As we near 3000 dead tanks (and assuming they count captured ones in this) keep in mind “At the beginning of its full-scale invasion in Feb., Russia had around 3,330 operational tanks (2,840 with the ground forces, 330 with its naval infantry, and 160 with its airborne forces), according to the Military Balance 2021 database.”
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The Military Balance 2021 database says Russian storage facilities have around 10,200 tanks, including various T-72s, 3,000 T-80s, and 200 T-90s.
The database’s 2016 publication also indicates that Russia has roughly 2,800 Cold War legacy T-55s (the first tank type to feature a nuclear warfare protection system in the 1950s) in storage, as well as 2,500 T-62s and 2,000 T-64s.
This means that Russia may have around 17,300 tanks produced between the late 1950s and now.
It likely does – on paper.
In reality, nobody – likely not even Russia – knows precisely how many of those estimated thousands can emerge from the mothballs and be made operational again.
A local man plays guitar sitting on a destroyed Russian T-80 tank displayed in downtown Kyiv on Aug. 25, 2022 (Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency
The only way to confirm is to count the tanks sitting at Russian bases.
An analysis of Google Maps satellite images of 19 Russian military storage facilities mainly located east of Russia’s Ural Mountains by the
Ukrainian Military Center, a Ukrainian military defense news site, estimates that 2,299 tanks appear unrestorable.
Stored in the open for decades, they are basically heaps of rusty scrap metal ready for nothing but disposal.
Another estimated 1,304 machines are thought to be in a dubious state.
“Those are tanks that can be potentially restored at tank maintenance facilities,” the website wrote on Aug. 22.
“But they would have to be loaded up a train, transported to a certain tank factory, unloaded, taken to a certain workshop, then examined for defects. What happens next is the search for appropriate parts, some of which are out of production or require new production processes.”
“This would take a lot of time,” the report concluded.
Another 2,075 tanks seem recoverable, although some would likely need to be taken to tank factories.
An estimated 886 tanks are effectively stored and are likely to be made fully operational.