The russian army is increasing the number of the MT-12 Rapira anti-tank guns, the photos of their redeployment appeared on the network on the same day, although they were taken in different places.
In particular, in one photo, guns are being towed and transported in the back of trucks somewhere in the occupied Crimea, the condition of the guns clearly indicates that they were only recently removed from storage.
Read more: What is the Point of Adding Reactive Armor on Leopard 2A4: Who Made This Before and What the Conclusion Was
In the other photos, the place is also unknown, these guns were spot in a much better condition. At the same time, there are two echelons at one railway station, one of them consists of guns, the other is with armored ant automobile vehicles.
The MT-12 Rapira is an anti-tank smoothbore 100 mm gun, it was created back in the 50s to fight against such Western vehicles such as the Leopard 1 and M60.
The combat capabilities of the MT-12 in the matter of countering modern tanks were already considered quite controversial in the USSR in the 80s, despite the option of modernization by installing the Ruta radar sight. At the same time, in real combat, in particular during the Anti-Terrorist Operation and afterwards Joint Forces Operation, Ukraine’s military actively used this anti-tank gun and continue using till now.
At the same time, the process of putting guns in storage started in the 90s in russia, and as of 2022, according to Military Balance, russia’s armed forces had only about 500 such guns in service. And the number for units in storage is estimated between 1,000 (according to Military Balance) and 2,000 (according to russia’s sources).
Defense Express notes that the range of the MT-12 ammunition includes high-explosive shells with a firing range of up to 8 km from a closed position. And this very scenario is more probable for the gun by the russian army than as a means of anti-tank defense. Although the new military formations that the russian federation is creating, such as motorized rifle regiments, need weapons for anti-tank units, and therefore it is not excluded that these guns are drawn out for this purpose.
Read more: How Many F-35 Fighters Are Really Combat-Ready
