Approximately three times a month, all the so-called Russian military correspondents consistently name their audience some dates for the beginning of the victory or announce the appearance on the front of a weapon that will change the rules of the game. It is often said about Putin's favorite horror story – the T-14 “Armata” tank.
Almost every stuff that the Kremlin “made a strong-willed decision” and “now Russia will win for sure” is perceived by the Russian audience as something quite real. Like, finally, Putin stops playing spillikins.
However, a full-scale war has been going on for more than 11 months, and no one has seen any of the latest weapons from Russia on the battlefield. Of course, the occupiers use their quite modern T-90s of various modifications, completely successful versions of the Su-35 or MiG-31, but all these products by no means can be called entirely their own developments of the Russian defense industry.
For 40 years, Russia has not created anything of its own and of high quality
Kremlin propaganda, instilling in its own population the idea of the incredible power of the Russian army, has been reporting for decades that engineers- the occupiers have created this or that weapon, which has no analogues in the whole world.
So they talked about the Iskander operational-tactical complexes, which turned out to be just the implementation of Soviet developments for the modernization of the Oka OTRK. But in practice, when used in the war against Ukraine, they generally showed themselves very poorly. The vaunted accuracy of the Iskanders turned out to be something flying straight in the launch direction.
And how much pathos was at the presentation of Russian air defense systems. They say that the newest S-400 is capable of shooting down everything that appears in the zone of its destruction, and the Pantsir air defense system can easily cope with anything that is in service with NATO. Only in 2017, when the United States attacked an airfield in Syria with Tomahawk cruise missiles, all Pantsirs were instantly destroyed. In addition, our armed forces are quite successfully destroying Russian air defense systems with not so new weapons.
Of course, Russian air defense systems cannot be called of poor quality, but it is better to ask the engineers of the Engels-2 airfield about their “incredible characteristics” – the most important strategic object of the Russian air force.
Arrivals at the Engels-2 airfield as evidence of the “effectiveness” of Russian air defense/photo Planet labs
In fact, since the collapse of the USSR, the Russian defense industry has not presented the world with almost a single really high-quality product that was not the work of Soviet specialists. And if something was created, then these are only cruise missiles of the “Caliber” or “Dagger” type. However, not everything is so perfect for Russia here either. After all, the hypersonic complex is an incredibly piece product, which the defense industry of the aggressor country is able to produce only in very limited quantities.
Moreover, any “analogue” Russian weapon is almost 100% dependent on the supply of Western spare parts. Without microchips, gyroscopes and other technological components, Russians can generally forget about the manufacture and modernization of any weapon.
So the only option for replenishing the ammunition of the same “Caliber” and “Daggers” for them is only the illegal acquisition of everything necessary, bypassing the sanctions. After all, there has never been a hint of import substitution in Russia for all the years.
Su-57 is a complete disgrace
< p>However, if cruise missiles and Iskanders are used by Russian war criminals against the civilian population and critical infrastructure, then there are such “wunderwaffles” that never appear on the line of collision. Without a doubt, this is the “mega-efficient 5th generation fighter” Su-57. And this is not at all about the fact that parts of this “analogue” aircraft were “bought” on aliexpress, but that Russian engineers work with the same quality as the automatic translator on this popular Chinese site.
Multipurpose fighters, which Russia will definitely create the fastest in the world, have been developed for more than 10 years. Tens of billions of dollars were spent on this, but the project, as expected, turned out to be stillborn.
After all, at first the Russians told the whole world how the Su-57 passed all the tests, although it could not even take to the air, and at the first presentations at air shows, instead of a real model of the aircraft, they carried a stationary fighter with some foam parts. After all, they couldn’t even assemble a full-fledged board.
The Russian “fifth generation fighter” is when one of the two engines works/photo from Russian propaganda media
And there is nothing to be surprised when the “incredibly effective” developers nevertheless somehow “finished” the Su-57, and the plane was about to be transferred to the Russian Aerospace Forces, it crashed due to a failure of the control system. In order not to be disgraced completely, Russian inventors quickly assembled the second “serial” version of the fighter literally from shit and sticks – having dismantled a number of MiGs and Dryers for the needs of a “new” product. Several years have passed since that moment, but has the situation improved with the supply of the Su-57 to the Russian troops? Not! It was not possible to produce a more or less crude model of the “fifth generation” aircraft at the aviation plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur.
Therefore, the Russians will use these aircraft only as platforms for launching old Soviet missiles, and Su-57 pilots will never approach the Russian-Ukrainian border at a distance of at least 20 kilometers. But it’s very scary to lose a thing that all of Russia has been praying for for years. Especially if this thing cannot be restored under sanctions.
“Armata” will be brought to the front only after Shoigu and Putin
With the promoted T-14s, the situation is the same: tanks seem to exist. And probably not even cardboard. But no one will ever see them on the front line. Some occupiers even joke that the Armata will only be allowed into battle when Shoigu and Putin dare to visit the front line, and this, of course, is only possible in Peskov's stories. Or if the front line is suddenly called a training ground with FSO actors.
The propagandists promoted the development of Uralvagonzavod so actively that at the mention of the word “Armata”, they say, even dead Buryat tankers streamed myrrh. The T-14, although it turned out to be a completely useless thing, on which billions of petrodollars were sawn, however, it has completely become a “strong” icon of the Russian defense industry. On the level with the “Tsar Cannon” – completely unusable and it is not clear why it was created.
The “revolutionary” tank was developed from 2009 to 2022, and it was supposed to enter service with the Russians in 2013, but these dates were constantly shifting. By the way, the troops still do not have a single copy of the T-14. But at the same time, they continue to shamelessly lie to the population of the aggressor country that “Armata” will someday make a splash on the front. However, this will never happen, because it is not even known if the developers replaced the cardboard parts with real armor.
Cardboard “Armata” before the parade in 2015/photo from Twitter
The Kremlin will never admit that the T-14 is the most disastrous project, capable only of riding around Red Square in parades so that the “vanki” see the “greatness” of the Russian military-industrial complex. However, as practice shows, “Armata” drives every other time.Since in the event of any appearance of the “Armata” (if it is really capable of driving and shooting) on the battlefield, this tank can be burned by conventional RPGs, the Russians will never risk the loss of almost the only model that can form the pride of the invaders in their defense industry. And if anyone still does not believe in this, then let him answer the question: why has the Kremlin leadership still not used such wonderful weapons?
T-34s will probably appear on the battlefield. The same ones that Laos handed over to the Kremlin at the end of December. And although they say in Moscow that they will use tanks from the Second World War exclusively for parades and filming historical videos, there are strong suspicions that the “chmobiks” will have to participate in the reconstruction of the “Great Patriotic War” somewhere in the Donbass.
Kobzon approves the appearance of the T-62 and preparations for the use of the T-34 on the Ukrainian fronts/photo from Russian propaganda resources
It's not for nothing that Russian propagandists have already begun filming stories that these tanks developed by the Kharkov Tank Plant in 1940 are still “very good”.
Only they will have to fight not against Panthers and Mouses, but against Leopards and Abrams. And the Russian Buryats will literally burn in batches. Perhaps with the thought that someday the T-14 will be brought to the front, and then Russia will definitely win.
