An army of rust: most Russian tanks are unfit for combat

An updated analysis of satellite imagery and internal inspections of warehouses in Russia indicates a critical depletion of its armored reserves.

The corresponding study was published by OSINT analyst Jompy.

According to data collected from open sources, the condition of a significant part of the Russian tanks still in storage can be described as deplorable. Only a small part of the equipment – a few dozen units – is still in a more or less usable condition.

In his table, the researcher classifies tanks by technical condition. Thus, the following are currently in Russian warehouses:

92 T-72B tanks, which can be considered to be in satisfactory condition;

1,606 tanks are in poor condition, most of them are outdated models of the T-64, T-72 “Ural/A” and T-80UD;

844 units of armored vehicles are completely unusable, or cannot be repaired at all.

As for the total amount of equipment that can still be reanimated, there are about 684 such vehicles. Among them are 501 T-62 tanks, 157 T-72B tanks, and 17 old T-55s. Most of them are vehicles that should have been written off long ago, but now Moscow is trying to return them to the front, using remnants, spare parts, and “cannibalization” of other vehicles.

Overall, analysts say Russia has already restored approximately 4,800 tanks out of the 7,342 that were in storage at the time of the full-scale invasion. That is, more than 65% of all pre-war stocks have already been exhausted.

The situation is similar with infantry fighting vehicles. Of the 7,723 Soviet-style infantry fighting vehicles that were in storage before the war, about 4,931 have already been mobilized. Only a small portion of the equipment remains in storage and can still be prepared for combat use.

An even more noticeable decrease is in artillery reserves. Of the more than 23,000 artillery pieces (including mortars and anti-aircraft guns), Russia has already returned about 14,500 to service, meaning less than 40% of the original resource remains.

In its report, Jompy concludes that Moscow is increasingly dependent on worn-out equipment, parts removed from unusable vehicles, and remnants of old Soviet weapons, which are often reanimated in semi-artisanal conditions.

“More than half of the warehouses are empty. Russia is holding the front thanks to those who work with scrap metal, not with new equipment,” the researcher summarizes.

As a reminder, Ukrainian soldiers destroyed four Koksan self-propelled artillery systems that the Russian army received from North Korea.

As reported, Ukrainian Special Operations Forces fighters struck a Russian S-400 Triumph anti-aircraft missile system in temporarily occupied Crimea.

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