Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the vast majority of weapon systems delivered to the Russian armies, as well as to their export customers, have been based on equipment designed before 1990. This is the case in the field. armored vehicles with the T90 tank, with aircraft derived from the Su-27 such as the Su-34 and Su-35s, in the field of helicopters with the Mi28 and the Ka52, and in the naval field, with the submarines 636 Improved Kilo. However, Moscow did not abandon its ambitions of remaining a major player, both in the geostrategic and military field, and in that of arms exports. 2021 could well be a pivotal year in this field, with the commissioning of two major facilities, the Su-5 "57th generation" fighter, and the T14 Armata battle tank, both pure products of the renewal of the Russian defense industry.
Like the rest of the country, the Russian defense industry, as well as the country's armies, were severely affected by the economic cataclysm that followed the Soviet collapse. From 1992 to 2000, the country went through an economic, social and systemic crisis of extraordinary violence, causing half of the large defense companies to collapse. In addition, the state budget collapsed in connection with the decline in GDP, which fell from $ 500 billion in 1990 to less than $ 200 billion in 1999, while the ruble also collapsed, forcing the country to launch a "new ruble" with a factor of 1000 to 1.
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[…] Gorshkov and Kinzhal and Tzirkon hypersonic missiles, the T-14 Armata undoubtedly marks Russia's return to the front ranks of the great military technological nations, if indeed it ever really left that […]