Posted on 07/01/2009 7:46:04 AM PDT by Freelance Warrior
MOSCOW. July 1 (Interfax-AVN) - The number of tanks belonging to the Russian armed forces will be cut to 2,000, a Russian Defense Ministry source told Interfax on Wednesday.
"As part of the armed forces reform, the General Staff endorsed the organizational structure of the Armor Forces within ground brigades and the Navy's coast forces. The Armor Forces will include two independent tank brigades and over 20 tank battalions within permanent alert brigades," the source said.
The independent tank brigades will be stationed in the Siberian and Moscow Military Districts, he said.
"The overall number of tanks of various versions, such as T-90, T-80, T-72 and others, will be reduced to 2,000. Thus, the number of tanks compared to 2005 will be cut by nearly 90%," he said.
Meanwhile, a former head of the Russian Defense Ministry's main armor department told Interfax on condition of anonymity that "the world has not yet invented an alternative to tanks as the Ground Forces' main striking force."
"The record of the Chechen campaigns and the two wars in Iraq shows vividly that it is impossible to win a ground battle without tanks. Therefore, tanks have been and will continue to be the main striking maneuvering force of attacking troops for at least ten years," he said. Before 2008, the Russian armed forces included tank divisions, regiments, and battalions.
A majority of Russian tanks are T-90s produced by Uralvagonzavod.
Tanks are SOOOOOO, like, 20th century, dude!
So, basically Russia is going with the “Let’s base our military off the USSR strategy in Axis and Allies” plan; am I understanding this right?
IFV’s are the new black in armor. A good 30mm gun with an anti-tank missile option can do the job needed.
So Russia is buying only 8 soldiers with its 24 IPC per turn and hoping the United States keeps Japan off its back?
During the height of the “cold war”, the CIA agreed with the Soviet claim that they had 70,000 tanks - many of which were poised to thrust through the Fulda Gap into Germany if a hotter war developed.
Then the book “Are the Russians 10 feet tall” reported the results of interviews of young Russians that had just come out of their mandatory 2 year stint in the Russian Army. They reported that many of the tanks were not being maintained, many couldn’t even be started, and many had been drained of the pure alcohol used in their targeting systems (by soldiers who had other uses for said alcohol).
So, I would guess that tens of thousands of tanks have been scrapped in recognition of the fact that they just didn’t work any more.
How many tanks do we have?
During Iraqi Freedom, Bradleys with their 25mm, firing delpeted uranium, took out quite a few T72s and & T80s. Soldier of Fortune published a few photos of the results. A very very bad day for the Iraqi crews.
Maybe they should spend 18 IPC to get a carrier and launch it from Kamkatchka! (my first game)
Did it work? I’m assuming Japan took care of it real quick.
We should buy a couple brigades worth of T-90s ourselves.
“many couldn’t even be started, and many had been drained of the pure alcohol used in their targeting systems (by soldiers who had other uses for said alcohol).”
For anti-septic purposes in wound care? I see.
“So, basically Russia is going with the “Let’s base our military off the USSR strategy in Axis and Allies” plan; am I understanding this right?”
No, basically Russia is pretty certain that with Obama in office, world communism can now happen without a fight. They will once again be the Soviet Union by the end of Obamas presidency, should that ever happen.
many had been drained of the pure alcohol used in their targeting systems (by soldiers who had other uses for said alcohol).
Well that's not a big problem - this material is cheap.
The US M1A1's provides good defense for the crew, while a T's has a gun capable of killing it. So when a M1A1 confronts several Ts, it probably kills the majority, but the remaining ones finish it. The trick is that Russians hope to outproduce the USA.
Your tank battle formula assumes tank on tank warfare. An A-10 Hog loitering above the theatre can affect the outcome a bit.
I think they mean they are dumping a whole bunch of obsolete models that are still around.
Still cool!
That seems to be true but that assumes that we have control of the sky. It was always my understanding that the Soviets were going to attack Europe in a blitzkrieg fashion with overwhelming force, including heavy air support. Many of their tanks would go down but during the initial phase of a possible war the Allies would eventually be over run. The real battle would come when Europe was reinforced, but that would take time, and Eastern Europe at this point would be controlled by the Soviets. I thought the military planers assumed this and this is why we fortified the Eastern block with nukes.
Japan sank it, and because I pulled troops from the German front, I lost Moscow!
We used to also keep a tally of the dead from the game, Russia always lost the most men.
If done properly, you too can buy into the “We’ve got more men than you have bullets” strategy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.