.
@@erickajander1799 People are saying they become obsolete since 50's. It's not exactly true. They need adjustments in doctrine. Just like they always did (people who didn't change doctrine in WW2 fast enough were the ones who were losing very fast). It's not that tanks are becoming obsolete - it's that warfare is always evolving and you need to properly use tools of war to utilize them in most efficient manner. That being said I wonder if next generation tanks will even resemble tanks and be called as such. Especially the autonomous (or at least remote controlled) ones.
@@Shrekfromthehitmovieshrek Yeah. True. After all it wasn't that tough to destroy WW1 era tank. So people thought it would be far less useful since now the potential enemies would have something to counter it. People forget that Tank was a surprise weapon - hence why it is called tank. But as usual it got adapted into something different. Tanks aren't going to disappear. But in 100 years they might be so different that we wouldn't even call them tanks. But for people who live through their evolution it will be normal to see them as tanks.
I'd hate to be anything on the modern battlefield. The only thing doing well right now are stealth jets and yet a few of those have already been lost due to accidents.
Actually a properly designed and maintained tank is one of the safest places to be on a battlefield. The problem is Russia designed their tanks so the ammo isn't separated from the crew. It's also in a area with weak armor so it's an easy target. If the ammo explodes the crew won't survive. Most other countries design the tank so if the ammo explodes the crew has a chance to survive the blast.
I read a story about a Russian General who took his own life after finding out that his men scrapped a large number of tanks that were in storage for their precious metals. I dont remember his name or location but just that his guys went through all of the surplus vehicles in storage and stole wiring and circuit boards for the scrap metal. We have this problem in the US only not in the military but street thieves that steal catalytic converters from late model cars and trucks right out of victims driveways and parking lots.
It was a commander of 13 tank regiment which is part of "Kantimyrov" 4th guards tank division - one of the best equipped and prepared divisions in russian army (at least they say it)
The suicide suggests that did come as a surprise. He likely expected that the tanks would either be scrapped or rebuilt with modern modules, thus selling the old electronics for scrap would never be noticed. Or perhaps the previous guy scrapped them and he was just signing off on them being regularly inspected without doing the work.
A very impressive analysis using just unclassified information! I can still remember in the early 1980's hearing that the Soviets had 50,000 tanks to 10,000 for the US. Oh how the mighty have fallen...
According to Ukraine they destroyed/captured over 750 Russian tanks as of April 14th. As we have visual confirmation of over 500 at this point that number sounds pretty plausible to me. And it would mean Russia has lost about 1/3rd of its entire active tank force in 6 weeks of war against a nominally much weaker opponent. That's just mind boggling when you think about it.
Its also worth mentioning they cannot deploy everything to Ukraine...they still need to keep tanks on other fronts to maintain border security. Unless they are doing something REALLY stupid like swapping out the T72's from European and Chinese fronts with T-62's and literally destroying all their best gear in Ukraine.
The number of actual phisical tanks matter way, way, way less then the number of tanks that are actually battle ready, have adequate support lines and structures and crews. What good does thousands of tanks do if most gather rust in a depot ?
The vast majority of Russian tanks are old with missing parts, incapable of being used, its best tanks have been thrashed by little Ukraine and its army runs away. Their air force has had some success against hospitals, schools and civilians. cowards.
Deluded americans...do you learn geography in your american schools or just gender studies? "Little Ukraine" - dude, Ukraine is literally the second largest country in Europe.
From a historical standpoint, I think your estimate of half of Russia’s tank reserve being ready is very generous. Before the Korean War, the USA had about 3,200 M4 Shermans in inventory. Only half of them were serviceable on the outbreak of the Korean War. The Russian tanks in reserve are more technologically complex than a WW2 era M4 Sherman and have more features and technologies. Thus are more difficult to maintain. The newest tank in Russia’s is possibly the T-72BA (the T-72B3, T-72B3-2016, T-80BVM, and T-90M are the only newer tanks, but there are no reserves for these variants). The T-72BA was produced starting in 1998 through 2005. So the T-72BA would be 17 years old now. Meanwhile the oldest M4 Sherman would have been built in 1942 and the end of the Korean War was in 1953, so the M4 Sherman would have only been 11 years old.
Even if 3000 can be brought back: Most of them are easy victims for modern weapons (most of the older tanks don't even have ERA and refitting them is a) costly and b) probably not as good as a tank built from the ground up with ERA in mind! Not to mention that Russian ERA isn't super great in the first place!)...as seen in Ukraine (NLAW dominates Russian tanks)
For those unfamiliar with analysis of satellite imagery for intel purposes such as this - if you see a big dark hole where the turret used to be, the tank's probably not combat ready.😁
I like to think that guy with the tractor has taken them all . God bless the Ukraine people and tractor man may he be the larges private owner of Russian tanks and other vehicles in the world , as a farmer or not you sir are my hero .
Yo, dude! Knock, knock! Time to update this (great) video. Can you find fresh satellite images to see how emptied out all those "storage depots" are at this point? Can you find where tanks have been moved forward, but are still held in reserve? See if the Russians pulling from these reserves shows some "sorting" to help confirm what proportion of the original inventory are inoperable/parts-only versions? Give us some idea of the logistics required to pull a tank from the respective sites and on into battle? And, of course, anything else you spot along the way. Knowing inventory right now would be crucial as I am sure pressure to start negotiations will increase as we move toward winter. Thanks
Install Raid for Free IOS/ANDROID/PC: clcr.me/CovertCabal and get a special starter pack Available only for the next 30 days
lol this game is an example for what´s wrong whit mobile games.
Cringe
L
Hey sir if you can satellite and see what happen in russia like that than you must be super king hacker. Do you even use any hack code for doing this? For god shake and humanity you can provide information where putin live and his routines and also all his nuke hiding. So ukraine and allies might .... Him than everything will be over.
Covert Cabal = CC =33
Proof of all Claims Required.
It's actually pretty smart of Russia to hide their tanks East of the Urals, it keeps them out of reach of the Ukrainian farmers, John Deere tractors simply don't have that kind of operational range.
I heard that the 1st Ukrainian Airborne Farmer Division is looking at a possible operation against them!
@@paddy7812 1st Ukrainian Farmers slogan : "Farmers Tow Away!"
@@ace1262 unfortunately they got first casualty already, one farmer killed by russian troops
I was hoping for a Russian invasion in the US. I want a tank.
" Nothing Runs Like A Deere ".
I served with a tank regiment in Germany many years ago. We had about 15 challenger tanks. Including support staff it took 500 servicemen to keep them fully operational. That doesn't include the trucks that move the tanks to the location of operations. If you leave a car outside for 2 years you almost certainly have issues getting the thing going, tanks are no different... To bring a stored tank back into service is not as simple as jacking the engine and putting in a new battery, I can only imagine what a siberian winter would do a stationary tank...
Wow, that is a lot of man hours!
let dutch youtubers handle this :D though they have mostly light tanks, havent seen any proper MBT + that would cost a fortune per day just for gasoline.
That's the thing about Siberian winters though, very cold, but also very dry, maybe that's not fatal for tanks within a month
@@effexon They sold them, then leased them back so the expertise was not lost. Honestly, the Dutch don't need tanks. Even in a NATO-Russia war. Countries like Poland, Finland and Ukraine need the tanks. We can provide better in other ways. We should definitely get new subs.
@@Prometheus4096 subs are cool, Id think danes would support you in that, like norway... and swedish industry is awesome in that area. Im not sure if you're swedish or dutch but either way, same applies. I forgot to spesify in comment I meant swedish forces with no MBT's but all kinds of light armored, fast vehicles. Makes sense in forestry alternating terrain, some parts mountainous swedish land, with useful crossing of rivers capability.
For those wondering, the accordion guy is a standard feature of Russian tank maintenance: he is there to make sure that the engine is nicely tuned up.
You mean the Soviet boom box?
in Russia Accordion PLAYS YOU!
Not accordian. Is arm operated turbocharger.
Do they also dance at the end of maintenance?
Ah, you played us all like a fiddle.
I think many of the tanks that look restorable would have some serious problems with how much corruption there is at the storage and maintenance bases. Every valuable piece of electronics and thousands of tons of scrap copper or anything else with scrap value was stripped and sold. That and most of the maintenance budget ending up in officers pockets because they send the crappiest most corrupt officers to Siberia where the tanks are stored making them bitter and even more corrupt there is not much chance for the “thousands and thousands” of tanks Russia has in reserve. Even the tanks Russia brought to Ukraine had horrible issues due to lack of maintenance so the ones they left behind are probably total shitshows.
Thank you captain obvious
You sell 10 stolen tanks to some random 3rd world warlord he'll come back for thousands of stolen shells.
You can guranteed that only the ones stored inside have engines/transmissions that are not totally rusted out. The Russian military has been stealing from itself for decades...You can guarantee they long ago stripped out the valuable stuff (like copper) and stole the money for the maintenance budget. Also the turret rings are almost certainly rusted solid.
ua-cam.com/video/UUN8FusrQQ0/v-deo.html
tank repair
Ты бредишь, дружище, какая электроника, расконсервированные танки идут ремонт или модернизацию, та техника которую бросили не дерьмовая а осталась без топлива , но видимо ты слишком тупой чтобы это понять. В России около 10000 танков законсервированны и на базах хранении - и это по сути только бронекорпуса, которые не могут сразу идти в бой но это поправимо мой недалёкий западный друг.
Great video, but it missed out another important caveat. You can have a lot of tanks, but if you don't have enough crews to man it in short notice, the number of tanks you have in storage won't matter much. Not only that, crews are actually a small part of the manpower requirement to operate a tank, each tank needs support, which required dozens of crews. The support crews are needed to keep the crews fed, the tanks armed and fueled, and if the tank is stuck or damaged - repaired, and if the tank can't be repaired in the field, you must have a recovery vehicle to tow it away to be repaired in a better equipped facility, and those have to be supported as well. If the crews are injured, they must be extracted and lifted away to relative safety. In a high-intensity conflict, a tank can ran out of fuel and ammunitions in a matter of hours, yes, not days, hours. Keeping tank crews alive is important because active service tanks are usually manned by experienced crew, losing them means less experienced ones will have to takeover, and they're more likely to suffer losses.
just like the german army lots of toys and no crews. they had the same issues when i was stationed there. the ended mandatory enlistment soon after i left.
