After the failures of the Russian T80 tanks which entered Grozny in 1994 during the First Chechen War, and that of the American Abrams engaged against the Iraqi guerrillas, many experts predicted the upcoming end of the Battle Tank concept, a heavily armed and protected armored vehicle intended to break through enemy lines both by its firepower and its psychological impact. According to them, the progress recorded by anti-tank weapons and the vectors which use them condemn the effectiveness of these weapon systems, in favor of much more mobile armored vehicles and air-land assets.
Obviously, the Russian General Staff does not share this appreciation of the future. Not only was Russia the first country, and still today the only one, to actually develop a new generation of main battle tanks, the T-14 Armata series, officially presented for the first time during the victory parade on May 9, 2015 in Red Square, and which must enter service in the first Russian units from 2021, but the country has undertaken to modernize a significant part of its existing T72, T80 and T90 main battle tanks, to make them formidable adversaries on the battlefield. And today, despite their economic limitations, the Russian armies still have the largest formation of modern heavy battle tanks in service, while in Europe the fleets have atrophied to almost symbolic levels, France does not having only 225 Leclerc tanks in service, Germany 360 Leopard 2, and Britain 160 Challenger 2.
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