Also,
Well, it was new 20+ years ago - I believe it was built in 1999 and then the design was abandoned.
I don’t think in isolation it is all that relevant to anything. I mean in the right context it might have been interesting. It was supposedly built with active anti-missile defenses and the like and how they performed might be enlightening. But we don’t know directly how this tank bought it. Had its old active defenses been stripped out years ago? Were they too obsolescent or malfunctioning after twenty-odd years for the modern battlefield? Were they really effective but this tank was simply overwhelmed by multiple strikes coming in at the same time? We don’t know.
Which just leaves it as an unusual curiosity, nothing more.
It does tell us the that Russian military is digging down to the bottom of the barrel to find working equipment.
How many tanks do they have left? Actual working ones, able to go more than 100 yards and actually shoot anything that is?
Absent nuclear weapons, I imagine NATO forces would be in Moscow at the moment, having a toast.
Don’t forget the other possibility, that the defenses on the tank were working properly, and against exactly the sort of threat that they were intended to counter, but they just suck. Given the Russian performance in general in this war, I think that has to be taken as the default assumption.
I’m curious why we only hear about the old T-64 and T-72 tanks and not the newer T-90s?
Oh never mind. Apparently they suck too.
I’m guessing newer models like the T-95 or T-14 Armata never made it into production.
The T-90 is basically an upgraded T-72 (originally called a T-72BM), with an improved engine and fire control system. Later T-90s had the cast turret replaced with a welded turret, after the Ukrainian foundry quit making the cast turrets. The T-95 was cancelled but the T-14 was supposed to have been put into production several years ago, but only a few have been delivered so far. Wikipedia says:
" The Russian Army initially planned to acquire 2,300 T-14s between 2015 and 2020. Production and fiscal shortfalls delayed this to 2025, and then to the apparent cancellation of the main production run. However, as of 2021, the Armata was expected to begin serial production in 2022. A test batch of 100 is to be delivered and deployed to the 2nd Guards Tamanskaya Motor Rifle Division, with delivery expected to begin in 2022".
How the losses in Ukraine will affect this is unknown - Russia may only be able to afford T-72s (still in production) as replacement tanks (the T-90 is also still in production but is significantly more expensive).
There are reports that they are not able to produce any new tanks at all.
except for the odd piece they use for parading the red square on May 9th and in front of other military dignitaries 
I will have to find the cite again. Sources say that the number of T-14s built is around 20 +/- a couple. I doubt we will see any in the conflict. A burnt out Armata hull would be a huge propaganda loss.
Not to mention a marketing loss.
It’d make a nice planter.
True but at this point it’s hard to imagine production gearing up to produce export models. The Russian army was supposed to have 2,300 now but instead it’s just slightly past the prototype stage. At best.
Those things go like 7500 miles an hour, so in order to get any actual maneuvering time, it would have to be fired from a LONG way off.
I’m somewhat inclined to doubt their claims; the Russians have a history of inflating, embellishing, and outright lying about the capabilities of their systems and forces.
I mean, if these hypersonic missiles use plasma stealth (they supposedly go so fast a plasma cloud forms in front of the missile absorbing radar and making it invisible), and the Russians claim they’ve fired one, how do we know? What proof do we have other than their Baghdad Bob style claims that they’ve used these crazy weapons? I mean, it seems tailor made for bullshit- “Uh, yeah, we fired it and you couldn’t see it because of the plasma.”
That’s not just the Russians. Not by a long shot.
Oh, I wasn’t implying they were the only ones, just that they’re well known to be full of shit about weapon capabilities, etc…
If they began in the Spring. Napoleon and Von Kluge report that moving an army during the Russian Winter sucks.
Now, excuse me - my girlfriend in Canada is calling and I have to take it.
Speaking of new weapons, Ukraine used the Neptune anti-ship missile for the first time. It’s an update on a Russian design with better range and targeting built in Ukraine. A little confusing at first but now it seems like the cruiser Moskva was badly damaged but not sunk.
Last I heard was that the Moskva wasn’t sunk in the initial attack, but then sank later while it was being towed back to dock.
“He’s it’s dead, Jim.”