There is always crew training in wartime for one equipment or another
You can have a million tanks, but if you don't have the oil to fuel them, you have a million paperweights.
AI
Reservist/former active duty. Russia has universal conscription. Because of that, there are tens of thousands of former tank crewmen, and support crew, in Russia. No, they won't be as good as active duty...not that they've given a good accounting of themselves of late. But they will have some knowledge/training on the tanks they will be using.
I'd bet Russia doesn't even know how many tanks they actually have.
No doubt money is being allocated to keep those tanks service ready but strangely all that happen was a super yatch got bought.
15000 in reserve on Ural.
@@vlajkovlajko495 that's like saying a junkyard is a car dealership, ye the tanks may be there but its not much good if when you go check on them 90% of them have rusted into dust.
Certainly won’t be the number the yes men told Pootin.
@ST€pH@Ni€ Don't be happy,before end.
My Russian buddy who was a tank mechanic 2 years ago told me that less than 10% of stored tanks in Russia could ever see service again. They've been stripped for parts for years.
So if we assume Russia has only 3,000 operational tanks and has lost approaching 1,000 tanks, destroyed, abandoned and captured, with another 1,000 needed to defend Russian soil - Poo-tin's special military operation will grind to a halt in another two months, as stocks become exhausted.
@@cs7th Lets hope so. Given that Putin was planning for the war to be over in a week he probably didn’t even think about planning longer term supply of armoured vehicles.
Maybe so, but NATO militaries aren't cannibalizing their tanks at such a high rate, and they seem to be more competently maintained. 100 tanks versus 1000 tanks doesn't matter if you have the same budget and can't afford to maintain your 1000 tanks.
@@cs7th also the billions he spent to maintain/ modernize the military was pocketed by the generals.no joke.
he arrested 20 top generals for stealing 10 billion since 2014. that was supposed to be used to get ready to invade ukraine. so putler has been planning this for a long time.
@Ninja Crackpot Yep, but tank it is not something abstract (like a tank in general), one modern tank could easily destroy five older ones. And a lot of rus modern tanks were lost in the first 4 weeks) Rus is a big fake
I too served in a tank battalion. Even with regular maintenance, a tank will break parts just sitting there. we spent many hours doing regular maintenance. so tanks sitting outside would very rapidly deteriorate. Those kept inside are the ones they really care about but even those will need regular maintenance to keep them operable.
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED: Dimitry was cooking potatoes and by accident put the ship's kitchen on fire. The crew then followed the Russian's procedures to extinguish fire: sinking the ship. By the way, Russia didn't lose a single tank in this war: setting their own tanks on fire is a Russian technique to keep mosquitoes away. EVERYTHING IS GOING AS PLANED!
Russia Yesterday: It was an accidental fire that sank the Moscow.
Russia Today: And we are striking Kyiv in *retaliation* for... uh... that accidental fire.
Don't forget to mention that there have been 0 Russian casualties, they are just sleeping from winning too much.
Ukraine: 13 heroes died telling the Russians to go fuck yourself
Russia: they're right here on video and there's 82 of them.
Did you guys ever figure out who the "ghost of Kiev" is? Lololol
@@macmcleod1188I read pootin said it was a meteor that hit battleship Moskva. 🤣
@@jkphotography7607
Don't give them ideas, they are pathetic enough to use that excuse.
I appreciate that you take the time to look up stats and do your homework. This is one of the main reasons I follow your channel. Great content 👌 👍
Yeah, if you're braindead or damaged.
🤦🏽♂️🤣
No one seems to appreciate the guy playing the accordion at 7min : 40 sec to keep the mood up(?) for the maintenance guys
The fact that he doesnt lie and accasionaly do his own reaserch is the only reason I watch this chanel.
@@Привид_Бандери I'm Confused Over Your Comment. Would You Care To Expand Your Thinking And Reply To This Comment. !?
That would be great 👍
THANKS..!!!!
One of important point you've missed - we have notorious corruption in our army. And lots, LOTS of weaponry that's stored in all these bases are most likely been disassembled to pieces and inoperable - it's mostly just a pile of metal. The engine parts, electronic equipment, sights, systems - are slowly salvaged to pieces and sold. There are lots of jokes around army corruption and it's well-known thing. Recently a tank batallion commander shot himself after he found out none of the tanks from reserve in his base are able to move. The thing is - you can't have a country with total degradation of all sectors and hope that one exact sector will avoid it. Healthcare, education, industry - all been steadily degrading. There's quite a few people calling not to be scared of potential nuclear conflict cause likely our nuclear powers might be inoperable.
The recent loss of "Moskva" flagship is quite indicative too. And it's a huge hit on the morale of militarized people, who support this massacre and compensate their poor life conditions with an idea of how scary we are to the rest of the world.
Excellent point.
Hope the war ends soon.
Peace.
I grew up with the idea that all Russian military fighters are 15 feet tall & fully equipped for any fight.
What is happening is just confusing.
HAPPY confusing but confusing nonetheless.
Yea! I look at the comments on Ria Novosti and I get scared of how the russian psiche works. They are not outraged by the killing and rapes, but by the fact the army retreated from Kyiv.
@@johnnyonthespot4375 lots of people here still believe our army is so powerful, despite the fact it's obviously not. And weirdly, they combine all the jokes and stories about overwhelming corruprion in lots of shows, movies and media and belief that our army is the strongest in the world and just ignore all the info about huge losses in this idiotic war. Furthermore, Alexey Arestovich pointed that at this rate soon Russia will loose all of its fight-capable army and will be left with thousands of rusty and disassembled tanks and thousands of people who admire the war sitting on the couch and would never pick up weapon and go somewhere to protect their ideas. This situation will leave the country in extremely voulnerable state where lots of Russian territories could be brought back to it's "historical origin" effortlessly.
@@HeartcoreMitRA They probably rationale that the reports of corruption and bloated prices in e.g. the American military industrial sector has the same effect as the kind of cleptocratic corruption in Russia. Of course not. You still have to produce and deliver a million of those $100 titanium screws, and they will be installed in a working combat vehicle of some kind. Western corruption is selling things expensively, and giving cutbacks to the politicians funding you. Russian corruption is taking the money without delivering anything.
It´s like one of those guys who are hoarding cars. "Yes, one day I will repair them all"... but they never do.
Prior to Desert Shield etc. my tank company at Ft Hood TX .. D Co 3-32 AR was broken up to backfill A, B and C companies. For some reason we simply did not have the warm bodies to fill the BN. So. D Co was broken up and my PLT .. 3rd Herd were transferred to C Co. We walked down the line to our new tanks to find that the company had been using them for parts. It took WEEKS to get them up and running even at a basic level. It wasn't until we were to deploy to Saudi Arabia that the doors of warehouses opened up and we got any part we wanted .. prior to that you had to promise your first born to get anything. I can also tell you that simply not doing any maintenance on a tank (these were the M1 series Abrams) .. no maintenance of as little as a week would mean all kinds of problems .. you need to maintain them CONSTANTLY.
They don't make them like they used to what happen to the good ole days of just kicking something until it worked
Edward, thanks for your service and insight. The Russians must be having a hell of a time with their equipment. That plus logistics and leadership/doctrine may explain why they are so ineffective in actually invading.
@@bobbob-gx1iq ur embarrassing
@@joythought Thanks Joy. My point is that when a vehicle such as a tank is put in long time storage there are all kinds of problems .. rubber seals dry out, fittings start leaking. If the vehicle is not stored in a dry desert type area then you start getting corrosion. I remember one time late on a Friday fuel started to pour out of one of our tanks .. then another .. and another. It turned out that the hose clamps that connected to the fuel tank were not flat but had corrugations which snapped all at once on three or four tanks within 15 minutes .. had to do with the heating and cooling there in the Texas moonpool. That was on tanks we worked on regularly. A vehicle that has been stored and is to get running again needs lots of thought about how to store it properly. Not impossible .. just not a park and leave kind of thing.
Russia's mass conscripting so they can't even bother to teach their draftees all this stuff
Swedish vehicles in mobilization storage indoorswhere well maintained when they went in and had extra lubrication added for gunbarrels and such.
They where also connected to a dry air system that ventilated them. Batteries where the only thing not present as these get old quickly.
Instead the military had contracts with supliers to keep a fresh stockpile available nearby.
These vehicles usually started right away or in minures even after decades in storage.
Bet they also audit them to make sure nobody has ripped out all the wiring and sold it for scrap.
Thats russia my dude,ivan used the money for restoration on hookers and vodka 😅 what we do now?just send as many troops as they can,from 20.000 vehicles...100 or 200 must be still working 😅
Seals go bad from just sitting, after 5 years of just sitting alot of the seals would be dry rotted and would need replacing.
That costs money. Precious BMW money for the officer in charge.
That's in Sweden, the land of Saab and Volvo, not Russia, the land of Moskwitch.
I didn't get the impression from the video that many of those Russian tanks were stored in climate controlled conditions. I'd guess that money for a contract to have a store of batteries ready to go, would result in a lot of vodka drunk and not much else.
A major failure of Russian tanks and other equipment was the lack of preventive maintenance. Much of their equipment simply broke down. And with many parts only made in Ukraine or in sanctioned countries there was a shortage of replacement parts.
yup sensitive electronics was often made in ukraine.
Hahaha...the irrrony!!!
"Much of their equipment simply broke down." Not exactly. The parts,and the fuel was stolen :D
not just that, they can't get parts from Taiwan, South Korea or Japan either that they would usually rely on and I doubt China has the production capabilities to make modern electronics yet, those take a shit ton of money and time to get
Also, When people think of the ww2 Russian military they forget that those tanks were rolling off the assembly line onto the battlefield. They weren't sitting around in a field for 20-30 years
THIS is what good research looks like! And the explanation on required preventative maintenance costs was invaluable to understanding the difference between total tanks and total useful tanks. No one cares if Russia has 10,000 rust rocks.
Well done sir.
Dont forget the fact, US tanks are stored in hot dry deserts. While russian's tanks rotten in forests and swamps)
All rubber parts and electronics dies after few years in such conditions.
