Presented in 2015 during the parade celebrating the victory of the Great Patriotic War, the new generation T14 Armata heavy tank stunned many observers. It is true that no new modern battle tank had seen the light of day in Russia or in the West since the end of the Cold War, and that many strategists then considered that the main battle tank had become an obsolete tool in the face of the accuracy and range of modern anti-tank missiles. The wars in Donbass, Syria and Nagorno-Karabakh have shown that this is not the case, and that while the tank was indeed very vulnerable to new weapons like long-range missiles or stray munitions, it remained an indispensable tool on the battlefield. And the technological leap represented by the T14 showed that Russia still regarded the main battle tank as the centerpiece of its military action.
Initially, the T14 Armata was touted as due to enter service quickly, and the figure of 2000 T14s in service in 2020 was even often put forward. It was actually a bad translation of a statement by Sergei Shoygu, the irremovable Russian Minister of Defense since Vladimir Putin's return to power in 2012, who announced that 2000 modern tanks were to be in service. in 2000, this included the modernized versions of the T72, T90 and T90. Still, the entry into service of the T-14 has been regularly announced for next year, and this slippery since 2018. 2020 was no exception to the rule. And now 2021 as well.
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