New Russian heavy armor breaks cover

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The Russian Ground Forces’ new suite of armored vehicles have been officially revealed for the first time by the Russian Ministry of Defense, ahead of their formal debut at the 9 May Moscow Victory Day Parade.

The new vehicles are principally clean-slate designs and represent the biggest change in Russia’s armored fighting vehicle families since the 1960s and 1970s.

The official Ministry website published pictures of the vehicles – albeit with their weapon systems covered – following the unofficial leaking of images and footage of them rehearsing for the parade in recent days.

Armata

The flagship of the new armored vehicles is the Armata main battle tank (MBT), also known as the T-14 and built by Ural Vagon Zavod.

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The images show an MBT much more in keeping with recent western philosophies on tank design, appearing larger and taller than the T-72/90 it will replace.

The key feature of the Armata is its unmanned turret, with all three crew members (commander, gunner and driver) seated in a crew capsule at the front of the vehicle’s hull. Although the turret is covered, Armata is understood to be armed with a 2A82A 125 mm smoothbore main gun fed by a bustle-mounted automatic loader equipped with 32 rounds.

Armata is also reported to feature a 30 mm coaxial secondary armament and a 12.7 mm machine gun. Despite being covered, the turret’s bustle-mounted automatic loader and commander’s independent sighting system are clearly visible under the shrouding material.