So,real numbers about 2000 tanks in action-seems realistic
@@MrChipMC Minus the 1000 that are already not coming back from Ukraine. LoL
Videos like this is gold. But according to some Russia has 10000 thousand tanks, 10000 working artillery pieces and unlimited shells.. So why is the russian fire rate in Donbass dropping considerably per day, was 50-60000 artillery shells a day for a month now its half of that on a good day. My guess is Russia wont have the shells to continue todays fire rate for much longer.
@@joggabonkers6380 I'm wondering that too. But of course, we all will just sit and wonder. It's totally unverifiable. Unless we happen to be working the Russian artiliary shell factory.
@@MrChipMC ive seen a t34 being pulled out the swamp thats been under water and mud for 70+ years, and it started up. so rust rocks can still shoot you dead, and those would be sent first to waste the enemies rockets on them rusty rocks!
I once worked for a company that dealt in ex British Army vehicles. Some vehicles had been stored for up to 10 years before being sold off at auction. The vehicles that had been stored for a long time could only be sold for parts or scrap, they would need a major rebuild to be runners
So is it safe to say that Russia has realistically only 3,000 tanks, 500 of which were smoked in Ukraine?
@@mardbenzmura1446 and ~200 captured
SIR I DID A 100% REWIRE of a 1964 ,(military) BRITISH LAND ROVER , 4 cylinder , carburetor, , 4 wheel drive. ALL WELDED SQUARE STEEL TUBE FRAME , ALUMINUM , RIVETED CAB , MANUAL TRAN S MISSION X REBUILT CARBURETOR , STARTER + D.C. GENERATOR .....AMAZING FIT OF PARTS , PERFECT MACHING. CLUTCH HAD A "DONUT" (HOLE IN CENTER) HYDRAULIC PISTON (SLAVE) OPERATED BY HYDRAULIC CLUTCH PEDAL , 100% EVEN PRESSURE ON CLUTCH DISC ( NO OFFSET CLUTCH "FORK" ) PERFECT FIT OF ALUMINUM INTAKE TO CYLENDER HEAD TO CARBURETOR ( MAXIMUM AIR FLOW ) ....REWIRED REBUILT IN 1975 IN KELLOGG. IDAHO.
In 2000, I was drafted into the Polish Army. These were times when there was still a lot of post-Soviet war doctrine. I remember being in a big truck warehouse. The soldier who worked there said half would not leave. If something went wrong, they took parts from another truck, some of the truck parts were probably sold for vodka. Today is different times, everything has changed. I know it's better, it's not perfect, but it's not like it was then. Things are even worse in the Russian army. I suspect that half of the equipment in stock needs to be repaired or is scrapped.
- 500 were gifts to Sirian goverment.
Well it doesn't matter if they have 80.000 tanks available. If they keep feeding them unsupported and under supplied single file into the meatgrinder any army on the planet will suffer extreme losses. Combined arms and good logistics is key.
Yes. Astonishing, isn't it. Guess they are unfamiliar with the 19th and 18th century concept of the cavalry screen?🙄
This conflict has shown how important logistics are.
JESUS KNOCKS ON YOUR HEART AND LONGS FOR YOU TO ANSWER! HE DOESN'T WANT TO SEE ANYONE PERISH INTO HELL. GOD LOVES YOU SO HE GIVES YOU FREE WILL AND A CHOICE TO ACCEPT HIM OR REJECT HIM. TO LOVE HIM OR TO LOVE SIN/THIS WORLD. CALL UPON JESUS & ASK HIM TO FORGIVE YOUR SINS! SURRENDER YOUR WILL & YOUR LIFE TO HIM & HE WILL GIVE YOU ETERNAL LIFE IN HEAVEN! PICTURE YOUR BEST DAY ON EARTH TIMES A BILLION FOR ETERNITY, THAT'S HEAVEN! NOW PICTURE YOUR WORST DAY ON EARTH TIMES A BILLION FOR ETERNITY, THAT'S HELL! HE WILL GIVE YOU WHAT YOU WANT SO IF YOU REJECT HIM YOU WILL BE SEPARATED FROM HIM & HIS BLESSINGS (LOVE, PEACE, JOY, HOPE, REST, ETC). IN HELL YOU WILL BE ALONE WITHOUT GOD OR PEOPLE... YOU WILL BE HOPELESS, IN DESPAIR & AGONY FOREVER!
GOD'S STANDARD FOR HEAVEN IS PERFECTION AND ONLY JESUS (THE SON OF GOD/GOD IN THE FLESH) LIVED THAT PERFECT LIFE! HE LAID DOWN HIS LIFE & TOOK THE WRATH OF THE FATHER ON THE CROSS FOR YOUR SINS! GOD IS JUST SO HE MUST PUNISH SIN & HE IS HOLY SO NO SIN CAN ENTER HIS KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. IF YOU ARE IN CHRIST ON JUDGEMENT DAY GOD WILL SEE YOU AS HIS PERFECT SON (SINLESS SINCE YOUR SINS ARE COVERED BY JESUS' OFFERING). YOU CAN ALSO CHOOSE TO REJECT JESUS' GIFT/SACRIFICE & PAY FOR YOUR OWN SIN WITH DEATH (HELL) BUT THAT SEEMS PRETTY FOOLISH! GOD SEES & HEARS EVERYTHING YOU HAVE SAID & DONE. YOU WONT WIN AN ARGUMENT WITH HIM & YOU CANT DEFEND ANY OF YOUR SINS TO HIM. YOU'RE NOT A GOOD PERSON, I'M NOT A GOOD PERSON... ONLY GOD IS GOOD! WE'RE ALL GUILTY WITHOUT ACCEPTING JESUS' SACRIFICE FOR OUR SINS!
MUHAMMAD DIDN'T DIE FOR YOUR SINS, BUDDHA DIDN'T DIE FOR YOUR SINS, NO PASTOR/NO PRIEST/NO SAINT/NO ANCESTOR DIED FOR YOUR SINS, MARY DIDN'T DIE FOR YOUR SINS, NO IDOLS OR FALSE gods DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO MUSICIAN OR CELEBRITY DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO INFLUENCER OR UA-cam STAR DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO SCIENTIST OR POLITICIAN DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO ATHLETE OR ACTOR DIED FOR YOUR SINS! STOP WORSHIPING THESE PEOPLE!
JESUS CHRIST ALONE DIED FOR YOUR SINS & WAS RESURRECTED FROM THE GRAVE! HE IS ALIVE & COMING BACK VERY SOON WITH JUDGEMENT (THESE ARE END TIMES)! PREPARE YOURSELVES, TURN FROM SIN & RUN TO JESUS! HE KNOWS YOUR PAIN & TROUBLES, HE WANTS TO HEAL & RESTORE YOU! TALK TO HIM LIKE A BEST FRIEND! ASK HIM TO REVEAL HIMSELF TO YOU & HELP YOU TO BELIEVE IF YOU DOUBT! DON'T WAIT TO CRY OUT! NO ONE IS PROMISED TOMORROW! HE LONGS FOR YOU TO INVITE HIM IN, HE LOVES YOU MORE THAN ANY PERSON EVER COULD, HE CREATED YOU!
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."-John 14:6
"But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven."-Matthew 10:33
“For the wages of sin is death (hell), but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”-Romans 6:23
@@andreivaldez2929 Every military conflict in human history has shown how important logistics are
Which is why I asked the question about what are the logistical bottlenecks to actually getting new tanks into Ukraine.
Great research. Unfortunately, you also have to ask the question... how many trained tankers do you have? I had a friend would as an M1 guy in the First Gulf War, and he said the amount of money in ammo they spent per tanker was staggering. A few minutes at the range could be tens of thousands of dollars, and large scale exercises would be in the hundreds of thousands (1990s) per crew. He said that Russians on average often only fired 5 rounds per year per crew.
If you bring even 1,000 tanks out of storage, who runs them? Taking some 50-year-old who hasn't fired a shell in 15 years... no so effective.
I would say a lot less tankers now. Russia has probably lost a lot of its main tanks and tank crews but could probably scrap together replacement tanks and crews. They will probably be less capable tanks and tankers whilst the Ukrainians will be waiting for them with TB2s, Switchblades, Nlaws, Skifs, artilley, Javelins etc high on confidence from the amount tanks they have destroyed. Actually uKRAINE does not really destroys single tanks they destroy columns of 3, 5, 10 vehicles at a time.
@@EatMyShortsAU Ukrainians bot...
@@galimbertino4939 Okay bro, there are dozens if not hundreds of videos and photos of Russian loses. Go to Oryx to see them. Soviet era tanks and vehicles are no match for 21st century western tech.
No.. no.. sorry I am wrong.. Russia is a great super power they strategically withdrew from Kiev and their Black Sea flagship magically caught on fire and all those videos and photos are western propaganda. Tsar Putin #1. Lol what kind of propaganda are you on?
P.s Armenia and its Soviet Era weaponry got pumped in Nogorno-Karabakh.
@@EatMyShortsAU bullshit lmfao
@@nikola12nis Yeah bro everything is bullshit Russia is number 1. Sleep well tonight. P.s I am guessing by your name you are Serbian. Serbians are pretty smart do your own research(on both sides) let me know your conclusion. We are being fed a lot of western propaganda and are restricted from Russian propaganda but it does not look good on the Russia side..
When the Berlin wall collapsed and East Germany was taken over by the West, Battalions of lawyers and inspectors descended upon the East to find out what would have to be done for reunification. One of the first inspections was the military bases and staged equipment but what they found was shocking. 97% of the equipment, including tanks had simply been parked and sealed up when received from Russia. they are completely inoperable, not just dead batteries but cylinders and tracks rusted in place, there were actually trees growing through trucks and tank tracks. The Western forces could have walked in and taken over at any time and the Eastern forces would have been powerless to stop them. I suspect Russia's forces are the same.
"Never again war" because "Russians love their children too, moaned the Euros, the man from Russia a mensch just like me and you" therefore "go home Yankee go home" demanded West Germany.
But despite West Germanys infatuation with left wing terrorists like the red Army Faction - formed in West Germany, equipped and operating out of East Germany - the West quickly turned to mocking the East Germans, not the Russians, for being stuck in the late 50s and not embracing modern expansionist Green Communism, which sent Germany to war in Kosovo with NATO.
