More than a year has passed since the parade in honor of the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. It was then - on May 9, 2015, at the time of passing through Red Square, for the first time, the newest Russian T-14 "Armata" tanks appeared to everyone's attention, the appearance of which aroused a truly great interest, and not only in Russia. Immediately after the first official appearance of the newest tanks, discussions began on how much T-14 the Russian Ministry of Defense was ready to purchase for tank units, and how much such purchases would cost the treasury of the main defense department.
The intensity of the issue also increased due to the fact that initially the more than impressive price of the T-14 "Armata" tank was announced - 500 million rubles. And after such figures appeared in the press and after statements, including by official representatives of the manufacturer (UVZ), the number of skeptics increased sharply, saying that with all the declared qualities and characteristics of the new Russian tank, these qualities and characteristics are set off by an astronomical price.
Discussion of the half-billion dollar price of the T-14 was very active. And the greater the activity, the more often there were conspiracy statements that the Ministry of Defense could completely confine itself to a small batch of "Armat", focusing more on the purchase of T-90s or upgraded T-72s (up to the T-72B3 version).
Six months ago - on January 25, 2016 - the official representatives of UralVagonZavod published materials that spoke about the real price of the T-14 Armata tank. Then it turned out that this price was about 250 million rubles. That is, already two times lower than the conspiracy values of the earlier information period. At the then exchange rate of 250 million rubles - about 3.5 million dollars, at the current exchange rate - about $ 3.85 million.
The announced price makes the T-14 "Armata" an unambiguous leader in the combination of "price-declared characteristics" among all modern tanks in the world. For comparison: the Russian T-14 is about 2 times cheaper than the German Leopard-2, 2, 2-2, 3 times cheaper than the American Abrams M1A2SEP and almost three times cheaper than the French "gold" AMX-56 Leclerc. Let us compare the T-14 "Armata" in price with the general Israeli pride - the Merkava Mk4 tank (about $ 4, 2-4, 5 million, together with the Trophy active protection complex). However, by and large, all these foreign tanks can hardly be classified as fully modern (new generation tanks). The same Merkava Mk4 entered service with the Israeli army for about 12 years.
Merkava Mk4
But it is one thing to compare the price characteristics of the Russian T-14 "Armata" with foreign "analogues" (if the term "analogue" in this case is generally permissible to use), and it is quite another thing to assess the real purchasing power of the Russian Ministry of Defense, taking into account the well-known economic difficulties with which the country has collided in recent years.
Recent statements by individual representatives of the information community and even the main defense department of the country that, they say, at this stage it is quite possible to do with a couple of hundred modernized T-72s, and only then think about purchasing the T-14, caused a certain excitement. On the one hand, the tank has already been demonstrated, including its ability to fire and destroy targets, on the other hand, the price is still quite high by internal standards, which does not allow starting active purchases of the T-14 "Armata" for the Armed Forces.
Fresh information from representatives of "UralVagonZavod" is that at the moment there is a search for a compromise associated with the purchase of a certain number of the latest tanks by the RF Ministry of Defense. This kind of compromise translates into a decision to acquire the original batch of "experienced" "Armat". This batch, according to some information, is several dozen units, tests of individual armored vehicles are already underway. From 2017, it is planned to begin serial purchases and on the basis of the voiced compromise - the more actively the RF Ministry of Defense purchases the T-14, the cheaper the contract may eventually cost.
In total, until 2025, the Ministry of Defense plans to spend more than 0.6 trillion rubles on the purchase of the latest tanks. This will make it possible to purchase about 2, 3 thousand T-14s, including accounting for funds for further maintenance. It turns out that the plans of the main defense department, taking into account the proposals from UralVagonZavod, when they are fulfilled, will make it possible to update the fleet of tank equipment of the RF Armed Forces with T-14 Armata tanks by about a quarter. A serious application, considering the mentioned order also for the modernized T-72 (up to T-72B3).
In principle, UralVagonZavod will have to fulfill its obligations to implement the project, while the RF Ministry of Defense will have to fulfill its obligations. However, for some time now, the project has discovered new pitfalls that cannot be kept silent about by definition. On October 17 last year, Alfa-Bank filed a bankruptcy lawsuit against the Volgograd Metallurgical Plant Krasny Oktyabr. It would seem, what does "Armata" have to do with it? So after all, it is this plant that is engaged in the production of that very unique armor for the entire line using the Armata platform.
Since the beginning of 2016 alone, over three dozen lawsuits have been filed against the Volgograd "Red October" for a total amount of 11 billion rubles. Of these 11 billion, the Cyprus offshore company Boonvision Ltd. is claiming 3 billion rubles. The general director of the Volgograd enterprise Dmitry Gerasimenko, according to some sources, is now hiding from Russian justice in Switzerland. In the material of RBC, it was reported at one time that he considers the fraud incriminated to him in the amount of more than 65.5 million euros to be fabricated. The criminal case led to the seizure of the assets of the Volgograd Metallurgical Plant, with Mr. Gerasimenko claiming that he will “pay off the debts that have accumulated recently” in the near future.
So far, as they say at UVZ, supplies of special steel for T-14 Armata armor are on schedule. At the same time, the presence of obvious financial problems in Krasny Oktyabr simply, by definition, cannot but cause an increase in risks. After all, if the bankruptcy procedure is brought to an end if the owner, working through an offshore structure, does not want to pay off debts, then the entire system of special supplies for UVZ may come into question. Do not forget that over the next 8-9 years "UralVagonZavod" will have to produce more than 2 thousand newest armored vehicles, and any failure in the operation of the system can lead to both a shift in terms and an increase in the price of a contract batch. And any rise in price in the current financial conditions is an additional blow to defense capability. Does Russia also need such strikes? - a rhetorical question …
