New tanks said to give Russia an edge

Russia’s Ministry of Defence has revealed a new line of war machines that it says will revolutionize the country’s army and help it to outclass western rivals for the first time since the Cold War.

Photographs released Tuesday show the T-14 Armata tank, a semi-robotic replacement for Russia’s T-90, and its sibling armoured personnel carriers, which will take pride of place at Saturday’s Victory Day parade on Red Square.

In previous photographs released last month, the tank’s turret was covered with fabric and only the chassis was visible. The Armata was seen without its cover at a parade rehearsal in Moscow on Monday.

Details about the new tank system remain secret, but Russian military experts have said the Armata will compete with or outclass western tanks such as the American Abrams, Britain’s Challenger and Germany’s Leopard, putting an end to the West’s post-Cold War supremacy in battlefield armour.

Equipped with an armoured capsule to house the crew and an unmanned, remote-controlled turret with an automatic weapons loading system, some have described the Armata T-14 as the forerunner of fully robotic armoured vehicles. It will be the most prominent of a family of new vehicles showcased on Saturday, including the Koalitsiya-SV artillery system; the Bumerang armoured personnel carrier; the Kurganets 25 infantry fighting vehicle; and the Kornet D1, an anti-tank rocket system mounted on a Tigr, the Russian answer to the U.S. Humvee.

It is unclear, however, whether Russia’s military-industrial complex will be able to meet a target to provide 2,300 of the tanks by 2020, given the flagging economy and stubbornly low oil price. More than 16,000 troops, 194 vehicles and 143 military aircraft will participate in Saturday’s Victory Day parade, marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.