Now the Greens are clamoring to arm Ukraine with weapons for peace
For 50 years, we fought a vast lie.
I highly doubt that, east germany was feared by all as the most developed and dangerous warsaw pact member. Sounds like bs to me
@@christopherlee5584 bs. East germany was notoriously dangerous it was the best warsaw pact member state when it comes to trainining and skill
@@epicgamer3614 Agreed, East Germany WAS the best of the Warsaw Pact, and because of their German heritage were undoubtedly more "en ordnung" than the rest of the Bloc. However, my comment was not about the Warsaw Pact but of the USSR. The USSR then and Russia now are inefficient and corrupt. And are no real threat other than their nukes. Do you think E. Germany would have remained cowed for so many decades if they knew the truth??
One MASSIVE lie....
Quite a time we live in that a random person sitting at home can do a satellite reconnaissance to create a force estimate of a major military power.
except the ones left out in the open thru Russian winters, are the ones only kept for parts, or waiting for some one to authorise their disposal for scrap. Anything still viable would be kept under cover and not see-able from satelite.
@@stephenarbon2227 I think you’re giving Russia too much credit.
@@orangephoenixbrazier4978 I think you do the old "I underestimate my enemy" trick.
All the numbers we have about destroyed vehicles are Ukrainian propaganda numbers. Do not make the same mistake the Russians do in believing your own propaganda.
All the numbers we have of Russians tanks being in storage (by simply some dude analyzing Google Maps) aren´t necessary correct either.
@@sierraecho884 no, we have more than Ukrainian propaganda.
There are lists that only take confirmed destroyed vehicles into consideration. (confirmed means there are pictures of the destroyed vehicle available)
@@Jehty_ And who made this "list" ? Was this list being checked by multiple sources ? In short how credible is this source ?
We can only guesstemate. Both war parties use the same type of vehicles. It is not that easy to distinguish the loses.
BTW what kind of loses do the UA have ? Do we also have a list ? Do they even share their loses in detail ?
Remember kids: Wealth isn't 10,000 tanks in a garage or 10 million tons of wood in a warehouse. Wealth is 1000 new tanks a year and a million tons of wood production. Things in storage degrade and become obsolete. They represent waste in the system.
Was that an AOE2/Rise of Nations reference? xD
This man has never played Stellaris lol. Is a valid point though
@Dan shhhhhh don't tell them
This is usually true
Might be a bit better to say that efficiency and resiliency area a trade off. Having a stockpile is less efficient because of degredation, but it helps you to survive a shock and makes you resilient. Russia's grand strategy is cleary to be resilient rather then efficieny, but this only works if the shock is brief, not sustained and this war is getting longer every day.
A large group of Russian soldiers in the border area in 2022 are moving down a road when they hear a voice call from behind a small hill: "One Ukrainian soldier is better than ten Russian". The Russian commander quickly orders 10 of his best men over the hill where Upon a gun-battle breaks out and continues for a few minutes, then silence. The voice once again calls out: "One Ukraine is better than one hundred Russians." Furious, the Russian commander sends his next best 100 troops over the hill and instantly a huge gun fight commences. After 10 minutes of battle, again Silence. The calm Ukrainian voice calls out again: "One Ukraine is better than one thousand Russians: The enraged Russian commander musters 1000 fighters and sends them to the other side of the hill. Rifle fire, machine guns, grenades, rockets and cannon fire ring out as a terrible battle is fought... Then silence. Eventually one badly wounded Russian fighter crawls back over the hill and with his dying words tells his commander, "Don't send any more men...it's a trap. There's two of them."
PRICELESS STORY!🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Oldie but a goody.
Bravo Sir - If that doesn't personify the Ukrainian position I don't know what would.
& a Helluva good chuckle too!
So people try to become happy by reading BS jokes.
Damn that was hilarious 😂 🤣🤣🤣
I was looking at the grass, trying to determine how much the tanks have been moved. My logic being, a tank that can have grass growing nearby must be moved very rarely and therefore not maintained.
The ones move to the Ukrainian border are nearly grass free, but even tanks you said looked functional have grass growing around them.
I think that might be the best way to judge the inner workings of complex machinery from space.
especially if trees are growing around and through it. rusky military - more propaganda/bolivood industry. plus corruption/theft club protected by secresy
In a sea of pathetic and worthless videos, this one is simply outstanding. Informed, rational, measured and researched - it does not get any better than this. Well done.
I have been recommending it to people watching war updates on several channels. The quality is demonstrated in the views... 1.1 million in 3.5 days.
And most important, no robot voice over, how refreshing.
the farmer joke comment is still ahead in likes... that explains the video dispartiy
Typical propaganda bot comment. Try harder, bot!
Yes! I might have shed a tear, when he said, that he went looking for storage bases along the railroad network manually. After so many numbers thrown around mindlessly!
I would hazard a guess that every tank we can see that has a "black circle" instead of a visible turret in the satellite imagery is in fact missing its turret and most likely the whole interior has been exposed to the elements via that gaping hole, so are extremely unlikely to be repairable.
ua-cam.com/video/zT7mMm0d0aw/v-deo.html
And most probably those covered by tarp are just cardboard boxes - they took money for tanks from putler and bought yachts instead. On a satellite u see a shape means nothing in rwality
@Kaiser Meme newest of T-72B3 can use old hull and put new turret and interior
@@tsugumorihoney2288 Especially the interior equipment, all the electronic, cables, etc. sounds about as time consuming and costly as building a new tank from scratch.
@@CzechMirco repairing a badly serviced tank is far more time consuming than building a new one from the ground up (assuming it's not a completely new type of tank).
Servicing tanks is just not remotely fun, or time efficient. Keeping a tank operational already costs a hilarious amount of manhours and that's only if someone uses the damn thing at least a couple of hours a week
The biggest problem that the Russian Army has is that their design engineers incorporated a fatal flaw in the design of all T-72. T-80 and T-90 tanks. The carousel for the ammunition almost guarantees a one shot kill on these tanks. This was very evident in the Gulf Wars where the Iraqis fielded export versions of the T-72. The Abrams tanks had no problem destroying these tanks outside the range at which they could reply. Modern ATGW only make it worse because they exploit the weakness of the top armor over the turret and engine deck. So it really does not matter how many tanks the Russians have in reserve if they can be defeated by armor and man portable weapons.
I understand that many of the reserve tanks had their engines removed and stacked separately from the older tanks. Due to Russia's climate, these engines and hulls rusted over many years and despite being greased, they have still deteriorated. I doubt that any of the T-54, T-55 and T-62 are capable of being restored. Many of the best were gifted to other nations as surplus because they were thought obsolete when the T-72 was mass produced. However, the design flaw in the T-72 only became evident after Russia had committed to building vast numbers. The T-80 and T-90 were supposed to correct those mistakes with active systems to block ATGW, but these were nothing more than a way of reassuring the crews that they would live in a hostile environment, much like the 'cope-cages' recently fitted to try and defeat Javelin and NLAW. These systems do not work and Russian tanks would likely not survive contact with a NATO tank.
The Russian tank bogeyman is made of straw. Even the T-14 is incapable against NATO weapons systems. Russia has not fielded them because they need to sell them abroad and they cannot do that if they are soundly defeated in battle - especially as the Ukrainians seem to have access to all the ATGW they need.
You missed one fact, Russia defeated Germany who's tanks were a lot better, with lesser quality tanks but higher numbers of them. Also Russia has ATGWs too
ukraine lost tank to
@@hhkk6155 it doesn't matter if it turns to scrap as soon as it meats a Javelin. Russia has NO comparable javelins
@@bluecheesehasmoldinit ukrain also have 6.000 tank . in 1992. and 6.000. nucler bom in 1992
I mean top-attack is the mongoose to any tank, even with blast doors it'll most likely hit the crew rather the ammo.
One Russian storage facility I think you missed is in Omsk at 55.01623495426101, 73.39539285738252. Quite sizable. I counted at least 3000 armored vehicles (mixed tanks, DTR, BMP, propelled artillery etc,) and about as many trucks and cargo vehicles.
Trash due to total corruption
That is Omsktransmash, a former tank factory. It appears to be basically a boneyard. There was a series of companies controlling it, getting contracts to refurbish the equipment there, and going out of business in questionable circumstances. Currently they do seem to have some business rebuilding old T-72 chassis into TOS-1A MLRS vehicles.
That place. has few to none tanks
The maintenance budget was clearly stolen along with anything that could be stripped out for cash. If they are outside you can guarantee that even the turret rings are rusted out.
You counted 3000 vehicles from a google maps image of a tank graveyard? Dude get a girlfriend or a job or anything holy shit
A Leopard 2 A6 engine is replaced within an hour. The engine of a T 72 is estimated at over 10 hours with good mechanics. The Russian main battle tank with crew is mass-produced, high losses are accepted. The training of the crew cannot be compared with the very high standard of the NATO armored units.
A leopard is a German tank tho?
Accepting losses is a false economy. A crew cooking inside a T-72 is money and time pissed away. A poorly trained crew means they'll lose the tank before it even reaches combat.
@@Shrekfromthehitmovieshrek Yes, and?
true, they out-tanked WW2 germany in eastern front, but also due to elongated supply lines of germans, no spare parts and that familiar story. But crew morale is other thing... seems high mercenary army or patriotic cause could stir up that, both very difficult to achieve these days.
I have seen an engine replacement in 20 minutes. But usually they work a bit slower.
When I was in Russia 10 years ago, I seen 100s of APCs in a field rusting away. Many could not be refurbish.
You know what's funny, is that if they were actually smart they could sell some of them off to collectors and actually make some money off of them instead of them just becoming a huge waste of metal.
You "seen"? Lmfao sorry bud, but it doesn't sound like you've seen (correct usage here) the inside of a book.... I wouldn't trust your opinion on whether or not those APCs you "seen" could be refurbished and brought back into service.
@Kaiser Meme could have****.... as in, "you could have paid attention in English class, then you would have noticed that "could of" is just an uneducated person trying to spell out the contraction "could've" without realizing that it's a contraction and is actually the combination of the 2 words "could have".
@@joshh535 well I am ex army and yes I know when gear like that is wasted. You may can refurbish, however the amount of time you would need is not cost effective. So don't be a smart arse, btw English is my second language, how many do you speak ?
