It’s probably just a matter of time before analysts start adding T-62s to the long list of tanks the Russian army has lost in Ukraine. But their location puts them in close vicinity to Ukrainian battalions advancing toward Kherson in reasonably modern T-72 and T-64 tanks. There’s no evidence yet that the T-62s have fought their first battle in Ukraine. It should come as no surprise that a photo already is circulating on social media depicting a broken-down T-62 on a roadside somewhere in southern Ukraine. Each of the T-62s the Russians have deployed to Ukraine likely is running on fragile automotive systems that could break down after minimal stress. BMP-1-30 BMP-1AM BMPT Terminator BTR-T T-62 It would be years after the political turmoil following the collapse of the Soviet Union before Russia could emerge as a potent military power, with the inheritance of a massive Soviet army counting many obsolete models, no wages, no ammunition or even gasoline to operate properly. The T-62s ironically may have endured the brutal conditions better than newer models have done, owing to the T-62’s lack of sophisticated and delicate optics and electronics.īut rubber seals are rubber seals-and nothing made of rubber likes to sit out in the open for several decades. Rust long ago rendered most of the stored tanks useless. The Russian army stores most of its roughly 10,000 surplus tanks, including potentially thousands of T-62s, in vast outdoor vehicle parks, where the tanks are exposed to wet winters. The cages only increase the burden on crews and maintainers that the aging T-62s impose even in a clean, unmodified state. They add weight, obstruct a tank commander’s view, block turret-mounted machine guns and make a tank taller, and thus easier to spot on the battlefield. Russian tank captain Aleksei Ukhachev, speaking in a Moskovsky Komsomolets magazine article, tore into Kremlin leadership for sending him and his crews to war aboard vehicles grossly vulnerable to high tech missiles like U.S.-made Javelin and the Swedish/British NLAW. The cages meanwhile have plenty of downsides. But there’s no evidence a welded cage in fact offers any meaningful protection. “The T-62s will almost certainly be particularly vulnerable to anti-tank weapons,” the U.K. The old tanks arrived in southern Ukraine without the explosive reactive armor that protects newer Russian and Ukrainian vehicles. The impulse to add protection makes sense. Instead, the Russians are deploying the old tanks with their 115-millimeter guns toward the southern battlefront, where Ukrainian battalions in recent weeks have crossed the Inhulets Rivers and established a lodgment 40 miles north of Russian-occupied Kherson.Ĭrews even have welded onto the T-62s cage-like apparatuses that some operators seem to believe will protect the vehicles from top-down strikes by anti-tank guided missiles such as Ukraine’s homemade Stugna-P and the American-made Javelin. Novaya Gazeta critic Larisa Malyukova reflects on the role of tanks in modern Russian cinema Sidorov took into account the shortcomings of the tank films. The thinking, among these skeptics, was that Russian commanders would hold back the 41-ton T-62s, staging them with their four-person crews in Russian-held towns and cities strictly for defensive purposes.
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