Quote:
Originally Posted by Raellus
In spite of shortages of MBTs at the front in Ukraine, the Russians reportedly have around 1,000 T-72s sitting in a long-term storage depot. While they continue to rust, the Russians have been refurbishing T-55 and T-62 tanks are sending them into battle. Why are the Russians prioritizing older models for refurbishment? It could be the T-72's auto-loader. Having sat outdoors for decades, they might be beyond repair- or it's cost-prohibitive to fix or replace them.
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Cannibalization in general could also be an issue. A mostly-good tank might be brought back into action quicker by taking a radio or engine parts or electronics from a not-quite-so-good tank, which then becomes a parts donor for other restorations and is still "in storage" but with fewer and fewer useful components beyond its hull. Less capable models might also have things like gun barrels salvaged for use on more capable models as their original gun's barrel life runs out.
In addition to the other reasons, factory capacity is likely a concern as well. The T-72 is refurbished at Nizhny Tagil (and the T-90 is manufactured there), the T-55 and T-62 at Chita, and the T-80 at Omsk. Bringing the older tanks back into action means using parallel production lines. If they focused entirely on refurbishing the T-72, that would mean taking resources away from T-90 production and reduce the total throughput of vehicles. Ideally they'd be able to work on the T-72 at multiple facilities, but as far as I'm aware they don't have the tooling for that.