@@joshh535 lol, another homeschooled grammar nazi. Haven't seen one in a while. Thought the likes of you have died out already. But no, you keep correcting peopke in an arrogant way while embarrassing yourself. Do you know that people around the world mostly speak english as their 2nd, 3rd, 4th language? You really are pathetic low-life individual without any self esteem.
My WAG is that there are a lot of tanks on inventory lists, but of those tanks many have been cannibalized for spare parts and many others are inoperative hulks. Maintenance hasn't been a priority for the Russian military for a long time, it seems.
There was Allegedly/apparently a scandal this past month when the Russian's started trying to do maintenance to reactivate mothballed tanks in which it was found at one depot only like 1 in 10 tanks were even potentially operational due to the vast majority being stripped to the bones of parts due to corruption. Some general got in trouble and the kremlin quietly buried any info on it.
It's also likely the stated number is for the more loose definition of a tank, Is, big metal thing with tracks and a BA Gun.to that end, many of their IFVs could count.
Maybe Russia has masses of military equipment that makes them look strong on paper, but that's meaningless if they cannot be used.
A lot of the money allocated to equipment purchases have been stolen by corrupt russian officers in recent years, that is one of the reasons why they are running low on supplies.
True. And take note here that most of those tanks are from the 70, 80's, and 90's designs and are not equal to most Western tanks. Also, their only tank manufacturing plant, Ural Vagonzavod stopped producing tanks because of the lack of parts, especially electronics, sensors, and microchips that are imported from the West. So because of the sanctions, it will be difficult for the Russians to replace the tanks, smart munitions and other equipment that were destroyed or captured by Ukraine in battle.
For years Russian tankers feared TOW missiles, now they fear being towed by tractors...
PS: Thanks for the video - good analysis!
TOW is old piece of shit at this point
TOW tractors. 👍
those farmer will likely to get kill for meme, war ain't joking
I've never seen a more comprehensive synopsis of Russian tank capability. Thank you man.
8:40 - the whole maintenance nightmare of having too many tank different variants reminds me of Germany in WW2
It reminds me of my first car, a 1973 Toyota Corona. It was one of the first ones produced that year, and it was made out of leftovers from a few '72 models, like the engine from a 72 Celica with a wiring harness from a Corolla and instruments and sensors from a few other models. New parts never fit, and I'd have to keep taking them back and guessing at a different model to order for. T72's and such have to be like that, too.
A number of years ago I met a young fellow from Finland, At the time, Finland had a mandatory military draft of two years for young men. When he was in basic training about 300 in his group herded into a large classroom for training in regards to the enemies Finland was facing. One of the instructors was at the podium and he informed the class that Russia had about 2000 tanks sitting at the border pointed straight at Finland. There was a collective gasp in the room and all the draftees sat thinking about the fact that they only had about 300 tanks in their forces. The instructor them smiled and told the, "It's not as bad as it looks boys. You see, we calculate that only about 500 or so will make it very far into our country. Why? Because Russian tanks are so poorly made that only about 500 will make it inside the border while the other 1500 won't even start or they will break down along the way and become a parts source for those remaining."
Mandatory military service in finland has been max 1 year since 1922, so I highly doubt that "young fellow" was a) finnish or b) actually ever been in the military here. Longest possible service would be civilian service instead of military and the longest it could take was 16 months for a few years during the late 80s and early 90s.
@@tumppu1975 I stand corrected. It was a long time ago back in the late 60's and my memory could be fading in time. In any event, he wasn't in the service for very long. He managed to mangle his foot and was mustered out.
@@oh8wingman Well, considering it's been 50 years, misremembering is entirely understandable.
I am pretty sure finland used russians tanks during the cold war.
The finnish military doesnt think they are poorly made although they are poorly maintained
*poorly maintained if they were poorly made finland wouldnt have used t72s well into the 2000s
Got to love the tanker at 7:34 with the maintenance accordion.
Russia: "Look, maintenance is expensive, even just preventive stuff"
Also Russia: 7:33 "Pavel? Is squad accordion-player, obviously. Why you ask?"
"Why does Russia hold onto so many old tanks?" I watch a lot of decluttering videos, and there's this idea of hoarding your Fantasy Self - all that wood you're going to woodwork, all those suits you're going to wear when you one day get another office job again - Russia is hoarding it's fantasy army! I wouldn't advise decluttering though, Siberia's pretty big and especially older tanks might have useful iron etc you can always sell for scrap.
I think every army does. The thing is - USSR produced A LOT OF TANKS. Really A LOT. And if NATO have money to replace them, Russia haven't
I am not from Europe but old tanks are needed in losing condition for war of country them may help to fight for some period it's is actually smart decision by countries like USA Russia and China like this
А зачем их утилизировать....они как оборонительные орудия, очень годны... На все остальное, ест ядерное оружие... Мы ни на кого не собирались нападать....а если уж и случилось бы нападение на нас, то тут нет смысла в новых танках с большим серийным выпуском .
Good video. A couple of adds here:
1.) Their combat effective inventory is likely only around 2K. The fact they have already lost 700+ tells you have quickly they are degrading their military force
2.) As we are seeing in Ukraine, most of their crews are being destroyed with their tanks. The Japanese learned this lesson the hard way in WWII: it is much easier to replace equipment (planes) then the people (pilots) who can effectively operate them. My guess is their losses in skilled operators is much worse than their material losses.
3.) Tanks are only as effective as their supply lines - Germany learned this the hard way in WWII as well. Russia is notoriously bad at supply logistics and with mud season starting in the Ukraine, the only place more dangerous then being in a Russia tank could be being in their supply lines that are exposed and stuck to the roads.
Et la marmotte elle emballe le chocolat dans de l'aluminium...
@@galimbertino4939 I love the Azov Battalion... There are 30 million Special Forces in that battalion, and they have magic war powers. They are invincible, and they never miss. When they were surrounded in Mariupol they respawned in Bucha, committed war crimes, and then blamed the Russians!!! They attacked and drove the Russians out of Kyiv causing enormous losses. They have infiltrated the highest levels of the Russian military. They have combat units hidden under the beds of Russian civilians, and they come out, at night, and commit war crimes behind the Russian lines. Nothing the Russians can do will ever stop them. How do you stop 30 million Special Forces that have magic war powers?
what happens after mud season? in WW2 many battles were timely, then slow intensity period, then big attack again... if it will be stalemate, summer can be another attack. But ukraine can be exhausted by May too.
The logistics of the wehrmacht was superb - the best army in the 20th century. Germany had not the resources, mainly no oil. Thats why they tried to reach the oil fields in egypt or the oil fields in azerbaidschan.
@@effexon
The difference is that a lot of foreign aid is pouring into Ukraine while sanctions continue to tighten on Russia. Time is on Ukraine's side.
Frankly, ever since the Kiev offensive failed, this war has been about how Russia can do something that could reasonably be interpreted as anything other than a humiliating defeat. The recent loss of the Slava class cruiser Moskva has made matters even worse for Russia. This is shaping up to be the biggest national humiliation since Afghanistan.
Good work, thank you.
Serving in a maintenance company in '84, I can tell how much work our fully functional Leopards were... And hell yeah, it was expensive
Thank you! I'm fascinated by the level of maintenance and logistics necessary. I knew it was huge and expensive, but never really appreciated it until recently.
@@CovertCabal That, and I know from own exparince that we used to drive our tanks "round the block" at leat once a month. But w had 15, not 5000.....
It's nice to see someone mention the lack of modern production to keep up. It's an often overlooked issued of modern combat. In the 1970's my father's carrier with its several fighter squadrons had an active combat expectation of around 28 days before they expected all aircraft to be lost or down for maintenance, etc. The same would be said of armoured units. In a real, full-blown shooting war, most major combatants would plow through their modern equipment and ammunition with frightening speed. While we see the tremendous impact of ATGMs, etc...those are so vastly more expensive/time consuming than something like a simple bazooka round, etc. Major super powers would deplete eachother's conventional forces with alarming speed - heading to either a quicker cessation of hostilities by treaty...or the unfortunate other option; nuclear war.
I agree .
In WW2 the Allies alone built over 600.000 Aircraft
The Axis also about 200.000.
Imagine something even close like that with modern planes
The US currently can produce 7000 javelins a year.. I imagine that would be scaled up pretty substantially
@@thelitsquad2718 If I am informed correctly the USA currently produces about 1500 Javelins a Year. Their Stocks are said to be almost halved because of the war. The Source i have seen has the Maximum Capacity of about 6000 a Year.
In a full blown war manufacturing is repurposed for the military. Within 6 years in WW2 they were all making new versions of everything, with designs modified to suit manufacturability during war
@@-BuddyGuy Yes but somethings are too technologically advanced and expensive for mass production like in WW2
They led with the best they had. Their "Sunday Punch".
So every destroyed tank means two things. Partially destroyed BTGs combined to make whole BTGs, and vehicles from non-deployed units being sent to deployed units to replace lost tanks.
And after that? T-64s? Refurbished? Maybe? T-62s?
They can make new. Missings part they can find in India what have west licences, Israel what is in favour with Russia, or China what have west parts.... Russia can make at full power avg 400 - 600 tanks per month ( T-72B3M, T-80BVM, T-90M) few armata..... if Russia go on war economy in arms industry, they can make avg 800 tanks per month with their capacity....
@ I am afraid you are being overly optimistic. The Armata is not yet in serial production. It is still a prototype. As is the SU-57 Felon.
Russia needs to get out of Ukraine, arrest and hang Putin, and issue a big apology to all of eastern Europe for 70 years of authoritarian, imperial crap.
I'm still looking for a sign of life for their revered T-14 Armata LMAO
@ Except that they cant, russia's tank production has been shut down since the war started because they are reliant on western parts to produce their tanks.
@@CompagnonDeMisere25 Yeah they sourced ball bearings from Germany as one example.
Even if Russia could get 3000 of those tanks into combat ready condition, they likely don't have enough crews to operate them or mechanics to maintain them or logistics to make sure they have sufficient fuel and ammo. They're already having huge problems with draft dodgers with this years April conscription (Russia does it's annual conscription every April).
Russian army have 1+ mil active soldiers and 3 mil active reserve.
