Hundreds of T-72A tank hulls have recently appeared near the russian Uralvagonzavod in Nizhny Tagil, although they were not there a few months ago. While some have taken this as news that the russians are running out of armored vehicles, in reality this may indicate more threatening circumstances.
This was noted by satellite imagery analyst Jonpy99 from the social network X. According to him, this says more about the availability of about a thousand more tank hulls in the russian stockpiles that will be restored.
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The mass appearance of T-72A tanks at the Uralvagonzavod sites began sometime in August of this year. It can be assumed that the restoration process of these vehicles may have been underway for several months.
From Defense Express, let's first briefly explain the difference between the T-72A and T-72B. The T-72A is an older version of this type of tank, which was in production from 1979 to 1985. This version of the tank has weaker main armor, a weaker 780 hp B-46-6 engine, and a simpler fire control system.
As Defense Express estimates, the T-72A tanks that appeared on the Uralvagonzavod sites may have two options for their future. According to the first option, which is highly probable, they will be restored and modernized with subsequent dispatch to the front of the russia-Ukraine war. This may be supported by the fact that the russian federation is already running out of more modern T-72B tanks, and the losses need to be covered somehow.
It should be noted that the T-72A tanks arrive in significantly worse condition, so they will require more work as well as money to return them to service.
The second option for using outdated T-72A tanks may be to create special combat vehicles based on them. In particular, those tanks that are in better condition can be converted into the so-called Sturm heavy robotic assault system, which has a shortened gun and even remote control system.
In addition, from vehicles that are in poor condition or do not have turrets at all, it is possible to make BMPT Terminator tank support fighting vehicles, for which an order has allegedly increased. According to the russian media, such vehicles are more practical on the modern battlefield. In addition, heavy armored personnel carriers can also be produced on the basis of the T-72A.
In general, we can conclude that the losses of tanks that the russians constantly suffer on the battlefield are really depleting storage bases, forcing them to remove vehicles from storage in much worse condition than was possible before. Such equipment requires additional time and resources for restoration, which entails higher costs. At the same time, the complete exhaustion of armored vehicles in russian warehouses is still far away.
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