Russia's T‑14 Armata tank issue: A costly weapon not fit for battle, says former president Medvedev

"Parades are parades, war is war- these are two completely different things," stated Dmitry Medvedev, commenting on the T-14 Armata tanks' absence from the conflict in Ukraine. With this, the former president of Russia underscored the Kremlin's problem: the advertised super-weapon is unfit for battle.

The T-14's incomplete state test cycle is cited as the official cause of this issue, but Medvedev hints at other problems. According to him, "the T-14 is not the most economical option among Russian tanks".

In essence, this means the Kremlin's defense industry has developed a tank it cannot afford to produce, and whose manufacturing hadn't been initiated for a decade. Although the official display was in 2015, the prototype T-14 had already been presented during military fairs in 2013.

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Worth mentioning is that the model presented by the Russians as 'new' actually draws from a simplified project birthed at the end of the Cold War. In the 1980s, the Soviet Union intended to build a new generation of tanks to supersede the T-72, T-80, and T-90 family. Surprisingly, after about 30 years, nothing has materially changed in this regard.

Issues also plague the T-90 Proryv tanks. Even though the total list of upgrades incorporated is impressive, an analysis of machines captured by Ukrainians reveals that the new Russian designs are less polished than Moscow portrays them.

Problems range from a hastily modified engine that loses power at higher temperatures, low-quality electronic components that corrode in the presence of moisture, to defective communication devices.

Despite these challenges, Vladimir Putin has claimed that the "Proryv is the best tank in the world and even the enemy admits it". The Russian president, however, didn't specify which enemy or when this acknowledgment supposedly occurred.