@@PhilippSeven But do they really? They were also supposed to have all their infantry in body armor that could stop a 50cal, thousands of modern T-90M tanks, and an air force that was supposed to crush any trace of Ukranian air power or defense in days. And yeah, we see how THAT turned out haha. A lot of paper army that really went into general's pockets
@@mrvwbug4423 >>They were also supposed to have all their infantry in body armor that could stop a 50cal,
Not all. Only front-line units and special forces. And they have it.
>>thousands of modern T-90M tanks
Why? T-72B3 is enough. T-14 or T-90M it's overkill, almost all armored forces of Ukraine have been destroyed already.
>>an air force that was supposed to crush any trace of Ukranian air power or defense in days
And it's already done. Only manpads is still active.
>> A lot of paper army that really went into general's pockets
In Ukraine right now Russia use very limited forces. And that's why they call it "operation", not a "war". They assault Ukrainian position with fewer troops than the defenders, and do it well. They not use 'carpet bombing' tactic over cities as US did in Iraq.
@@PhilippSeven oh another bot coping hard here and using this expired since birth argument
@Space Lizard you bots are going strong, no one cares about you but you earn your rubles
Pretty much almost every country would have like "millions" of rusty old tanks if they would store them like that, put there are many reasons why it's not a commom practice. Everyone who understands something about machines can only imagine in what kind of shape those tanks are.
Some tanks have been sold as scrap metal, others are used for joy riding near the city of Khardiv,, a few found their way to a Russian theme park and most of them are hired to a movie company for a live action shoot about the WO 2 Kursk battle.
I wonder what are the effects of being stored out in the open in winter in Siberia? Metal contracts and expands with changes in temperature. If liquid water gets into joints and crevices, then freezes, it expands almost irresistibly, as we know from burst water pipes. Frequent changes, with a freeze-thaw cycle, are probably more damaging than a long period of uninterrupted freeze. Just something to consider.
Those are probably the ones for scraps. The better ones will be in those hangers.
Are there many freeze-thaw cycles in Siberia?
I would imagine that for the longest time it stays below freezing.
More importantly.....will Russia have enough trained accordian players to properly entertain the tanks. 7:32
@@Jehty_ Siberian summers can get really hot, and winters really really cold. Continental climate at its apex.
@@_tyrannus yeah, but that is not what I asked.
What I mean is that, for example here in Germany:
During the winter it is normal that at night it is below freezing and during the day it thaws. So you have a freeze-thaw cycle every day, even during winter.
Whereas I would assume that in Siberia it stays below freezing for the most part of winter.
The Ukraine war is nothing compared to the war in Cabal's comment section
😁
:)
Are the expired rations being donated to starving Ukrainians?
There is a difference between a combat ready tank, a tank in reserve that can be made combat ready (which takes time and resources the russians may not have) and tanks that are in boneyards that are only good for parts.
Russia is different in that if resources, people and time are needed. Women will go and the disabled will go for machines and will produce both bombs and tanks. But all this is bullshit when there are missiles capable of flying 2 times the globe with a radius of destruction the size of Britain.
A small note; the Red Army of June 1941 had 12000 tanks of all sorts at the front (and more in reserve). They ranged from outdated to T-34s and KVs. So this is not a new thing. Military historians generally say that "The USSR never scrapped anything" when describing the Red Army (and airforce) of early war. I suspect if you look at Tzarist Russia you will find the same holds true for The Great War, Crimea and the Napoleonic Wars, but I cannot say for certain.
Reminds me of civ games, your army ends up including everything from modern armor to crossbowmen because you don't have enough money to upgrade them all.
They are not bad to keep around for defensive purposes. It doesn't take fuel or much maintenance to park an old tank at a crossroads or other defensive position to slowdown incoming forces. Now offensive wise that's a whole different story.
Another video to help us question Russia’s “honesty” from the past. I always had a little eyebrow raised at the amount of tanks Russia allegedly had because I knew something wasn’t right but good to have a video like this to remind me why.
the good tanks are hidden from satellites ;)
@@ratfink2413 Yeah the laser ones have an invisibility cloak permanently on.
7:39 Nice to see the units accordion player taking his job seriously! It's not a good tank maintenance crew without one.
7:33 the most costly thing about tank maintenance is lulling it to sleep with the gentle sounds of accordionists.
hahaha
From now on, in response to Russian Accordion mechanics I want a dude just shredding on a Flying V whenever an Abrams gets serviced.
There should be a law for this.
I'm just going to put this here ua-cam.com/video/qwoWo4ChYuQ/v-deo.html&ab_channel=DoctorWho
Also, Russia recently started gifting some of its tanks to Ukraine. What a nice neighbor.
Good thing that Ukraine has reciprocate this noble gesture!
Also viceverse , lots of west atgm was given to DNR army. And zelensky constantly crain for tanks like a bitch. What do you think why is that?
@@stolek6908 Losing an ATGM isn't as costly as a lost tank lol
@@macc5963
Or the flagship moskva, it almost costs as much as ONE Putin's Yacht!
🤣🤣🤣🙈🙈🇺🇦🙏
Given the poor standard of maintenance we've seen on Russia's frontline operational equipment, I'd be amazed if 1 in 10 of their reserve vehicles is actually usuable. Not that it really matters - we've seen that logistically they've been unable to support 90 BTGs (about 900 tanks) in the field. Adding more would make things worse, not better.
Just like Germany right it worked out great for them. It is not 80 years ago, tanks are like metal boxes they have all sorts of items and we have none of them. It takes oil (which we don't have as they got rid of the pipeline). Hyper-inflation, food rationing, and a collapsing economy. But lets send over hundreds of billions of dollars (while infrastructure here in the USA) is in shambles.
There are reports saying exactly that 1 in 10. One of the commanders responsible for restoring tanks from reserves recently committed suicide because none could be restored. Many parts and electronics containing precious metals have "gone missing" over the years.
You need to distinguish between what is in reserve and ready to go and what is in storage and can be refurbished. Those 10% are the active reserves. From the other 90% in long storage about half is usable. Rest is for spare parts. Especially with low production numbers having a large backstock is important to be able to maintain equipment levels for a war that will last months, not weeks. This is exactly what looks to be the case in Ukraine.
Those reserve tanks or from storage arent intended to use directly at the front all at once. They will be dripfed into the war alongside freshly trained crews.
@@5p4rt4k But the 10% in active reserve should all be ready to go at a week or a months notice. If only 10% of those are in working order after that time, it means Russia has about 1% of their tanks actually operational. And that means more than half the Russian tank fleet is now in the hands of Ukranian farmers, even if you believe the 20000 tanks in total. So I suppose the situation isn't quite that bad in the active reserv, but far from 100% readiness that would be expected.
@@mosatsoni4324 My guess is they embezzled the maintenance budget for the active units and pulled parts from the tank reserve to repair the active duty tanks. So say you need 10 new transmissions for an active division. Instead of paying for the new parts, the officer splits the money with the parts factory and put in some fake orders. Then they open the tank reserve depot and pull 10 transmissions from the reserve tanks.
Do that over a couple decades and pretty soon most of the reserve tanks will be missing parts.
You are very generous. I think it’s more like 25% of those stored tanks that are usable. Most likely the parts that can be sold, such as engine parts, optics, etc. are all but gone in all of them.
Correction .. Russia was not victorious over Germany in WW2 .. the USSR was...
Plus of course the other allies
I was about o get in the comment section like “well we don’t see them because they’re defending the rest of Russia and this and that but your argument that they just don’t have 10k tanks makes more sense especially with your research and explanation of hard it would be to build and maintain modern tanks. Thanks for making educated and researched videos so jackasses like me are forced to use the common sense part of their brain 🤣
All n ot true, our tanks are so good they are still running after 50 years. Really.
@Beam Team Says the random internet guy who made zero effort to validate his claim
It's worse. Your argument is true, on top of the shrinked stockpile. Literally everything Russia can mobilize without mass mobilization (difficult if it's just a "special operation" and would take 3 month minimum to mobilize reservist units and get them trained and orgsnized, if their logistics can handle it.) or stripping large parts of the country from its defenses is alreads mobilized. The garrisons in the russian heartland (the actual Russia. I have a friend from the border region to Kazakhstan and he keeps laughing at the russian nationalists and theit slogans. "What do you mean, 'Russia for the Russians?' You're more than 500 km away from the eastern tip of Russia.") must be able to defend agsinst incursions and the Kaliningrad garrison is the most central piece of Russias NATO-Strategy. How do the americans say? Russia is "A day late and a dollar short".
Don't mind the Russians in the comments. I have a lot of russian friends i love dearly, but the "Russia and russian stuff is objectively better than anything the other dwarf countries can do"-brain worm is real. Most of them rarely reflect on why their families came to western Europe if thats true and most just live in denial that Russias total GDP is smaller than that of Italy. Which i don't mean disparagingly. There is nothing wrong with being a regular country among equals. They just have a hard time accepting Russia isn't commanding a global empire anymor
You forgot to mention the problem of systemic corruption in the Russian military. Because of this, the actual numbers of serviceable Russian tanks is actually considerably lower. Word is, that a great many stored Russian tanks have been stripped of wiring, sights, radio equipment, and critical engine parts which have doubtlessly been sold off on the black market. Maintenance and upgrade budgets have been pilfered with funds being redirected toward other illicit uses or being outright stolen. This is the state of much of Russia's stored equipment. It has been looted for going on 30 years now. The parking lot at the Russian Ministry of Defense in Moscow is full of high dollar European sports cars and SUV's. Where do you think Russian colonels and generals get that kind of money? Considering that Russians on average are worth less than 1/6 the net worth of the average American, how do they afford $75K-$150K cars? That is Putin's Russia. It is corrupt and criminal from the tippy top, all the way down to the nobody Transural conscripts who were trading their diesel to the Belarusian locals in exchange for liquor before the war. The whole system is rotten to its core.
Makes sense.
Corruption in Tsarist Russia, USSR, and in the Russian Federation is the only thing that has ever saved the West in war.
Consider: Crimean War, Winter War, and now Ukraine War.
3,000 or so total tanks sounds reasonable then imo. Something close to 2k in the army and maaaaaybe 1,000 can be restored. Good news for my country :)
""Word is, that a great many stored Russian tanks have been stripped"
Ah yes, the extremely reliable source also known as hearsay.
