We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.
Key Points: Russia’s advanced T-14 Armata tank, touted as the world’s only operational 4th-generation tank, remains absent from the Ukrainian battlefield due to strategic and public relations concerns.
-Moscow fears losing face if the tank underperforms or is destroyed, which could harm export potential and damage its reputation as a military powerhouse.
-The Kremlin’s heavy reliance on arms sales, combined with sanctions restricting component availability, makes deploying the T-14 a risky gamble.
-Instead, Russia uses older, less expensive T-90s while refining the Armata based on lessons learned. Keeping the T-14 off the frontlines also prevents Western forces from acquiring its secrets.
Russia Won’t Risk T-14 Armata Tanks Due to Loss of Face
The hysteria of “drone sightings” over the Eastern United States continues, even as officials have downplayed the significance. However, the threat from even small off-the-shelf commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has been seen first-hand in the ongoing war in Ukraine. Kamikaze drones and loitering munitions have been employed by both sides to great effect against tanks and other armored vehicles.
Numerous “experts” have suggested the age of the tank thanks to drones. It was in October that former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said the U.S. Army’s fleet of M1 Abrams main battle tanks (MBTs) should be replaced by drones.
“I read somewhere that the US had thousands and thousands of tanks stored somewhere,” Schmidt said during the Future Investment Initiative in Saudi Arabia. “Give them away. Buy a drone instead.”
It wasn’t the first time Schmidt suggested tanks were yesterday’s news. In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal last year, Schmidt called drones the “future of war.”
Drone On! More to the Picture
As Christopher McFadden wrote for Interesting Engineer this month, drones are just one factor in explaining why Russia’s most advanced tank – the T-14 Armata – has been missing from action.
“With heavy casualties on both sides, Russia appears to have an ace up its sleeve in the form of the world’s only operational 4th-generation tank, the T-14 Armata,” McFadden suggested. He added, “Which begs the question, ‘Where are Russia’s T-14 Armatas?”
The answer, he explains, is “a mixture of economics and potential public relations risks.”
While the T-14 is expensive, it is really no more costly than the latest M1 Abrams that are in service with the U.S. military.
Losses Would be a Propaganda Coup for Ukraine
Moscow has so hyped the T-14 that if a single one were to be lost, it would be a devastating PR blow. If one were to be captured intact, it would be even worse. The Kremlin went to great lengths to hype the losses of Western-made tanks including Germany’s Leopard 2, even offering a bounty for the first one to be destroyed. It offered a similar prize for the Abrams.
What Moscow won’t allow is Kyiv to offer a bounty for a T-14 Armata. Already, one captured T-90 was known to have been sent to the U.S. Army’s Aberdeen Proving Grounds for evaluation. The Kremlin wouldn’t want the same to occur with the T-14.
That is why, as McFadden noted, “Russia appears content with sending its older tanks, like the venerable T-90, to face the enemy in Ukraine. These are ancient by modern tank standards, first deployed in the 1990s, with the current variant, the T-90M, first entering service in 2019.”
Russia can also afford to produce more T-90s than T-14.
A Loss of Face
The other consideration is that the T-14 Armata has been offered for foreign sales, and if it didn’t perform as advertised, buyers might not line up.
The U.S. indeed continues to sell the Abrams, even as a few have been destroyed in past conflicts as well as in Ukraine, but Moscow’s hype of the T-14 has been so great that it is seen as invincible.
“If Russia were to deploy any of its current operational operations into Ukraine and perform poorly, that would, as you’d expect, significantly damage potential third-party sales,” added McFadden. “With Russia’s economy under pressure, it can hardly afford to lose lucrative contracts for supplying advanced hardware.”
Russia has remained a major arms exporter, and it needs foreign sales to help offset the costs of its own military hardware. The Kremlin is struggling to find buyers for its fifth-generation Sukhoi Su-57 (NATO reporting name Felon) stealth fighter – and the aircraft has also been largely absent from the skies over Ukraine.
Part of it is that Russia is rightfully worried that in the social media era, a loss would go viral, possibly derailing future sales.
Russia Learning Western Weaknesses
One important consideration is that Russia has likely closely studied the Leopard 2s, British Challenger 2s, and M1 Abrams that have been destroyed. This could give Moscow insight into the platforms it fears NATO could use against it.
At the same time, Russia isn’t revealing those secrets to the West – at least not year.
On the off chance that the Armata performed as expected, it would be an empty victory. The West would learn lessons on how to counter it. That includes drones.
As McFadden explained, “It may be plausible that Russia is spending its older 2nd—and 3rd-generation tanks learning how to use drones in drone-rich battle environments. Undoubtedly, the lessons learned are being used to modify and improve the Armata behind the scenes.”
In other words, Russia has nothing to gain and everything to lose by sending the T-14 Armata to the frontlines. It can hype up the T-90, which it also exports, and continue to refine the T-14 at the same time. Lessons learned from the front lines will certainly be used to further improve the 4th-generation tank.
Finally, during the latter stages of the Cold War, the CIA spent more than a decade trying to obtain a T-72 with little to show for it. It likely is planning ways to get a T-14, and Moscow knows as much. Keeping the Armata away from the frontlines ensures that the West won’t so easily get one.
Author Experience and Expertise: Peter Suciu
Peter Suciu is a Senior Editor focusing on defense issues for 19FortyFive. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,500 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on X: @PeterSuciu – and on Bluesky: @petersuciu.bsky.social.