"Word is". All you guys have is assumptions and insinuation.
- So, how many tanks do you have?
- Well, we have about 100...
- Tanks?
- No. We have about 100 locations filled with tanks.
7:31 You know he is a professional tank mechanic when you see him strapping in the Russian Army's Tactical Acordeon Mk V before proceding to engine bay inspection
no he's playing it so that the tank feels better
I like how part of the maintenance performed, includes playing the accordion to it. 7:31
I worked next door to a General Dynamics site that refurbished the Abrams tanks .They would unload/ load them on railcars on the other side of our building.
Searched the comments for this. While watching I had to rewind..."does that guy have an accordion...yup." While USA mechanics are blasting heavy/death metal.
The Omnissiah is pleased at the sound of an accordion. The machine god must be satiated.
You need to keep the Machine Spirit high!
@@Western_1 Unexpected 40K reference. But a welcome one.
Active and effective are completely different things. Remember what the Allies pulled on the Germans? Some of these could be inflatable as well. Tanks for this video
I'm german and we're still waiting for the landing at calais.
@@Ass_of_Amalek 😆
Me:pinches one with a pin.
Tank:SoViEt.ExE
I'd bet a thousand dollars these are not inflatable tanks, in the middle of nowhere, sitting there for decades.
@@Ass_of_Amalek I'm American and I am still waiting for the Germans to make an utterly impractical but badass looking 80 ton tank powered by liberal democracy and German efficiency
There's a great video that came out showing some of the captured T-72 tanks. The reactive armor was removed from the carrier and stuffed with foam. The tank was captured because the reverse gear broke and the tank could not escape so it surrendered. Some are so rusted and maintenance has not been done on it for so long that some bearings were seized up and links on tracks were fused together. The rubber pads had disintegrated so bad that the metal was in contact with the road. Just piss poor condition.
Excellent assessment of Russia's tank situation. I knew Russia was scrapping a lot of their old equipment, but it is hard to get a handle on what was scrapped. I sometimes wondered if people who were "info mining" were simply taking relatively old figures and putting it down as fact. Also, a lot of people call things like IFVs and self propelled artillery "tanks". The Russians do have large quantities of BMPs and BMDs in storage as well as other AFVs. The situation with those vehicles is similar to that of the stored tanks. , e.g. only a fraction of the number could be brought into service in a short time period of time.
One thing you brought up that many people ignore is the problem with bringing such vehicles back into service, and in a realistic time from. Hypothetically, any of those vehicles could be brought back into service given time, money, and resources (spare parts), but it is realistic to do so? As you stated, some are really only good for spare parts since the cost of bringing them into service would be exorbitant. Another thing many fail to consider is that most of these vehicles are older and lack many of the protective measures needed on the modern battlefield, such as reactive armor. Sure, you could throw them into combat without it, but they wouldn't survive very long. Russia would also need to train people to operate and fight in these vehicles, something that takes time. As such, regardless of what number you take for Russian tank loses, that number is significant.
With the western nations clearing out their warehouses of older, cold war era, vehicles to give to the Ukrainian forces, especially former Soviet bloc nations getting rid of Soviet designed equipment, it won't beong before Russia is scrounging for vehicles. You will know they are getting desperate if you see them fighting with ancient T-62s or T-54/55s! I imagine you will see other nations trying to make a quick buck selling off their old equipment to either side.
How long will it be before Russia starts committing their tiny force of T-14s or even experimental vehicles? Russia does not have the money to replace their loses in the long term, let alone the short term. They can only turn to vehicles held in storage to continue this fiasco. The same could also be said for their air power, which is even more of a problem because modern combat planes are extremely expensive.
Fool do you think they haven't planned a way out.
@@Dopaaamine27, nope. They have proven with this debacle that they aren't that smart. But it sire is giving the west a great idea of how their older equipment performs against modern Russian equipment in combat situations. All they need is for Putin to order the commitment of their meager force of T-14s to get an idea on how far behind the Russians are. The west needs a free look at the best the Russians can throw at their second hand munitions.
@@gregwasserman2635 Russia hasn't even used it's high tech and latest weaponry, basically they are getting rid of old stuff
. Still they have captured 1/3 Ukriane and Turned 40 cities into Rubbles. The over $25 billion worth military aid and equipment given to Ukriane is being falling into Russian hands. West is actually arming Russia indirectly. Soon end of Ukriane is coming.
@@Dopaaamine27, yaaaawnnn...according to state run propaganda. I suppose you will next tell me Russia has lost less than 2000 troops. Sure, Russia is great at destroying homes and killing civilians, not so good at fighting actual combatants. Purely a second rate army. I suppose you will also tell me they didn't lose their largest warship in the Black Sea, right? No goals have been met yet. Oh, and no Su-34 and Su-35 aircraft have been lost too, right? Please, Putin, commit your tiny force of T-14s. The west needs a free look at it.
@@Dopaaamine27 I'm sure they did not.
A more informed commentor will correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding is that these various tanks in Russia's arsenal require different fuels (i.e. diesel vs a different fuel), which means the different tank columns heading to Ukraine all require their own separate supply chain logistics to keep them moving.
Yes the t80bvm and t80u use a gas turbine engine
That wouldn't surprise me. I notice they have so many different types of artillery and missiles that must be a nightmare to have the correct ammo in the right place at the right time.
They all drive on diesel except for the T-80.
The T-80 series of tanks use a gas turbine engine (like the M1 Abrams). So they run on jet fuel. All other Russian tanks just have regular diesel engines and the Ukrainians have some diesel-powered T-80s.
T-80s usually serve in different units than T-72s and T-90s. Battle Order made a video about the T-80 and its units if you're interested.
@@julesb6816 Are t-80s not multi fuel like the Abrams? I know diesel would cause more carbon buildup and fouling compared to jet fuel because of impurity grade but it should still work well in a turbine.
@@julesb6816 The M1 tank is multi fuel which is touted in its advertisements. Most tanks run on one fuel.
Russia bots/brainwashed fanboys complaining in 3, 2, 1...
(Btw., how do you like your new Slava class submarine? 😁 )
kinda sharp joke
Putin: everything is going by Plan.
@@test-qz4dq We have a phrase in russian "to make a good face with a bad game"
One factor not mentioned is that when these tanks are put into mothballs, I would imagine most of the valuable electronics, thermal/night vision, tracks, and perhaps even entire engines are almost certainly removed and put into storage facilities where they can be kept for a very long time. This would definitely be valuable not in the sense of the total number of tanks Russia possesses, but in terms of strategic depth in its ability to repair and refit combat damaged vehicles that are recovered, or just general maintenance.
ua-cam.com/video/UUN8FusrQQ0/v-deo.html
tank repair
k
So by today, Russia has lost approximately 20-25% of it`s entire working combat-ready tanks in the war, and that is only visually confirmed cases. Wow.
Yeah, tanks aren't nearly as good of a platform as they used to be. The Abrams has such a good record because it was ahead of its time in comparison to its opponents. Now, everyone has drones and missiles, which are turning traditional land platforms into sitting ducks. I think the real winner of the conflict in Ukraine will ultimately be drones and hypersonic missile tech, in terms of what ultimately gets funded by different nations
Not a Russian fan at all, but one needs to keep in mind that not every tank is stored, some will have been in active service and some might actually be stored underground or in hangars without having several tanks outside serving as spare parts.
Then again, tanks being outside in Syberia.....really, this all is hard to estimate, though saying the current Ukraine war really killed plenty of percentages off of Russian tanks that actually matter is pretty much confirmed i think.
source ?
@@fowlerfreak7420 Saudi Arabia lost 20 M1 Abrams tanks in the military intervention in Yemen, this would give more than 100 Russian T-72s as Abrams is 5 to 7 times more expensive and was not ahead of its time when the first prototypes were built the Russians they already had a tank with a 120 mm cannon this only changed with the end of the USSR as the American army continued to modernize itself with a huge budget unlike the Russian
only a fool would believe that percentage is real
7:34 Nice to see the maintenance done with accordion... Does it make the tank happy or will the engine run better?
Yeah, I was wondering too. Singing the valves into proper clearance perhaps? Seating the air filter with harmonics?
That is Normal Alinov Yankovich working on the polka timing gear.
To appease the machine spirit.
It's been done for so long we don't actually know what happens if the accordion is removed, and at this point we're afraid to try
Hail the Omnissiah! He is the God in the Machine, the Source of All Knowledge.
It doesn't matter how much armor they have when none of the countermeasures apparently work with any reliability...
It does matter to the UA people, who´s homes are being shelled I guess. It will also matter to Poland and all those other countries
@@sierraecho884 deluded comment made by an unimformed clown..poland would destroy russia nowdays (no nukes) if they d face each other, nvm that POLAND IS IN FUCKING NATO . NVM THAT UA PEOPLE AREN T SHELLED BY THEIR SHIT TANKS THAT GET DESTROYED DAILY BUT BY ARTILERY. but yeah otherwise be very afraid of the gas station with nukes.
So, is playing an accordion (7:34) part of the preventative maintenance?
The more real number is number of tanks combat-ready that can reasonably survive a modern combat engagement with peer opponent. I suspect that the reserves are just marginally better than WWII tanks, and only a fraction of these are combat ready with gen1 thermal sights, no commander thermals (no hunter killer capability), no protected munition storage with blow out panels, and no reactive armor upgrades installed or ERA removed and installed on tanks in active units.
Cold War era tanks that can be taken out with a $500 RPG-7 or 30mm Bushmaster auto-cannon. 😆
Think about how wild it is that some guy in a nation across the globe can go online and take a tally of another nation's military stockpile from his couch.
Not all areas are available to see in Google maps
TBH, saying Russia reduced its tank count due to treaty is silly. They signed the treaty to cover up economic need to downsize, if anything. You really need to stop thinking Russia isn't lying all the time.
Scrolling for hours through YT comments, it isn't often I find someone who understands Russia.
But when I do, I acknowledge it.
@@threethrushes
Same.
7:34 What is the guy with the accordion going to do? Serenade the tank back to working order?
Actually it is a standard maintenance operation
ever heard of the Adeptus Mechanicus?
Its also worth noting that Russia sells a lot of its old stock to mainly the Middle East and Africa. Things like T-62’s and T-72’s are the usual exports.
T55s are still going strong in African armies
I drew vehicles for reserve training from National Guard units that had full time Care Bears working year-round to keep them ready. We would do full tech inspections including all Basic Issue Items drawn from the warehouse in the motor pool anything not ready was fixed within a day, so our training be it 2 days on a weekend or a 2 week annual training went relativity smoothly broken fan belts a few times and one ruptured radiator were the worst we had to deal with. We expected to change track pads every rotation sections of ten for the most part but that was in the scheduled maintenance well before we showed up. I still miss the hustle and fun of drawing and turning in the tracks M113 family we used.
7:37 I like how they have a cheerleader to play an accordion for them while they make repairs
Thanks, really good info. I’ve heard recently from the Ukrainian office of the president that the Russians are already running out of tanks from storsge. This is based on eyewitness reports of reinforcements coming into Ukraine from all over Russia. Many of those tanks have unmatching road wheels which indicates they were assembled from several tanks and all are lacking reactive armour. Also, just about a week ago there was report a commander from a Russian military base (with large storage tank facility?) put a bullet through his head when he failed to mobilize tanks from storsge as ordered - only one out of ten (or so they say) was abke to be started and in condition to move. Just thought I’d let you know.
Russia's military is just as corrupt as every other aspect of its government, which is why it will fail in Ukraine. I hope I live to see the day when Vladimir Putin is murdered by his subordinates.
even with the tanks they get going... it seems the armour is definitely not up to par - one assumes with corruption etc it would be hard to ensure that the armour was correct and not just some soft iron made to look good until the times comes to actually go in to combat....
One thing I learned from my days in the military is that numbers should always be considered suspect. Saying you have X number of anything is all well and fine but the real question is how many are serviceable and battle ready at any one time and how well trained are the crews?
It's evident from looking at the Ukraine situation that the answers to those questions are a) not that many and b) pretty piss-poor.
yes in similar situations the americans took out the Iraqi military and the afghani military in weeks...
this has been really eye opening... as always assumed the us and russian military were on a similar par but that obviously is not the case,, one hope the Americans do not get too over confidant... mind you this knockback should get the russians to re-evaluate their military.. mind you the failure of the Russians in Afghanistan - but then again i think that was under the USSR....
Some Russian tanks in "storage" have tree's growing in their hulls. 😅😅🌲🌲
Great work. The Info on your channel is excellent. One thing's for sure between UAVs, drones and MPATS, traditional armoured warfare is certainly looking like it needs to adapt.
The thing about Russia's invasion of Ukraine is that they didn't even follow basic armored warfare doctrine established in WW2. For example they didn't employ infantry screens for tanks. In WW2 tanks were shown to be extremely vulnerable to attacks when they didn't have infantry supporting them (to make for example RPG attacks much harder). So it isn't best example of even good WW2 armored doctrine, much less modern armored doctrine.
I believe (RETIRED) GENEREL KEENE STATED : " IT SEEMS TANKS ARE (ALL) BECOMING OBSOLETE ."
@@erickajander1799 People are saying they become obsolete since 50's. It's not exactly true. They need adjustments in doctrine. Just like they always did (people who didn't change doctrine in WW2 fast enough were the ones who were losing very fast).
It's not that tanks are becoming obsolete - it's that warfare is always evolving and you need to properly use tools of war to utilize them in most efficient manner.
That being said I wonder if next generation tanks will even resemble tanks and be called as such. Especially the autonomous (or at least remote controlled) ones.
@@jannegrey actually they’ve been saying it since 1918 Lmao they’ve been saying it since we first invented the tank
@@Shrekfromthehitmovieshrek Yeah. True. After all it wasn't that tough to destroy WW1 era tank. So people thought it would be far less useful since now the potential enemies would have something to counter it. People forget that Tank was a surprise weapon - hence why it is called tank. But as usual it got adapted into something different. Tanks aren't going to disappear. But in 100 years they might be so different that we wouldn't even call them tanks. But for people who live through their evolution it will be normal to see them as tanks.
Thank you .. good video and it reflects a good deal of research on your part.
Remarkable detailed factual analysis.
Most important and most appreciated.
I'd hate to be in a tank on a modern battlefield 🔥
I'd hate to be anything on the modern battlefield. The only thing doing well right now are stealth jets and yet a few of those have already been lost due to accidents.
Actually a properly designed and maintained tank is one of the safest places to be on a battlefield. The problem is Russia designed their tanks so the ammo isn't separated from the crew. It's also in a area with weak armor so it's an easy target. If the ammo explodes the crew won't survive. Most other countries design the tank so if the ammo explodes the crew has a chance to survive the blast.
@@hermanwooster8944 How about a drone pilot, sitting 200kms away from the frontline?
@@EatMyShortsAU Begging for a cruise missile strike, so I'll pass.
@@hermanwooster8944 It sounds like you are not cut out for war.
I read a story about a Russian General who took his own life after finding out that his men scrapped a large number of tanks that were in storage for their precious metals. I dont remember his name or location but just that his guys went through all of the surplus vehicles in storage and stole wiring and circuit boards for the scrap metal. We have this problem in the US only not in the military but street thieves that steal catalytic converters from late model cars and trucks right out of victims driveways and parking lots.
Looks like he sensibly took the easy option.
I heard a similar story that said the general was shocked that only 10 percent of the tanks were combat ready
It was a commander of 13 tank regiment which is part of "Kantimyrov" 4th guards tank division - one of the best equipped and prepared divisions in russian army (at least they say it)
The suicide suggests that did come as a surprise.
He likely expected that the tanks would either be scrapped or rebuilt with modern modules, thus selling the old electronics for scrap would never be noticed. Or perhaps the previous guy scrapped them and he was just signing off on them being regularly inspected without doing the work.
Great clip, I'm amazed by your research and insight on the topic. Thanks!
A very impressive analysis using just unclassified information! I can still remember in the early 1980's hearing that the Soviets had 50,000 tanks to 10,000 for the US. Oh how the mighty have fallen...
If Russian frontline vehicles are already lagging in terms of its maintenance, imagine their stored tanks?
Is potato?
@@jeckjeck3119 yes
@@jeckjeck3119 target practice
This was an extremely high quality video. This is the kind of informative content I subscribed for. PLEASE more of this well researched format.
4:25 - wow, a tank landfill! Great video!
According to Ukraine they destroyed/captured over 750 Russian tanks as of April 14th. As we have visual confirmation of over 500 at this point that number sounds pretty plausible to me. And it would mean Russia has lost about 1/3rd of its entire active tank force in 6 weeks of war against a nominally much weaker opponent. That's just mind boggling when you think about it.
Its also worth mentioning they cannot deploy everything to Ukraine...they still need to keep tanks on other fronts to maintain border security. Unless they are doing something REALLY stupid like swapping out the T72's from European and Chinese fronts with T-62's and literally destroying all their best gear in Ukraine.
The number of actual phisical tanks matter way, way, way less then the number of tanks that are actually battle ready, have adequate support lines and structures and crews. What good does thousands of tanks do if most gather rust in a depot ?
The vast majority of Russian tanks are old with missing parts, incapable of being used, its best tanks have been thrashed by little Ukraine and its army runs away. Their air force has had some success against hospitals, schools and civilians. cowards.
Deluded americans...do you learn geography in your american schools or just gender studies? "Little Ukraine" - dude, Ukraine is literally the second largest country in Europe.
Well said.
They are regrouping though for another push plus apparently they are now using strategic bombers on Mariupol.
From a historical standpoint, I think your estimate of half of Russia’s tank reserve being ready is very generous.
Before the Korean War, the USA had about 3,200 M4 Shermans in inventory. Only half of them were serviceable on the outbreak of the Korean War.
The Russian tanks in reserve are more technologically complex than a WW2 era M4 Sherman and have more features and technologies. Thus are more difficult to maintain.
The newest tank in Russia’s is possibly the T-72BA (the T-72B3, T-72B3-2016, T-80BVM, and T-90M are the only newer tanks, but there are no reserves for these variants). The T-72BA was produced starting in 1998 through 2005. So the T-72BA would be 17 years old now. Meanwhile the oldest M4 Sherman would have been built in 1942 and the end of the Korean War was in 1953, so the M4 Sherman would have only been 11 years old.
Even if 3000 can be brought back: Most of them are easy victims for modern weapons (most of the older tanks don't even have ERA and refitting them is a) costly and b) probably not as good as a tank built from the ground up with ERA in mind! Not to mention that Russian ERA isn't super great in the first place!)...as seen in Ukraine (NLAW dominates Russian tanks)
easy victims....so go sit in a tree line with a NLAW then come back and tell us how easy it was...
@@hapeta24 ???
@@hapeta24 super easy little sheep as we can see in Ukrain. Vladolf Putler kaput!
Т-90/T-90A - 350 tanks
T-90M -65 tanks
T-80У/Т-80БВ - 310 tanks
Т-80БВM - 140 tanks
T-72БЗ - 830/530(renew) tanks
T-72Б/T-72БА - 650 tanks.
T-72A - unknown
Rest old models don't operate.
Official data.
@@hapeta24 He doesn`t have to, Ukrainians already showed us how it is done.
For those unfamiliar with analysis of satellite imagery for intel purposes such as this - if you see a big dark hole where the turret used to be, the tank's probably not combat ready.😁
Apparently Russia has quite a few armored fishtanks
i though they were the convertible roadster version
I like to think that guy with the tractor has taken them all . God bless the Ukraine people and tractor man may he be the larges private owner of Russian tanks and other vehicles in the world , as a farmer or not you sir are my hero .
Yo, dude!
Knock, knock!
Time to update this (great) video.
Can you find fresh satellite images to see how emptied out all those "storage depots" are at this point?
Can you find where tanks have been moved forward, but are still held in reserve?
See if the Russians pulling from these reserves shows some "sorting" to help confirm what proportion of the original inventory are inoperable/parts-only versions?
Give us some idea of the logistics required to pull a tank from the respective sites and on into battle?
And, of course, anything else you spot along the way.
Knowing inventory right now would be crucial as I am sure pressure to start negotiations will increase as we move toward winter.
Thanks